Cycling Hack - Cut The Sidewalls Off For Use As A Liner For The Tire

What you are looking at bears some explanation.

The short answer is when you ride so much that your tires are showing the belts through, you can give it a second life.

I've been "Make Do And Mend" for so long that it is second nature to me.  When I wear something out and throw it out, it is because I can't see a second or third use for it.  So the end result is that I repurpose many things in creative ways.

In this case, it's a liner for the tires next time the tube needs a servicing.

Why would I want a liner?

Simple.  I ride on streets and trails in a city.  Pompano Beach and Fort Lauderdale, Florida.  There is a lot of trash on the trails.  Seed husks, broken glass, wires, and coral stones were all on the trail that I rode on yesterday.  That is only what I remember.

Tires on a bike have lasted me about 2500 miles.  The front wheel lasts much longer, and that picture is of my rear wheel.  I just installed a new tire, and it is already lined with a tire tread from an earlier tire.

Since my endurance workouts are fairly long, I do tend to run through a tire in about 100 or so workouts.  I have caught quite a few flats in my time and the tubes are patched four or five places.  Tires generally do not need to be patched.

With a liner, I haven't had a flat in about 1000 miles.  Without a liner, it's about every other week.

You choose.

You can buy a liner.  They aren't any better than this except they tend to be lighter than the third of a bike tire I am stuffing into my replacement.

This is a hack.   It worked very well for me for a couple years. 

Two Ingredient Cupcakes are 89 Calories until I add this Five Ingredient Chocolate Icing, 223 Calories total

Yeah, literally 89 calories. 

Ok there are a lot of caveats to this. 

First of all there's a hack involved.  A Box of Cake Mix, that clocks in at 1600 calories total.  The box says 1/10th of it is 160 calories, but if you are making cupcakes like I did, it means that you are getting 18 of them.  Math puts that at a hair below 89 calories.

Now really you do want icing on that but that hack?

Diet Soda.

A Box of Cake Mix plus a can of Diet Soda gives you 18 "Right Sized" Cupcakes.

I was dubious, but it really tasted pretty good.  Yellow Cake mix, right off the shelf, and a can of Diet Ginger Ale.  When it baked, it didn't taste weird, or even taste like Ginger Ale.  They tasted like a Yellow Cake.  Different sodas and different cake mixes will taste different - Go Wild!  Be Creative!

But Bill, I hear you ask, what about the Icing?

I found a Five Ingredient "Simple Chocolate Icing" all over the place.  Now it's here.  I am using the icing at a "regular" rate.  Not a huge amount on top, I'll leave that to you.  I will do the math for 1/18th of the ingredients below once I piece it together.

Add Icing, 134 Calories.  Yes, do add the icing, it's a really good recipe, trust me.

Total is 223 calories, give or take.

Cake:

• Box Cake Mix.  I used "Duncan Hines" Yellow Cake Mix.
• 1 Can Soda.  12 Ounces.  Pick your favorite flavor.  Diet, if you use regular it will increase the calorie count by 10 calories per cupcake.  Your choice.

1. Mix the two together in a right-sized mixing bowl.
2. Stir them together until smooth.
3. Bake at 350F/180C for 18 minutes, give or take.
4. Test the cakes with a toothpick so that it comes out clean.
5. Allow to cool.

Chocolate Icing (YAY!)

Ingredients

• 3 cups confectioners' sugar
• ⅔ cup cocoa powder
• ½ cup butter, softened
  
• 7 tablespoons milk
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions

1. Combine confectioners' sugar, cocoa powder, butter, milk, and vanilla in a large bowl.
2. Mix using an electric mixer until blended and creamy.

Rum Raisins - How to make them for baking

This isn't so much of a recipe as it could be called a kitchen hack.

There isn't a picture this time because it looked like pebbles in some murky brown water, but you'll get the idea.  Really it is that simple.  You just have to let things soak and sit for a day.

It's so easy that it's one of those things you do while waiting for the kettle to boil.

Rum Raisin

Get a 2 cup or 1/2 liter container - or larger.  Feel free to double this recipe with a larger container if needed.  You want extra "room" so you can shake the mixture every so often.

Raisins, your choice - 1/2 cup or 4 ounces or 225 ml
Rum, your choice - 1/2 cup or 4 ounces or 225 ml

This will scale up or scale down based on your needs.  The trick is to make sure that the raisins are all covered by rum.

When you go to use the rum raisins, strain them with a sieve or mesh.  But reserve the extra rum because the now-brown rum tastes awesome straight up or on ice.

... or on ice cream.


To use the raisins in Tapioca Pudding or Oatmeal Raisin cookies, use the strained raisins as you would with any other wet raisins.  They will change the taste of your baked goods, and in a normal sized serving of Tapioca, you will get between 1/2 to one ounce of rum.

If you're a tea totaller or "On Recovery", substitute water or grape juice.

This also works with any dried fruit within reason.  I'm thinking dried Mangoes next time I go to the shops, or perhaps Apricots.

The Original Pizza Story and The One Ingredient Pizza Sauce

There is a story I was told, time and again.

When the Allied troops were fighting the Nazis in Italy after the fall of Mussolini they eventually approached Naples.

Due to the Volcanic Soil from Mount Vesuvius and other volcanos, the soil there is extremely rich.  The climate in the area is perfect for growing tomatoes that are held to be better than anywhere else.

(Ok, maybe AS good as the home grown tomatoes that are from South Jersey, but I digress.)

However, due to the impoverishment caused by the Fascists and the War, there was very little to go around. 

The troops came upon pizzas made with only about four ingredients.  Crust made from Flour, water, yeast and a little salt.  Mozzarella made from milk from the few cows that were left.  A simple red sauce made with those tomatoes and almost always a touch of basil.

Yep, that's it.  A Margarita Pizza.  Or however my spell check forces me to spell it.

(I have seen it Margherita on Menus as well.  The picture is labeled like that, the article uses the other spelling.)

Crust, Sauce, Basil, Mozzarella Cheese.  Heat in a wood burning oven.  Serve.

It was a hit and brought back to the US and became a favorite here and worldwide.

Mind you, to me, pizza made with Pineapples or Cheddar Cheese are an abomination, but I am quite fond of Mushrooms and perhaps sundried tomatoes on occasion.

About that sauce?

A week or two ago, I went to downtown Miami and went to what was an Italian restaurant.  They had all the prerequisite items on the menu and a simple Marg(h)erita Pizza in their wood burning stove.   I got that and it was excellent.

As I sat there I was pondering the sauce with my lunch partner.  We decided that if there was anything more in that sauce than a little basil and San Marzano Tomatoes, we couldn't tell.

San Marzano Tomatoes are the name for the "DOP" for that area - The Protected Area.

So we got a can.  I used a 100 year old potato masher and mushed them down to a chunky

mash.

Then I turned the heat onto medium low and cooked them down for 90 minutes.

Allowing the sauce to cool and rest until the next day, because tomato sauces are always ALWAYS better "tomorrow", I waited.

I made the pizza you see in that picture.  It was almost identical to that $16, Serves One, Pizza.

We cracked it.  Simple is best if you want an Authentic Pizza.

Mind you, I will say that Neopolitan Pizza in any of the major NE US Cities is supposed to be better, but this was an awesome pizza with a no fuss sauce that I would put up against anything I've had elsewhere.

So much for artisanal, you can be an artisan too!

Recipe Ingredients:

• 1 26 Ounce Can of San Marzano Tomatoes, peeled, with Basil.  (800 grams)

That's it.

Recipe Process:

• Open can into sauce pan.  
• Use potato masher to rough-mix the Tomatoes.  If you use a blender, you want chunks so just pulse.
• Warm the sauce pan to Medium Low - 3 on a regular American Stove.  (You know that Iconic one that goes "Lo", then 2 to 8, then "Hi"?)
• Cook the sauce, stirring frequently, until the desired thickness is achieved - it took me 90 minutes on a slow simmer.
• Set the sauce aside in the refrigerator until tomorrow to allow flavors to rest and meld.
• Use promptly.

Bread Dough in Five Minutes In A Plastic Bag

I guess the title says it all, if you're looking for the short description.

There's always a back story with me so hold on for the ride.

I wanted a Pizza, but really this can be used to make most basic breads.  I did not want to fuss around with a "full batch" of dough and make a cookie sheet full of rolls and ... well you get the picture.

I will say that this will scale up to a larger batch and should be limited by how strong your own hands are.  You see, it's all about your grip strength.  If you've got arthritis or some other limitation, use the machine.

On the other hand, this dough flew together so fast that it's a great way to make fresh dough for small batches like one pizza dough ball or a couple of rolls.

Basically, I have a "Standard Recipe" for bread.  It's "Pat's Pizza Dough" recipe.   It makes 10 sandwich rolls, or about 8 torpedo rolls.  It also will make three pizza dough balls.  The original recipe is at the link - or you can even see my original note written 20 years ago in the picture.

The idea was cut the recipe down to one third of normal, then make it in a bag.

I added to a clean and food safe plastic bag the following ingredients.

• 3 ounces of water
• 2 teaspoons of oil
• 1 cup of bread flour
• 1 teaspoon of bread yeast
• 1/3 teaspoon of salt (I used a well rounded 1/4 teaspoon)
• 1/3 teaspoon of sugar (I used a well rounded 1/4 teaspoon)

The process was simple. 

• Squeeze most of the air out of the bag and wind the top up to close it.
• Grip the mix at the bottom of the bag and squeeze it repeatedly.
• The mix will eventually form a dough ball through repeated kneading.

You may have to adjust the water content to fit your needs.  Bread dough is effected by the weather and conditions in your house and kitchen just as you would expect.  Wet climate will make stickier dough, dry climate you may need to add more water.

For Pizza Dough, you need a dough ball that is more dry than tacky or sticky.  Similar to Play-doh or similar modeling clay compound.  

For Bread Dough, you need a dough ball that will be a bit tacky and it may want to stick gently to your hands or the side of the bag - but you will be able to remove it from the bag.

Basically that's about it.  I'll use this again because it's saving me a lot of time in preparation and clean up work.

But... it took me just five minutes to get this dough done.  Add to it rolling time and rising time as normal.

Three Ingredient Cake Recipe that actually tastes moist

This really shouldn't be called a recipe.  It should be called a Hack.

It is so ridiculously easy to make that I laugh at it.

It is so popular that the recipe is just about everywhere including on the sites for the companies that make the mixes.

I tried it with a bulk white cake mix, but the recipe I keep seeing everywhere calls for a "Box Of Cake Mix".  They are not specifying flavor.   Use your favorite.

The cake mix can't be one of those "Just Add Water".

You need a cake mix that wants you to add an egg.

I used White,  but a Yellow Cake mix would be fine.  Choose a flavor that is complementary to the Pie filling you are adding.

I wanted Cherry this time, but I have done it before with other flavors.  I have blueberry and lemon pie filling waiting in the wings for when I want to do it again.

Why do I have six cupcakes?  I have a small Bundt pan and I didn't want to risk a mess. 

The recipe calls for either two layers, or a Bundt Pan.  It was not very specific.  I would say two 9 inch layers or even perhaps 3 8 inches, but I suspect that may be a bit thin.

Butter and flour your pans.

Bake at 350F / 180C for 35 minutes (or whatever metric equivalent you need to have your toothpick come out clean).

I mean that really is it.  It is laughably simple.

Ingredients:

1 box or 15 ounces of cake mix
1 can of pie filling - 20 ounces or 590 ML
3 large eggs

Process:

Butter and flour your pan.
Keep cupcake liner and pans aside for any extra cake batter.
Preheat oven to 350F or 180C.
To a large mixing bowl add 1 box/15 ounces cake mix, 1 can (20 ounces) of pie filling, and 3 eggs.
Mix the batter until smooth.
Add batter to pans taking care not to overfill.
Bake for approximately 35 minutes and test with a toothpick.
Make sure toothpick comes out clean

Optional:
Icing or not.  I have been putting Honey on top and I really do like that instead.

Personal preference!

Serve and enjoy

Pebble Steel Charging Issues - Creating a Charging Ground Platform for the Pebble Watch

Recently I was bequeathed a Pebble Steel watch.  My godmother's husband, Larry, had passed and his wife Kathie wanted to make sure that it would go to someone who would actually use it.

Thank you Kathie, and thank you for keeping Larry's spirit alive.

The watch is a beautiful thing, after all who can pass up an E-Paper display on a watch.  For an electronic watch, it simply blows away any other display technology for sheer flexibility.  Low light, it has a backlight that gives a blue glow once you press a button.  In high light, the numbers show up in a beautiful silver on deep navy blue.  Other Pebble watches have different color schemes, but the E-Paper display is amazing.

The watch did not come with the charging cable, initially.  Since I was given it at Larry's Celebration of Life ceremony, I wasn't going to ask for it immediately.  I did get it a couple weeks later, but until then I would "find something" to make sure it still worked.

I did find a Reddit link to something someone wrote. Apparently the connectors on the watch, in my case on the side of the watch, were Negative and Positive connections with the case being an extra Negative - the Ground.  For other Pebble Watches, the connectors are on the back of the watch.

This is where I issue the Internet Standard Warning:

Contact Pebble for Service under Warranty if your watch is still warranted.  Much better than hacking around with whatever I say here!

Any information given here within is presented at your own risk.
If you use it and break anything, it is at your own responsibility, and I take no responsibility or give no warranty. 
All Information presented here within "works for me".  
If you connect something backwards or short out a connection, you could damage any of your electronics.
Make doubly sure you have tested all connections with a multi meter and make sure that you have polarity correct.

First - clean all connectors.
Second - get your Pebble up to the latest firmware.


According to this link on Reddit, you will be able to fashion (jury rig) a connector to charge your watch.

I was able to.  I connected a piece of wire to the positive connector on the watch, a second to the negative, and fed 5VDC into it.  The watch vibrated almost immediately, displayed the Pebble start up display, then began charging for as long as I was able to hold all the connectors together.

For the Pebble Steel, the Positive connector is the connector closest to you, assuming you hold the watch as if it is to be read correctly.

Problem One:

Charging Problem NOT Originally solved.  You see, there's a problem with these watches.  If you charge one up full using the cable on the connectors at the side of the watch, then reconnect it, it will discharge back into the power supply draining the watch.

They need a Diode in line to help fix that.  Ten Cent Part.

Problem Two:

The connectors must be clean.  As in no dirt on the connectors at all.  Clean with Alcohol and a bit of cotton.  This may allow you to charge the watch but not necessarily.  I tried it and it did not help.

Problem Three:

The cable finally arrived.  There was about 70% charge on the watch.  I plugged the cable into the back of my laptop, and walked away.  The watch drained completely of any power.

The Solution presented itself in a Youtube Video that is embedded below.  There is a person in Holland with a Pebble Steel watch.  He had the same problem as I did.  In the video he mentions that his watch would charge sometimes but not others.  When he asked for service from Pebble Support, he was sent back a new watch which worked perfectly under warranty. 

Great!  Excellent service, Pebble!

Near the end of the video, he tied all the information together without knowing it for me.  He plugged the new watch onto the cable, and connected the old watch to a second cable.  The old "damaged" watch did not begin to charge until he touched the back of the old watch to the new one thereby creating the ground.


 
Therefore my solution was this.  I created a Charging Ground Platform for my Pebble Steel.

Step 1: Obtain parts:

• Four Thumbtacks
• Suitable base for the platform - mine was a lid to a treats canister.
• Length of wire to connect to Ground - specific length is not material, mine is about 18 inches or a half meter
• Good electrical ground to the negative side of the charging cable

Step 2: Assembly

• For your watch, positioning of the thumbtacks will vary. 
• I laid a piece of paper on the back of the watch to make a template, then marked it off on the plastic lid.
• Marks on the lid will match that of the screws on the watch. 
• This placement will lower the probability that the watch will get scratched up.
• Drive one thumbtack through the lid for each corner of the watch.
• Connect each thumbtack with wire allowing the wire to extend out past the last connector freely.

Step 3:  Final Connections:

• Plug the Pebble charging cable into your charger and to your watch.
• In my case, I am using a laptop and that greatly simplified my connections.  
• The case of the laptop is a ground, and functions as a ground for USB and for the entire computer.
• An external charging "wall wart" plug will require you to take further steps.
• Connect the ground wire from the Charging Ground Platform to a metal ground on the laptop.
• Place the Pebble Watch onto the assembled platform making sure that one or more of the thumbtack will touch the bare metal case of the watch, preferably on the screws in the back of the watch. 
• You may or may not get confirmation from the watch that it is now charging - I have seen it immediately go into charge mode, and I have seen it not and both work.

The way I see it, in my uneducated opinion, this is a design flaw.  I do not know where the fault lies.  It is acting like a firmware issue.  However my Pebble Steel is now at the newest firmware.  No software at the charger is required to make the watch charge.  The watch is only looking for 5 Volts DC at USB standard current of 1 Amp, apparently.

The Pebble Steel is now a product that has been discontinued.  The memory in it is lower than the newer watches, and the operating system firmware can not be updated past the last of version 3.  Newer watches have version 4 available.

Like I said, it works for me.  Good luck!

Converting a Solar Light to Low Voltage Using a LM7805 Voltage Regulator

Standard Internet Warranty Applies here:  Ramblingmoose.com takes no responsibility for damage.  If you wire this up incorrectly, shock hazards may occur.  You could burn yourself with the soldering iron.  You could also cut your finger and give yourself a "boo boo".  We are not responsible.  We're simply saying "Hey, it worked for me, it's easy, give it a try!".  The parts needed are commonly available online and can be read about in depth at this wikipedia page.

This is actually my Second Conversion.  The first one is in the first picture.

We've probably all chewed through a collection of solar powered lights for the yard by now.

I say chewed through because they generally do not last very long.  The first wave of lights were particularly awful.  Under powered, lit with a single LED that is about as bright as an indicator light on a stereo, and connections that are not suitable to be used outdoors,  you may get a year out of these if you were lucky.

Then there came another wave with brighter LEDs, but they wouldn't last long due to the batteries failing in about a year.

There is a theme to this.  Batteries have a set number of times that they can be recharged.  No matter how cheap or expensive the light, if that battery that is being charged by the solar panel dies, the light is normally dead.

Besides, everything being cheap Chinese garbage manufacturing, you can't generally get better life out of this stuff.

We went to a "rather nice" light the last time this happened, and got a year out of it.  Since I liked the fixture, I tried soldering in a collection of batteries to power the thing.  After the second try the light failed.  I set it aside hoping for a "Bright Idea", pun intended.

Our own house ended up going with Low Voltage LED Security Lights.  My front porch is now bright enough to read from the light, and the power consumption is all of 4 watts at 12 volts AC.  Doing the math, that works out to 4/10th of a watt at 120 VAC out of the plug.  Adding the traditional 10 percent for error, we're consuming 1/2 watt of mains power to light a room worth of porch.

Next to nothing to get our security lighting sorted out.

But those solar lights were waiting to be used.

Here is what I did...

The Solar Lights had a battery pack inside of them that consisted of three AA rechargeable cells.  Maximum voltage would be 4.5 VDC.  I had 10 L7805 Voltage Regulators here, and I decided to try one out on the solar light.  It would be over powering the light at the high end, but since the light was either being reused or disposed of, if I got a couple months out of it I was happy.

TS7805 Voltage Regulator.  Picture from Wikipedia.

A L7805 is a voltage regulator that puts out 5 Volts DC.  I had a low voltage supply for the yard at 12 Volts AC.  The wiring was simple, I put one together to see if it worked.

It did work.  It worked since the Light had three cells in its battery pack - 4.5 volts of AA batteries.  If your light is a different voltage being supplied, use a different voltage regulator!

I allowed it to run in the intervening two and a half months and it was still working.

So the L7805 converted the 12 VAC to 5VDC plus some heat.

The circuitry is dead simple.  Three conductors on the L7805.  The center conductor is the ground.  If you connect the positive line from the input to the first conductor, and the positive line to your appliance (my light) to the third conductor, you are done.

The entire soldering job took me less time than it took for me to take the pictures for this article.

These chips also come in differing voltage output from 3V to well more than I need at 40V. They all work the same way.  The voltage comes into the center conductor as ground and one of the two outside conductors as positive.  Voltage goes out from center conductor as negative and the other outside conductor as positive.

The proof is in my yard.  That easy.

Just remember, match the voltage regulator output voltage to the supply voltage of your lamp or other appliance.

Stove Top Pizza Definitely Is Worth A Try

In my quest for making a pizza better than the run of the mill pizza shops that we have here, I have tried many recipes.

Just search this blog for Pizza, I'll wait.

You see, all the bits and pieces are here but they've not quite come together yet.

My oven also doesn't have a proper pizza stone.  Oh, I've tried them a number of times, but they always shatter.  A Pizza Steel, a thick slab of steel over 1/4 inch thick heated to over 500F, will be tried when I find one.  But the oven barely makes it to 500 as it is.

The hotter the oven, the better the pizza.  Proper Wood Fired ovens reach 800F.  Melting of Lead happens at 621F.  My oven?  Struggles to get past 450F.

So I have tried different recipes.  The water in South Florida does something weird to my dough.  Or rather Pat's Pizza Dough Recipe.  I've used it since around 1995 or so, and it makes an incredible bread.  Rolls, Pretzel Rolls, and Sesame Rolls are three of the things I use it for.  But the water here... not so good for pizza crusts.

I have used filtered water and that helps get a crispy when toasted crust that I was looking for.  The next time someone comes down from the Philadelphia area, please come back with a gallon of local tap water?

So I experiment.

In this case, the experiment worked.  It's made a better crust than I have made since I moved down here.  That Cracker Crisp crust that you want in a Thin Crust Pizza?  It's definitely possible.

Mind you, the recipe needs refinement.  As I list it below, the crust is a little underdone.  It probably needs 12 minutes in the second stage of baking - after you open the vents on your skillet.  It certainly could benefit from a quick couple minutes under the broiler to give you a nice layer of caramelization on top.   Cooking a Pizza in a skillet means that the toppings (Cheese, or otherwise) will be hot and gooey, but a different texture.

If you do try this, you will understand.

And do try this.  It went together in less time than it takes to cook a frozen pizza from the supermarket.  It took me 20 minutes from scratch ingredients to slicing it up.  That means that you have a very dangerous recipe here once you figure out all the wrinkles.

If you are really observant, you'll notice that the stove is still on in the above picture and set to "3" - Medium Low.  My stove has numbers from Low, 1 to 8, and High.  Medium is "5".  Your stove may vary, but this is typical for an electric stove in the US.

This recipe is adapted from the video below and a host of other references online. 

But this is how I did it this past weekend:



Stove Top Pizza

Ingredients:

• Crust
• 1/2 cup Self-Rising Flour
• 1/2 cup Plain Flour
• 2/3 cup luke warm water
• pinch of salt
• 1 rounded teaspoon dried yeast
• 1 teaspoon honey 
• Olive Oil to grease the pan

• Toppings - 
• 4 ounces "Pizza Cheese" 
• at least an ounce of Parmesan, (My Preference)
• 10 fresh basil leaves split between the sauce and the top
• 1/2 can of mushrooms 
• 7 ounces of Pizza Sauce (give or take)

Process:

• Prepare the ingredients in a COLD and oiled skillet with heavy and seal-able lid.
• The Skillet should be 12 inches or 28 CM.
• Add all ingredients for the crust in the greased skillet until a slightly sticky dough is formed.
• Spread the dough evenly on the bottom of the skillet to form your crust.
• Add toppings to the pizza crust.
• Turn on the burner to MEDIUM.
• Place lid on the skillet and make sure vents are sealed.
• Now that the burner has warmed up, place the skillet with the completed pizza on the burner.
• Cook the pizza for 5 minutes with the vents sealed.
• At the 5 minute mark, open the vents and cook the pizza for another 10 minutes at MEDIUM LOW
• The pizza should easily separate from the skillet at this point with a spatula.
• Check the bottom of the crust for your own personal preference of "toasted", more time will be needed if it is not brown enough.

The video that inspired me to make this pizza is missing some answers to some questions, but it is included below.

Shellshock - A BASH bug that effects Linux and Mac OSX ... and everyone on the web

Yeah, scaremongering isn't the best.  Luckily for those of us who run Linux, the fix is easy.

It also effects some Mac systems, although you will need to test and get your own upgrades.

It is possible that it effects Android systems as well.  I did the test on my tablet running CyanogenMod this morning and it was safe.  Your Mileage May Vary.

How this effects Windows is straightforward, it's another one of those low level things in a web server that can bite us later and since Linux powers many websites, you are effected indirectly.  Think of what the Heartbleed problem was and how you went in and changed all your passwords to protect yourself.  Good idea to start changing them again!

The bug is called "Shellshock".  The specifics is that it allows a ne'er do well to hack into an unpatched Linux server and gain full control via something called the BASH shell.  That is a bad thing because with control over bash, you can gain full control of the entire computer.

There is a test and full explanation of all the geekery under the hood here at this link at www.ArsTechnica.com if you care to dig deeper.  Basically, just go in and do a full update of your machine and make sure you see bash updated. 

The test is this line in terminal.

 env x='() { :;}; echo vulnerable' bash -c "echo this is a test"

If the system is vulnerable, the output will be:

vulnerable
 this is a test

An unaffected (or patched) system will output:

 bash: warning: x: ignoring function definition attempt
 bash: error importing function definition for `x'
 this is a test

Since Mac OSX is based on something called BSD and bash comes with it in their terminal.  If you have an older Mac that is acting as a server, look into a patch.

I personally did the fix last night on my Debian system while I was half asleep.  Really trivial to fix.

In a root terminal -

apt-get update
apt-get upgrade

It went out and updated my list of available updates, then upgraded those that needed it.  The package "bash" was included.

CentOS came up this morning with a bubble telling me to install updates.   It worked.  No problem.

I tried it out on my RaspberryPi machine and yes, that was affected.  The patch worked, and the picture is below. 

Here's the thing, it may effect Android tablets and phones depending on whether bash is installed.  It's a very basic and well known tool, so you will need to make sure you can patch the tablets. 

However, it's highly unlikely that some average dude walking down the street with a year old Android phone with an unpatched system will have a problem.  Someone would have to know you're there, get into your machine, and do the hack to gain control.  You aren't the person they would be looking for, it's that big web server sitting somewhere like a store or a bank that they're going to hack.

Just accept the updates if you have manual control of whatever computer you are using, phones and tablets included.

If you are "going into" your machine, set your update preferences to allow security updates automatically while you're at it since that makes it easier to administer the machines.

Peat Pots Out Of Used Coffee Grounds Didn't Quite Work

*sigh* That's the thing with these Internet projects.  Sometimes they work first time, every time.  Other times, not so good.

Looking at my results, I see two things that could be possible.

First.  You mix coffee grounds, flour, and water and make a mud.  I think that my mud wasn't quite wet enough.  Sure, it held together like a snowball, but it was still a little brittle.  Next time, I'll add extra water, try again, and report back. 

Second.  It's possible that I didn't bake or "fire" them long enough or at the right temperature.  When I made salt dough for some footprints of Lettie's feet, I baked them, then baked them again.  There was no visible sign of wetness anywhere.  Two years down the line, they're inside of a picture frame and look very solid.  This is basically salt dough where the salt is replace with coffee grounds.  If you check the picture of the results, the inside of the pots looked markedly wetter than the outside.  The one that fell apart was probably too thin for the job.  The second one that is intact in the picture fell apart later that same afternoon when I got wet soil in there.

In case you're curious, yes I will do it again when I have enough coffee grounds.  I generally have coffee a couple times a week, so at 26 grams of grounds per mug, that will take a while to get to where I want to be.  Since I always need plant pots, this will help me out if I can figure out all the fine tuning.  

I must be that big kid that likes to play in the mud.

I usually have some seeds somewhere that need a little help to get them going.  I've planted loads of weird things since I landed here in the land of sunshine, palm trees, and critters that try to move your house away.  The pots now have been scooped up and placed in some decidedly non-biodegradable but recyclable plastic pots saved from some cream cheese containers, and are going to serve as the start for some "regular" lemon tree seedlings.  I have more seeds rooting if the originals don't "take".

By the time I get enough coffee grounds for the second try in a month or so, I'll have more seeds to try again.  I would like to start a Key Lime from seed.  Why not?  I have always loved a challenge no matter what it has been in, whether horticulture, agriculture, or technology!

Making Peat Pots Out Of Used Coffee Grounds

We all see them if we use social media.

How to make your life so much better with life hacks. 

There are dozens of websites dedicated to them.  

This particular one caught my eye.  I drink a lot of coffee.  I was throwing the grounds out into the garden for extra fertilizer and that worked.  My front yard smelled of a rich blend of Central American coffee beans for a while.

The trick with this is once you have finished brewing your coffee, spread the used grounds out on a plate and allow them to air dry.  The end result is that you'll have the grounds about the consistency of dry beach sand. 

You know, like the coffee grounds before you used them.

The benefit of this is that if you are arts and crafts inclined or have children around, it's a great activity for a rainy day, and the mix was rather interesting to work with.  A very tactile clay.

Here is how I did it.

Ingredients:

• 150 grams or 5.5 ounces by weight of dry coffee grounds.
• 150 grams or 5.5 ounces by weight of flour - about a cup.
• 208 ml or 7 ounces of water - More Or Less.

Yes, my American Readers, I use a gram scale.  The measurements tend to be more accurate that way, but this is not a fussy recipe at all.

Process:

• In a large bowl, add your dry used coffee grounds and flour.  
• Mix them by hand until they are evenly mixed and smooth.
• Add the water one ounce at a time to the coffee flour mix.
• Knead the mixture until all of the water has incorporated itself into the mix and the "dough" sticks together without cracking and without being sticky.
• The result you are going after is a modeling clay consistency.

Forming the Peat Pots:

• Find a pot the size you are looking to form.
• Wrap the pot or glass in aluminium foil so that you may slide the formed pot off cleanly once they have baked.
• Start with around 1/4 to 1/3 of the dough and begin to work the dough until the outside of the pot has been covered to a desired thickness.  
• Yes, it is vague, you will need to judge for yourself, the approximate thickness is that of a piece of corrugated cardboard.
• If there are cracks, it would be best to remove the dough and re-form the pot since this would indicate that it is most likely too thin.
• My picture shows pots that were made a bit thickly but that won't matter since the pots will eventually be buried.
• Form a water drainage hole in the bottom by sticking your finger through the "dough" until it makes contact with the form pot beneath.
• Give the bottom of the pots a flat spot so they don't roll around by pressing the formed pot down on a level surface.

Firing the Peat Pots:

• Place the pots on their forms on a lined cookie sheet.
• Preheat the oven to 250F or around 120C - Or So.  My oven is not accurate.
• Slide the pots on their sheet into the preheated oven and bake for 3 Hours.
• The finished pots will firm up and cure while cooling but should be firm on the outside when you remove them from the oven.
• The house will smell like a mixture of coffee, bread, and "earthy".

When the Peat Pots are cooled:

• Remove the Peat Pots and allow to cool fully.
• Slide the pots off of the form and remove the aluminium foil.  
• My foil tried to stick to the inside but I was able to remove the foil by twisting it off from the inside of the pots.
• Use as you would any other peat pot.

Pumpkin Pie Spice - For When You Only Need A Little

I bake.  A LOT.

I had all this stuff out in the kitchen on hand.  In fact my spice rack got so large that we had to put some hanging wire spice racks on the wall behind the door.  Six feet worth of spices.

You may have all four spices on hand.  If you make things like Gingerbread or Spiced Bread, you certainly have most of it. 

The Allspice is a bit more uncommon in American Cuisine, but I had it leftover from my move here back in 2006.  It is popular in Middle Eastern and Caribbean cuisine, so if you ever tried to make some of that, you'd have it around.  

Pumpkin Pie Spice on the other hand is a bit more of a single purpose thing.  It goes into pies.  It goes into some breads, usually with a can of pumpkin when you want "That Taste".  But other than that, I'm hard pressed to figure out why it is here.  A small can of the stuff lasted us for years.

Why keep it when the recipe is so simple?

Equal Parts of four spices.

I needed a teaspoon of the stuff.  So the recipe is for exactly one teaspoon.   If you need more, scale it up.  If you need less, scale it down or just make it and take what you need.  It's that simple.

Ingredients:

• 1/4 Teaspoon Ground Nutmeg
• 1/4 Teaspoon Ground Allspice
• 1/4 Teaspoon Ground Cinnamon
• 1/4 Teaspoon Ground Ginger

Preparation:

• Add to a jar equal parts of all four spices.
• Mix the spices evenly until done.
• Use as your recipe would require.

Remember, the recipe may be scaled to your needs.  If you need more, just double or triple it.  If you have leftover spice, store as normal or add to a candle or potpourri.

Reimagining the Desk - A Journey With A Stiff Neck

One of the earliest things that I had written about was my living room.   Specifically, I took a picture of my chair, my laptop, and the rest, and I then told the story of the Poang and how I tend to sit in my chair and write.   I also do more than that, all sorts of software development for fun and profit, as well as pretty much treat the thing as an office.

There's a problem.

I originally thought that it was a Tall Guy Problem.  It's not.  It's simply a problem.

After reading Reddit and the Tall Subreddit where people take random selfies looking uncomfortable because the world was not engineered for someone over 6 feet tall, I came to the conclusion that Mom was Right.

My posture had become awful and my coveted chair was contributing to it all.  Back pain, stiff neck, and general achy self were some of the things I had noticed.

Yeah I know, Hey, Bill, Take Control.  Grab the Reins.

Ok, Smart Alec that lives inside my head, what do I do?

The house I live in has my desk.  The desk is in the Florida Room.  That room needs insulation and since the exposed beams warm the place to another five degrees F warmer than the rest of the house as soon as the sun starts to bake it, I had abandoned my desk almost immediately after I settled into it.

Don't ask, it's too warm to use.

The Ikea Poang in the middle of the living room is under a vent and a ceiling fan redirects the air conditioning so it's comfortable.  I used to say that it was the coolest seat in the house, but I'm not so certain.

What I did was to relocate to the dining room.

I have an old 1950s or earlier solid maple table in there with matching solid wood chairs.  When Mom got this set, I took a liking to it.  I saw an opportunity when she started complaining that it didn't do well in her kitchen in Barclay Farms, Cherry Hill, good ol' New Jersey.  So I "helped her out" of it and it's been with me ever since I moved into my first Philly apartment.

After waking up with a proper stiff neck that never went away and some other disturbing creaks and cracks that were getting more insistent, I tried some minor changes.  It convinced me that while this isn't perfect, I'm onto something.

Ergonomically speaking, your eyes will track to the center of the device that you are using.  In my case it is a 16 inch wide laptop.  If I put that on my lap, it will create some problems.

The worst problem is that since I slightly recline in the Poang, the view to the laptop means that I am looking down.  In the more than 10 hours a day I am sitting there using the laptop, my head ends up with chin literally glued to my chest.  That is not a good position.  Not at all.

The laptop had to be raised off my lap and placed onto Mom's Maple table.

Good first step.  Now, slide back... great!  But those chairs are stiff.  Nobody wants to sit on an un-padded wood Captain's Chair for hours no matter how nice it looks.   Plus the angle is still "down".

I slid the chair aside, moved the Poang in.

It's much better.  My eyes are dead center on the monitor.  The picture I took from my right shoulder, while it is out of focus, is perfect for showing the view I get from the bouncy chair.

One problem.  I am an excellent touch typist.  Mrs Momarella and my good friend Donna W. from High School taught me well.

The laptop is just below shoulder height.  That doesn't make for comfort.  In fact, I tried typing that way for all of five minutes.  My hands nearly came off at the wrist.

Seeing that I can type with my eyes closed almost as well as I can with them open, I needed something else to happen.

I pulled the captain's chair out again and used it for a platform to set the track ball.   It's a big clunky thing that uses up my USB port and won't sit on the arm of the chair.  Since this is "work hour use only" no worries there, I'll just "own" using my dining room as my office.

One more thing.  Keyboard.

My old school IBM Model M Keyboard with the clicky keys!  Lets try that first. 

Nope.  It drains too much power to use on the USB converter thing.

Digging through the Parts Cabinet, I found an old Microsoft wireless keyboard.  That is on my knees right now just inside the picture.  It works "well enough" but I still want my PS/2 Keyboard.   Once I find my powered USB hub, I know that it will drive the keyboard I really want to use. 

Too bad you can't get those clicky keyboards with bluetooth though.   It's 1980s technology that will work because it's just that good.  Too well designed to toss with real mechanical switches on each key.  They weigh almost as much as the laptop does.  I have about 4 of them in the house buried under the bed because when people tossed their old PCs, the keyboards would end up at the computer shows being sold for a mint.

If 5 dollars could be considered a mint.  Now they go for between 80 and 200 US Dollars more on auction and reseller sites.

No, I won't share.  Get your own.  Besides, I may figure something else out with my coveted clicky IBM Keyboard Model M.

Yes, I have Ideas.

For now, I have my Tall Guy Adaptation.  It really isn't about being tall though, it's more about looking at how you are working and making sure you are sitting at the right place to put your head when you work.  When I touch type... I can set my head back and close my eyes, like this paragraph was typed.  If your are smaller and have a shorter torso, like about 95% of humankind, you can vary the height of everything so that you can work with it at ease.  That is why most "office chairs" have those adjustments to make things more comfortable.

But Laptops?  I'm beginning to realize that they just aren't meant to live on your lap for 10 hours at a stretch.

Besides, if you do, these days, you will end up toasting your legs.  I'll leave Mom's Table to handle that for me.  I'm nice and cool listening to music on headphones, typing on my lap, and resting my head back with my eyes closed.

Yes, I can do this with my eyes closed.

Really.

Writing can be an effortless experience.   If I could only have told my 12 year old self who was bored hearing about all that in English Class in Mr Custer's Sixth Grade Class in Stafford School on Berlin Road in Cherry Hill.

Boring as hell but useful.  Not everything can be an adventure novel after all.   Some come with a beige cover and will bore you to tears but you will use it every day of your life.

Just like that table and laptop combo.

Now oddly enough, before I wrote this up and headed on my little obsessive journey for desk nirvana, the Washington Post had written an infographic on this same subject.  I'll make it a point to get out of my desk and chair more often, or I'll at least try.

Since the poster is at this PDF link, it won't fully display here.   On the other hand, I see that picture below and think... Is THIS what I put my body through?  YUCK!!!!

Strawberry Jam In The Bread Maker Recipe

You are looking at my breakfast.

We hit the warehouse store last night and got four pounds of strawberries.   While I am the person who finished a "flat" of strawberries while driving up I-95 one year from Florida to my home in Philadelphia with a pair of Nanday Conures sharing the fruit, I wasn't planning on eating it in a day.

The recipe is going to eat my bread machine because after the first batch there was a puddle of Strawberry goo in the bottom of it.

Make sure the rubber grommet in the bucket around the shaft is intact and it is water tight!  My very old and well used bread machine lost that grommet years ago.

This solves your having to stand over a hot stove reducing Strawberries and stirring for 30 minutes or more.   Prep time was 10 minutes and it was dead simple.  Of course it was, I finally got to use the bread machine for something other than dough!

Update Note:  Do not double this recipe in the Bread Machine.  Mine is a Hitachi with a vertical bucket.  Model HB-B201.  When I got excited and doubled the batch, the results was a watery glop that I cooked down for 20 minutes at "medium low" on my electric stove.  That would be 3 1/2 to 4 of 8 on the scale.  It cooked down to the "Right" consistency.   After all, fresh is better than mass quantities every day!

Ingredients:

• 9 ounces of Strawberries cut into small pieces
• 3 ounces granulated Sugar
• 1 Tablespoon of Lemon Juice

Process:

• Remove stems and leaves from Strawberries and clean them well.  I cut mine into small bits that are smaller than 3/4 inches or 2 cm cubed.
• Place Strawberry cubes in bucket of Bread Machine.
• Pour 1 Tablespoon of Lemon Juice over the strawberries.
• Pour 3 ounces of Sugar over the strawberries.
• Mix the ingredients and allow to sit for 3 minutes to draw out some of the juice.
• Select Jam or Jelly setting on Bread Machine and wait until done.

Alternately, you can add the mixture to a small sauce pan and cook over low to medium heat until your desired texture is achieved.

Yield is about a cup of Strawberry Jam.

The flavor I got on my rye bagel (homemade of course) was an intense Strawberry sweetness.   In fact this was better than just about any store bought Strawberry jelly I have had in a very long time!

Wrapping Time In Plastic

I'll admit it.  This Helpful Hint is so simple that I am asking myself if it really is "Blogworthy".

But!  If I save one innocent piece of electronics from the terror of drowning, it shall be worth it!

It comes from a bit of Kitchen OCD really.  If you cook at all, you're bound to have a timer in the house.  If you clean at all, it may get wet.

If you are sloppy like me, you'll drown your timer in water.  I've done it to the black timer a number of times.  It has forgiven me and comes back.  After all the thing was made in the early 1980s or before.

But it got to be a joke in the house for a while.   The timer was in a puddle of water next to the coffee maker in the kitchen, yet again.

Empty the batteries out, shake the water out as best you can, air dry it.  It may come back.  It may not come back.  My bad.

So I got very tired of drowning timers and having to say "Hey, we need a new timer" at the kitchen gadget store because it would start A Discussion. 

Another one?  Why do you keep killing them...

Blah blah blah, SIT! blah blah blah.

So I put them in a sandwich bag with a helpful zipper.   Didn't work.  They're too big and would strangely inflate over time.

If anyone could tell me, please, why a low voltage "appliance" was inflating a plastic bag, I'd love to hear a plausible explanation.

Please?

Anyone?  Beuhler?

Save Ferris.

This morning I was roasting coffee beans.  Guatemalan Swiss Water Process Decaf to be specific.  Makes a nice Espresso when you don't want a jolt.  When I reached for the timer to press the start button I complained that I couldn't feel anything through the plastic bag.

Yeah, it's a guy thing.  Deal.

Got the timer going and found the cling film.  Plastic wrap.  No name stuff I bought in 1999 in a chef's warehouse kind of place.  I still have about a year left of the wrap.  One giant roll for 15 plus years of use in many sandwiches, soup bowls, yogurt pot lids, and of course now, kitchen timers.

Pull out "enough" cling film to wrap the item securely.  Wrap it like a present.  Trim the excess plastic.  Hold it all in place with a bit of clear tape just like I did on the back.

"Viola" that will play beautiful music on your counter.   Or at least count beautifully for you.

The coffee roasted perfectly, the timer works fine, and it's dry too.

Added benefit, there's more "feeling" of the buttons.  These are ultra thin in comparison to the plastic bags.

Yes, she'll love it.  Much more sensitivity.

Somehow I seem to have drifted off.   Just remember "Wrap your timer!" or "No Glove, No Lovely Cookies!".

Permanent Celery - Revive your Vegetables for Extra Freshness

You may be scratching your head now.  You may be asking "Has he lost his mind?  Permanent Celery?".  

There are a couple things going on here.

The story was that it's a couple days before Thanksgiving and we needed some Celery for the Stuffing.   Pretty simple, it's easy to find Celery in every market.  

Left to our own devices, we don't tend to eat a lot of the stuff so we bought the smallest stalk we could find.   When I got it home, it was sad and wilted.  There was one piece of Celery that was so limp that it bent over at a 45 degree angle. 

It also is the majority of a plant, and having always had plants around me, I knew that I could try to help it along with a little water.

It worked.   I found the largest pickle jar I had on hand, splashed an inch of water into the bottom, plopped the celery stalk in the jar and walked away.

Over the next two days, my little lab experiment firmed up very nicely.   The celery now is absolutely firm and crisp.   I have live food. 

It is one of those things that if you come across some vegetable that is getting a bit old, toss it in a shallow pan of water and it SHOULD pick up the water and come alive.

There is also a second part to this story.

When you chop your Celery, remember to leave an inch or two of the bottom of the plant.  Even if you cut all the way through your stalk, you can take that little slug and plant it in the garden.   Water it liberally and you will have a Permanent Celery Plant.   The Celery will take root and grow new Celery for you.   Since most people don't really use a LOT of the stuff, you may even find that you won't have to buy much Celery since you can just wander to the garden and pick a little when needed. 

After the holiday, the remnants of my little pickle jar will end up in the garden next to my cactus and my pineapple plants.   It's a little oddball, but why not?  After all, who doesn't like fresh food?

Altoids Tin For Your Next Wallet?

They're Iconic. 
They smell good.
They are durable.
They're common place enough to be ignored.

Yes, it's an Altoids tin.  

People do all sorts of things with them.  They are a great case for electronic projects.  They're storing my little screwdrivers.  They stored my Lottery tickets for a while until the Powerball got greedy and raised the price.  I felt stupid throwing away $40 a month on tickets for the "Math Tax".

Now I've heard a new use for the thing - as a wallet.

Ok, sure, it sounds kind of low rent, but it offers an interesting benefit.  They will shield your credit cards from being read by RFID readers.  

I'm not a fan of RFID.  The chips work a bit too well.  It is a little electronic chip that sits inside credit cards and ATM cards that you waggle in front of a reader and under normal conditions can only be read within a few feet.

That's Normal Conditions.   Since RFID is protecting your credit limit on the credit card I feel safer without it.

Sure, this is "Tinfoil Hat Territory" but if I get a card with a chip in it, I immediately contact the vendor for a chipless card.  The old school magnetic stripe is good enough for me. 

If I can't get the new card, I find where the little square chip is in the card, then hit the chip with a hammer and a "punch".   Electronics can be fragile and that "disables" the chip so I can be completely comfortable.

I tried it out with a card that I did not activate because it has a chip in it and it fit easily inside of an Altoids tin leaving room for some (*GASP*) cash and other things I may find I need.  Like in this Lifehacker article, you even may have room for a memory stick, and you can keep a mugger wallet in case you are in a questionable neighborhood.

You know, a couple bucks and some old spent gift cards kept as a decoy.

I'm just amused enough at this little hack to consider it.  The little tins are just "too nice to throw away" and I have a few here.

Or just stuff your cash in your sock.  I won't tell.

Harvesting Laptop Batteries for a few 18650 Cells

Ok, First the warnings:

Don't Try This At Home.
If you do this wrong, you could be exposing yourself to this list and other things that I am not remembering:

• Explosion
• Fire
• Caustic Chemicals - acid or base
• Poisonous Chemicals
• Extreme Heat
• Sharp Edges
• Delayed Reaction of any of the above
• Maybe even more, really it can be quite dangerous

If you do this, it is at your own risk, I take no responsibility.  You're a big person, make your own choices...

Even once you have taken these things apart, you must, MUST charge the batteries in a charger that is specifically designed for the purpose.  If you charge the batteries in an unapproved manner by using too much voltage or too much current you'll have that list above to contend with. 

As the video at the end of the article shows, they do explode.

Really these are dangerous objects.  Be careful.

On the other hand, if you are using a laptop, chances are you had one sitting on your leg or your belly safely.  You just didn't try to puncture the thing.

Laptop Batteries are a strange beast.  They come in a couple different types.  I've seen "Flat" batteries like the one in your cell phone, and I've seen ones that look like a AA battery on steroids.  Those are 18650 batteries.  The laptop I am using uses six of those cells in series to power the machine for 3 hours.

The reason I looked into all this weird danger is that I have a flashlight that I depend on.  It puts out as much light as a 75 watt light bulb in a very tight beam - 1200 Lumens.  With a 18650 instead of the 3 AAA battery pack, it throws more light.  This light is really more than anyone needs to follow a dog at night, but when you live in an area with power pops, blackouts, hurricanes, and other strange events, you need a bright light.

Since the 18650 is rechargeable, I can relax about waste and pollution and so forth.

The battery pack you see in the picture has 7 of those batteries.  One was dead.  They normally do that after around 1 year of regular use so I thought to take it outside and disassemble it.  They were taped together and glued in place.  It all came apart with a little bit of wrangling.

The laptop battery packs will cost you around $90, and with these batteries, I can "refurbish" mine once it finally goes to the land of "15 minutes between charges" by finding the bad cell and replacing it.

After cutting the leads between the wires to separate them, I was able to charge all but one.  With those six, I was able to replace the batteries in a number of appliances and put them back to use.   Since each battery costs between $5 and $25, there was a significant cost savings.

As for charging, the charger was put on a long extension cord out to the cement patio and each battery was charged once to see if they "took a charge".  They did with a few that were dead..

That flashlight?  Oh it's much brighter than the little AAA Battery pack could have managed.

Strange weekend project but successful.  Just remember, Don't Try This At Home, and if you insist, forget you read about it here!

The video below is more proof that this is not quite safe.  Youtube is chock full of videos of people doing stupid things to these batteries like burning them or overcharging them.  This is the result.  That result is why I went to the extremes of doing it outdoors, charging the batteries outdoors and so forth.   You just never know if you get the bad battery and you're having a bad luck day. 

Be safe and take precautions.