Roast Beef Recipe

At the Island City Art Walk on Friday night I had the chance to sit and chat with artist Julie Shen and her husband Chris.  We all got on quite well and as you might expect after reading this blog, I started talking about food and recipes.  Julie said that she hadn't eaten much beef before moving to the country, and her husband Chris said that he rarely eats red meat and could "take it or leave it".  My usual comment of "you haven't had it done right" in reference to the red meat came out without thinking about it, and I launched into a discussion of this Roast Beef that we make here for special occasions. 

This recipe is time consuming, and decidedly old school.  If you are going to do it, do it right though... or as I said "Honor the animal that died placing the food on your table". 

It turns a Bottom Round or a Sirloin Tip into something bordering a Boeuf Bourguignon or Beef with Wine sauce.  Instead of using a red wine one time, we had run out.  Remembering the rule that you never cook with a wine you wouldn't drink, I chimed in and said "Use My Port"!  This addition of the sweet Port Wine brought the dish to a completely new level. 

Everyone who we have ever served this masterpiece has been amazed at it, and frankly I tend to let the making of the gravy to Kevin since it's complex and fiddly and so very entertaining to watch.  When it is all done though, Beaver Cleaver's Mom couldn't do a better meal.

The sandwiches the next day with a dollop of Port Wine Gravy on some crusty bread are amazing, and if you have some properly strong horseradish stuck in the back of the refrigerator, you will want to find it along with a slab of extra sharp Vermont Cheddar Cheese.   The Beef will freeze well as will the gravy and you'll have enough sandwiches for weeks!

This is the body of the email that we had sent to the near-vegetarian Chris this morning, reproduced in it's entirety:


Roast Beef

You will need

Reynolds Brown In Bag  (Large size or Turkey size) http://www.reynoldsovenbags.com/
6 - 7 lb bottom round or sirloin tip roast.  Butcher should tie it to a uniform size.  If you don't have access to a butcher,  Whole foods will do it also.
Adobo  (Either Goya or Badia)
Instant Read Oven Thermometer
Flour
Ruby Port Wine
Pepper
3 bay leaves
2 large sweet onions cut in quarters
Worcestershire sauce
Beef Base (Better then bullion is usually pretty good)
Kitchen Bouquet gravy thickener http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kitchen_Bouquet
Bag of organic baby carrots
Start by placing 1 T of flour in the Brown in Bag and coat the inside with it. 
Place the Brown in Bag in a large roasting pan.
Take your roast and season with adobo on all sides
Place roast in the center of the bag towards the bottom in the pan
Add to bag around the roast (but not on top)
  Onions
  Carrots
  Bay Leaves
  1 1/4 cup Ruby Port Wine

Roast in oven at 325 degrees for the correct amount of time.  You want the inside of the roast to be at least 160F - this usually means about 30 minutes per lb. (at least)

Once the roast is cooked carefully take it out of the steaming hot bag (an interesting experience in itself), place it on a serving dish and cover to keep warm.   You will want it to sit at least 20 minutes before cutting in to it.

Now,  make the pan gravy.

1. Dump everything in the bag into the roasting pan on the stove top.
2. Carefully pick out all the carrots and place in a serving bowl and cover to keep warm.
3. Take 4 T of flour and mix with 1/2 cup of water in a cocktail shaker
4. Turn on burners under the pan (you usually have to straddle two burners here)
5. add one teaspoon of beef base to the pan
6. Don't let the gravy come to a boil just yet but it should be steaming
7. Add flour mixture and stir it all in to mix.
8. at this point you want to keep stirring and heating until the mixture has gotten thicker
9. Once mixture is thicker,  add

•   1/2 t Worcestershire sauce
•    1 t kitchen bouquet
•    pepper to taste

let cook a few more minutes stirring
dump entire contents into a blender and blend for a few seconds until smooth.

Enjoy !

The Pleasures of Upgrading a New PC - Irfan View

I'm in the middle of a migration.  No, I am not flying North for the Summer!  I am moving into a New-To-Me laptop.  The oldest one died, the daily driver is getting unreliable but will be "repurposed", and this is the newest one of the lot.

If you're so inclined, you can read the story here:

First the story of how I decided that it was time to move with limited funds.
Second, how I actually installed the Operating System and the minimum software needed.
Third, how annoying it can be to get PDF to work smoothly on a new install.

Today, I have to install graphics software.

As a part of the volunteer work that I do and all of the web development work that I have picked up over the ages, I require better than the very basic software that Windows 7 comes with to get pictures and text to the web.  Sure, for most folks this is enough, but you can get much more without spending any money.

Here is how I do it.

Irfan View - a Swiss Army Knife for picture viewing.
Ifran view does a lot more than just view pictures.  The software is amazingly flexible and takes the attitude that you don't need to be complex to get a lot of complexity done.  You can do some simple editing with crop and paste, play around with editing color schemes and remove things like that annoying kid who insisted on putting gang hand signs on his chest when you got the family photo back in 2005 at Christmas.

Yes, Jonathan, I am talking about you.

I have been using Irfan View for more than ten years now.  It is so easy to use that you forget just how much power you have at your fingertips.  If I need to take a picture for the web, I'm not going to post the original.  Typically I shrink them down from the massive to slightly smaller than "standard def TV sized" with this software.  I have used it to snip a single flower to share with my growing audience, and to have a little fun playing with pictures.

But enough of that.   Here's how to get it... and you really do want this software as your default viewer on Windows!

1) Surf http://www.irfanview.com

2) Click the handy "Irfan View" link on the right under "Downloads".  I'm not giving you the direct link because he really has done some amazing work and your going there directly will help him know how many people like his software... so play along, ok?  :)

3) That previous link will pop you onto another page with a link to download the base software.  Click on the Download Now link and it will ask you to save the file.  Remember where you put that file...  This time I'm downloading iview428_setup.exe from CNet.com

4) Run the file, and once it launches it gives you the option of Creating Shortcuts, selecting how many users, and where to install it.   Simply accept the defaults and click "Next>". 

5) You will see the window change to "What's New In This Version?" and just click Next.

6) the next window asks if you want to associate any extensions with IrfanView.  I click on "Images Only", and Next.

7) Unfortunately he has a deal here with Google Chrome to push a download of it to your system.  Reject this.  Uncheck the box with Include Google Chrome...   You can always get it on your own.  I don't want Google Chrome and am wary of that software due to my concerns about Privacy.

Remember Uncheck the box for Google Chrome and then click "Next".

8) There is a question about "Set INI Folder".  I'm ok with what is happening here so I clicked "Next".

9) I then got a warning about resetting my file associations - and yes, I am really sure - so click Yes.

10) Installation Done!  When you click "Done" Irfan View will launch.  It starts a browser window with a lot of questions and the program which really doesn't look like it has much other than a black window and options.  Since the purpose of this is to get the software on the machine ... I'm done here... start to play around with the program, it's one of those rare programs that you can use with the keyboard extremely rapidly to view your pictures once you learn how you want to work with it.  It's beautifully integrated with the mouse as well and I find it to be extremely fast at getting chores done.

It's not the Be All And End All of graphics processing, but a great shortcut.  Since I needed this for a task TODAY, I'm going to cut off here, do some work with it, and post tomorrow the next steps.

For Picture Editing, Gimp.
For Vector Graphics like web page headers, Inkscape

Found on the Refrigerator One Morning - Humor

... a break from all that Computer Stuff I have been writing lately.  There's more of that to come, but since my friend Scott sent me this one, I wanted to share.  I've heard it a million times and it never fails to bring a wry smile to my face...

Found on the Refrigerator One Morning :

My Dear Wife,

You will surely understand that I have certain needs that you, being 54 years old, can no longer satisfy. I am very happy with you and I value you as a good wife. Therefore, after reading this letter, I hope that you will not wrongly interpret the fact that I will be spending the evening with my 18 year old secretary at the Comfort Inn Hotel. Please don't be upset----I shall be home before midnight.

When the man came home late that night, he found the following letter on the dining room table:

My Dear Husband,

I received your letter and thank you for your honesty about my being 54 years old. I would like to take this opportunity to remind you that you are also 54 years old. As you know, I am a math teacher at our local college. I would like to inform you that while you read this, I will be at the Hotel Fiesta with Michael, one of my students, who is also the assistant tennis coach. He is young, virile, and like your secretary, is 18 years old. As a successful businessman who has an excellent knowledge of math, you will understand that we are in the same situation, although with one small difference - 18 goes into 54 a lot more times than 54 goes into 18.
Therefore, I will not be home until sometime tomorrow.

The Pleasures of Upgrading a New PC - PDF

I started this whole mess a couple days ago.

First I had to decide which machine to save and which to recycle.

Then I had to load in the operating system and the basic software. 

Next are the PDF programs.  I use PDF very heavily.  I print to it from all my programs and I read the things I have printed.  It is easier for me to keep my documents in PDF on a memory stick than buy another filing cabinet.  So first, it's time to install Acrobat Reader.  Going to Adobe.com puts up an annoying survey.  I don't do free surveys - No Thanks.

Then off to the download page with the little grey box with the little lighter grey text.  Really, Adobe, how about something that is easy to read.  Are you so busy being a fanboy of your own work that you're forgetting that there are all sorts of people trying to use the site?


On the download page, there is a red box with white text (Bad color choice - ADA Compliance?) with "Download Acrobat Reader on it.  I'll save you all the effort, the link is here.  After clicking the Download Now link I was presented with a page telling me how to get past the browser's setting to allow the download to continue.  Probably that is the best way to manage that, since you should not download software without actively thinking about it.

Here's another annoyance I have with Adobe, they force you to use their own download manager.  Nobody else seems to use this software so I allow it to install then immediately uninstall it once I have finished with it.  Kind of a waste of time and effort if you ask me just to show me some annoying advertisements.  Ok Adobe, here's the worst thing about it... now that I have downloaded your garbage download manager, it wants me to close the browser.  That little dog is chasing it's tail.  So That just won't happen just yet.  I've got the blog article to finish.


Sidestepping the abysmal Adobe Acrobat reader installer, I'm going to get the printer.  Or rather CutePDF.  CutePDF is one of many free pieces of software you can install on the computer that will act like a printer and produce a PDF Document out of anything you are going to print.  Really sweet little piece of code and it makes life easy. 


Surf www.cutepdf.com to get all the info on it.  Basically, you can download the CutePDF Writer from this link and use it for personal or not for profit use.  When you install it though, it asks if you want Yet Another Tool Bar so you will want to make sure that you DO NOT install the toolbar.  In this case it was the "Ask Toolbar" a worthless blemish on the browser world.  The installer has three check boxes asking nosy questions.  If you uncheck the first one where you do not accept the end user license, the others are turned off and you go on to install the Cute PDF Writer.  The next time you go to print a document you will notice a new printer called CutePDF.  It doesn't really need any configuration, just remember where it puts the PDF Documents so you can save them or print to paper later.


CutePDF does depend on something called PS2PDF and wants to install it, so it will pop up a window asking yes or no.  Select yes so you can go on with it.  When through, Cute PDF will open a browser window with documentation on how to use it, but basically it's easy as pie.


Since Adobe doesn't know how to install their reader without clobbering my browser... I'll continue this post... Tomorrow.  Basically if the survey magically appears, I'm going to slam that practice.  There is no reason, AT ALL, to force someone to download a magically delicious download manager just so you can install some free software.  Another problem with the way software is delivered these days.  You just never know what it's doing in the background.

OK, maybe not "tomorrow"...

After having gone through the Browser Restart nonsense, I ended up watching this install happen.  Or rather just the install of this abysmal "Adobe DLM".   It did not actually install the software.  I had to go in and re-download the software and have it install again.  It dutifully put up a window saying it was downloading and installing "McAfee Security Scan Plus" - something that I DID NOT WANT.  That will be uninstalled immediately after I get this install to work with Adobe Reader.

Theoretically, it went through and installed both Adobe Reader and McAfee Security Scan Plus, but I wouldn't have known that unless I went and looked at the Adobe Download Manager.  Mangler more like it...

Closing the Download "Mangler", I noticed that all my icons for PDF have changed to the official Adobe PDF graphic.  Having an old PDF on a memory stick, I double clicked on it and lo and behold, I was presented with a Personal Computer Software License Agreement.  Pretty worthless, clicked through.  I'm not in the business of reverse engineering this steaming pile of software, and frankly if I knew of an open source alternative that actually worked in order to read PDF Documents, I'd uninstall Adobe Reader in a heartbeat.

Accepting the agreement and signing my life away, I was able to view the document.

Now to get rid of the hitchhikers...

Going into Control Panel on Windows 7 I found everything in Confusing Categories, so I selected "Small Icons" and it broke everything out into a large list.  They're not quite as easy to deal with but categories imply someone else is deciding how things are, and frankly it's easier to hunt for something in front of you than have something arbitrarily packed into little groups and given hints on how they are grouped together.

I selected Programs and Features to get the list of programs to uninstall.

First program to uninstall: McAfee Security Scan Plus.  I was presented with a small Uninstall window upon double clicking the name which allowed me to get the offense off of my computer.  From their own site you can see that all it does is go through and check your current firewall and virus scanner as well as some other things.  Useless since all of this is managed by Windows Firewall under Windows 7.  You can view that under Windows 7 in the Control Panel.

Second program to uninstall... Adobe Air.  I have never been able to find a site that uses it.  I have never been able to find a use for it.  I am not clear as to how this would make my life better by having it on my machine.  It reminds me of Silverlight, which is another "internet platform" that has not taken off.  The description I got from Adobe's website is this:


Adobe AIR, a key component of the Flash Platform, unleashes the creativity of designers and developers by providing a consistent and flexible development environment for the delivery of applications across devices and platforms. 

Thanks, but you're not needed.  It warns you that those applications that require Adobe Air will no longer work if you uninstall it.   If I find a site that uses it, I'll reinstall it - or more likely go to another site.  Buh Bye!

Next to go is the Adobe DLM.   It forces you to install this bit of crapware when you install anything by Adobe.  I don't need it otherwise and now that I have Acrobat and Flash on my computer, I can get rid of this bit of Computer Chaff....  Except it magically disappeared when I uninistalled Adobe Air and double clicked on the uninstall within the Windows Programs and Features list.

Remember, this is YOUR computer.  An application running on it will only slow you down, so if you don't need it, get rid of it.  If the program is suspect, search online as to what it does.  Take the time to read about that machine that you paid all that money for. You'll be surprised as to what you learn.

One other hitchhiker.  Apple Quick Time.  It decided that it needed to be installed on one of the pieces of software that I downloaded.  It is only very slightly more useful than a toolbar since just about everything else is compatible with Quick Time and on a PC it acts only a little more stable than a virus.  Time to get that particular program if not removed, at least neutralized.

In Windows 7 there is an area that all the currently running apps go to.  It used to be in the far right next to the clock under Windows XP, they grouped them together in a little triangle to hide them away.  In my case, it's to the right of the battery and to the left of the clock/speaker/wifi sentry/battery/Windows Action Center.   There's a little white triangle that you can click once on and it brings up a pop up.  If you hover over it, it shows the phrase "Show Hidden Icons".  Helpful but why hide them?  Sure, its all minimalistic, but not exactly helpful.  Ok, we can live with it this way, so click and find the Q for Quick Time, right click on it and select Preferences.

Under the "Update" tab I turned off "Check for Updates Automatically".  Quicktime is a bit of a security hole, and normally I uninstall it completely but I do that only after seeing if I have any QT movies to watch.  Usually that takes a week, so until then, I will just tell it to play well and leave me alone - don't check for updates until you're banished.  Furthermore on the Streaming tab, I'm turning off "Enable Instant-On".  I hardly use Quicktime so why keep it up and running?  Finally under the advanced tab, I select all the way at the bottom "Install QuickTime Icon in system tray" and turn that off.   I just don't need it.  Uncheck that box, select Apply and hope it actually goes away until I get annoyed and fully uninstall Quicktime.

After I click "OK", it goes away and I get a helpful pop up from Windows 7 "Program Compatibility Assistant" asking whether it installed correctly.  I tell it yes, because I really don't use Quicktime, but if you click that there was an error, it will submit a check to Microsoft to help you further check for problems.  Helpful, useful in determining problems if you need them, but not really a problem Right Now.  Thanks, Windows, I've got it from here!

Mind you this is just getting the computer up.  All this day's Blog posting was about installing three programs so I can watch movies on You Tube and the like, and read and print PDFs.  It should not have taken this long.  The Application Development Manager in me has come out in full force, gathered all the Project Managers and Business Analysts into a room and say "You Can Do Better!".

Software does NOT have to be this bad!

One last helpful hint for today.  Once Adobe Reader is installed, launch it with a file to read.  If you have the version 10.1 that I got, you will notice helpful little bubbles showing up under the tab that says "Comment" in the upper right.  I didn't like that so I went in to turn it off.   To do that....

Under Adobe Reader, Select Edit and Preferences.
Click on the General Categories and find the check box that says "Messages from Adobe".
I cleared both boxes in that group.  I don't particularly want messages from Adobe like they're a needy ex-partner.

The Pleasures of Upgrading a New PC - Reloading

Part Two of a series.  The first part is at this link.

Having gone through the decision process of whether to stick with the old or get new, in this very tough economy, I went with Repair and Upgrade.

To get this Thinkpad T60 repaired and upgraded, I sent it off to have the dim panel swapped out and got it back from IBM/Lenovo repair within the week.  Out on Monday, back on Friday.  Had I had the parts, it was something I could have done on my own - I've done it on an old Mac iBook and if you can work on Apple Hardware, you can certainly do it on a Thinkpad.  After all, all the repair documents for a Thinkpad are on the web and available.  If you were presented with a box of parts, you could literally build a Thinkpad for yourself.

The Apples were not meant to be repaired... so think about that if you are planning on getting one. 

On the other hand, I have had good luck with Dell machines.  The one that failed me I had used for four years AFTER the corporation retired it and I got it on a bet.

While the machine was away I ruminated and finally decided to go at it full force.   This machine would take a maximum of 4GB of memory, and would take a fast for today 7200 RPM hard drive.  So I ordered a 500GB 7200 RPM Drive and the memory and it got here a week later.  Plenty of time for me to shake down the Thinkpad and make sure everything worked and could be moved off onto the server when the reload was going to happen.

Yesterday the hardware arrived and the great upgrade began.

First.  Ground myself, and open the machine up.  The old Thinkpads used to have a convenient door you could easily open and pop memory out.  User Upgradeable Parts are meant to be accessible like an old Tube Radio set. This thing made you take out four screws, snap the hand rest slash trackpad out and unplug it from the machine, then swap out the memory.  I wouldn't tell "Mom" to do it, but it isn't all THAT hard.  It took me 10 minutes and would have been less if I hadn't dropped a needed screw under the couch.

Second.  I tied the machine back together and swapped in the brand new hard disc drive.  Five minutes max.  Yes, I dropped the screw on the floor, what did you expect?  Easy replacement, really.  I've done it dozens of times.

Now I have a machine with 4GB of memory, new hard drive, and no operating system.

Since it was 5pm, I grabbed my official shiny and Oh So Legal copy of Microsoft Windows 7 Professional 64bit that I had gotten in a care package for answering a survey along with Microsoft Office, Microsoft Project, and Visio.  Yes, I'm that guy who LEGALLY has all that stuff.  Just wanted to make that clear.

I dropped in the copy of Windows and started the installer.  It wanted to format the hard drive into one partition of 100MB for scary weird unknown System Stuff and a 465GB partition for what we call "userland" where we put all our "stuff".   You know, pictures of LOLCats and links to You Tube and the operating system.

When the format was done, I nudged the installer on to load up the operating system with Redmond's Finest and of course fed the dog.   While Lettie was eating, I grabbed her gear, checked that the machine was still installing and went out for a lap around town.

When I got back, it was asking another question and was done.  Restart, clear it's head, prepare for first use.

Been there and done that.  Windows 7 Pro install is pretty painless.  It asks you which network you want to use, a password if you have it, whether it is Home/Public/Private... all straightforward questions.  It was basically installed.

The rest of the night I was spending getting the required software on the machine for a bare bones minimum for what I need to do my 160 web pages worth of job search this morning.

Not knowing where the Microsoft Office discs were (They were hiding inside my credenza behind the old equipment, later found late that afternoon), I installed Libre Office.  I needed a spreadsheet, and Libre Office is a Free and Open Source alternative that 99% of the people out there could use instead of using MS Office.  If you don't use Excel or Word as a power user, Libre Office is a great alternative.  What it doesn't tell you is that if you download it you need to grab Java.  Open Office, from which Libre Office is derived, was a Sun product.  It was packaged with Java and now both Open Office and Java are part of Oracle.  Libre Office is not.  So download Java and all is well.

The problem is that Java seems to feel that you need some piece of garbage that is called the "Yahoo Toolbar".  Under no circumstances does any user need a toolbar from any of the search engine companies, nor from any virus company or any other.   It merely is spyware.  It watches what you do and reports back to the company what you're doing.  Toolbars are evil.  Got it?

When you install your software, take the Expert or Custom install and watch for that "Free Software".  Make sure you uncheck that box because when you ask me why your machine is slow, that will be the first thing I will look for.

I needed Firefox and grabbed that installer.  Got through the install easily and installed two required "addons" to Firefox that makes life easier.

1) Adblock Plus which will block about 90% of those annoying blinky advertisements as well as a significant amount of spy sites and spyware from ever infecting your machine.  When you install it on Firefox, it forces you to restart your browser and asks you for a subscription.  I took the Easylist subscription that was offered when I restarted the browser.

2) Forecast Fox which merely puts the temperature and the weather conditions along with radar on the bottom stripe of your browser.  It strictly speaking is not a requirement, but if you live in a Hurricane or Tornado zone, it will tell you when you have an event coming.  Peace of mind is a requirement.

Virus Scanner.  For Windows, I use Microsoft Security Essentials.  If you have a legal copy of windows like I do, Security Essentials is completely free.  It also is seen as one of the best virus scanners out there and you won't be forced to click through a lot of nonsense to do your work - like McAfee or Norton will make you do.  It is highly effective unlike AVG or Trend Micro.  It has caught quite a few trojans trying to install themselves on my computer in the past and it is what I recommend.

Or you can pay through the nose and be annoyed.

When I got all that installed, I found I needed the annoying to install Flash from Adobe.  Why is it annoying?  Well you start the installer and it will glower at you until you close the browser window that you had open in order to get the software in the first place.  So make sure you save all your web pages and all your work in this time that we're transitioning to The Cloud.

One other install that was a requirement for me is Winamp. I start the morning grind and I have a lot of websites that stream music that I like instead of listening to commercial pablum on the radio here out of Miami.  The nice thing about having Winamp playing music is that I will know if Comcast and their shoddy infrastructure here "burps" and I lose connection.  I pay for an always up connection, I expect it.

When you install Winamp, take the custom install path, do not take the Yahoo Toolbar, and don't take the extra links to the 50 free MP3s.  I'm sure you have enough music to listen to.  If you don't surf DI.FM or the excellent Discover Trance for their 192KB Streams or if you don't like trance, theres always my disco fix at Deevaradio.net for your listening pleasure.

That got me so I could get online, listen to music, and go through the morning routine.  There are a few things that are still missing, but that got me through the Morning.

Tomorrow, I start on installing PDF Reader and Writer software.  Yes, all for free.

The Pleasures of Upgrading a New PC - Triage

More like the trials and tribulations, but that is entirely a different story.

I am what you call a "Power User".  I am that guy that people go to after they have found that their computer has stopped working, they went to a shop and found that a complete reload costs $200 and that they followed through and now it's not working like it used to so "could you help me fix it".

Er... maybe... depends on whether I've got the time, the inclination, and if I'm getting paid.

Hey it's a capitalist economy, innit?

Recently I was handed a laptop.  It's "surplus".  It's an older machine, specifically it is a Thinkpad T60.  Core 2 Duo processor that is still being sold as a bottom of the line machine today, but this is 3 years old.  The monitor was very dim to the point of not really being usable over long periods of time.  The hard drive was too small for my video editing and web development chores.   There wasn't enough memory in it.  It ran Windows XP.

Since it is a Thinkpad, it will have a longer expected life than a bargain basement computer.  This one was loaded to the gills and was the "Screamer" when it was bought three years ago.

I had started to use it as my Multimedia Workspace when I got it.  It was more than adequate to do video editing.  I'd grab the video and "render" it into a final form after clipping out such things as I would not want to see in a finished product and it will render that video in less time than it takes to watch it.  If it's not showing me the preview window, it does a 21 minute video in about 3 minutes.

The problem is that the panel was too dark to do "fine" work like the graphics that I am doing for the blog and for the various websites around town that I'm beginning to work on.  So this machine went back home to the repair centre in Memphis TN and got a brand spanking new panel.  Shiny bright and lots of little pixels for me to spread out on after being cramped on my old Acer.

Basically it's a solid machine, although were I to buy a new in box machine, it wouldn't be this one, it would be one with an i7 Quad Core Processor since I run a virtual PC in background as a rule, not an exception.

It will do, and it will do nicely, but it wasn't my first choice until the visit of a client a couple weeks back.

As I was doing some changes to a flyer for the church, I handed him the laptop to show him live what the changes would be like and found that the old graphics workbench had locked solid. The only thing I did on that machine was to do Desktop Publishing and it just had locked.  Again.  I turned it off, recovered and the creaky six year old laptop that was "good enough" failed me again.  Clearly it wasn't going to survive.   The data was safe on the hard drive, but the machine was giving up on me.

I switched over to my "production machine" a 5 year old Acer Aspire 5610 with a very cranky Left Mouse Button.  That machine was my "daily driver" that I did everything on it.  Much better than I expected an Acer to be, I forgave the cantankerous mouse button for its brilliant display that was just a wee bit too small at a widescreen 15 inches with the same resolution as a 720p HDTV.  Cramped for video editing and graphics work.

The Acer worked fine but as I handed it to the client, it too locked solid.  I questioned my technique but clearly there were two machines that needed to be retired.  The old Dell Inspiron was a Pentium M 1.6, way too slow for what I was doing.  The Acer was starting to act up.

Turning to the Thinkpad, we decided to get it fixed since the guts were new and the only thing wrong was the panel was dim.

I got it back last week and decided that while I could spend $900 to get the new machine it just was not happening.  Consulting is just barely breaking even for me, and this black T60 would have to do.  

So basically I'm going to recycle the Dell, 'repurpose' the Acer as a server (yes, a laptop server for low power consumption), recycle my old desktop server (P4 3ghz just doesn't cut it) and move into the Thinkpad.

One for the price of three.

I've been living on machines that people have decided were not worth using any more since 2000 when I bought the last parts to upgrade the machine that eventually became my Server.  In all the time I have used PCs, I have bought exactly zero computers "New In The Box", preferring to build my own desktops.

You see, I'm the Cobbler's Child in a way.  My shoes are scuffed but serviceable.  They have to be because I have to fix them.

Pet Fish - Humor

Velma's been sending me joke emails to share.  Since I got a laugh out of it I thought I'd pass it on to you. 

After last week and all the unfortunate drama we need a break.  I'm hoping that the climate in Japan calms down.  First the Earthquake, then the Tsunami, then the news where one of the Fukushima Reactors exploded and they're basically "sacrificing" it by filling it with sea water to hold off a melt down... finally there was a volcano in the south of Japan that erupted, all within three days.  My heart goes out to the Japanese People with hope they'll be able to catch a break and begin to heal after whole cities were simply erased.

With one eye on the news from Japan, the other on the news from the Middle East, and I will hold off a third eye because then I'd be a three eyed Springfield Fish. 

Subject:  Pet Fish
                
A hillbilly was stopped by a game warden in East Tennessee recently with two ice chests full of fish.  He was leavin' a cove well-known for its fishing.

The game warden asked the man, 'Do you have a license to catch those fish?'  Naw, sir', replied the hillbilly. I ain't got none of them there licenses.  You must understand, these here are my pet fish.'

Pet fish?

Yeah. Every night, I take these here fish down to the lake and let 'em swim 'round for awhile. Then, when I whistle, they jump right back into these here ice chests and I take 'em home.'

'That's a bunch of hooey!  Fish can't do that.'

The hillbilly looked at the warden for a moment and then said, 'It's the truth Mr. Government Man.  I'll show ya. It really works.'

OK. said the warden. 'I've got to see this!'

The hillbilly poured the fish into the lake and stood and waited.  After several minutes, the warden says, 'Well?'

'Well, what?,' says the hillbilly.

The warden says, 'When are you going to call them back?'  Call who back?'

'The FISH,' replied the warden!

'What fish?, replied the hillbilly. .............

Moral of the story: We may not be as smart as some city slickers, but we ain't as dumb as some government employees.

You can say what you want about the South, but you never hear of anyone retiring and moving north.

The Set It And Forget It Movement for Daylight Savings Time

That topic says it all.

Did you set all your clocks yet?  Yes, spring ahead and fall back means you have to advance your clock an hour.  If you are setting an antique clock, especially old chime windup clocks, you may just want to let the thing run down and stop, then wait 11 hours.  If you're reading this in November, make that 13 hours.

There are always a few clocks that never get set.  The clock in Mom's Car for example.  My mom had a 90s vintage Lincoln Continental that even I had to get the owner's manual out to set the clock in.  After a couple years of ownership, we set mom's clock in the car to "Summer Time" or "Daylight Savings Time" and just delayed.  If we were lucky it got close to the time that it would have to Spring Ahead anyway and told her that in a couple weeks it would be fine.

Some time in May or June we'll discover The Last Clock, or the one that had been missed and try to figure out how to set the clock on that.   With all the appliances that we have like ovens and washing machines and phones that don't get set automatically it becomes an annoyance to remember whether you found them all.  I have a Motorola Razr that is unlocked and as a result it must be set manually.  Thankfully it's a "Backup Phone" now.

My dog never really quite gets reset.  She's up like clockwork on Summer Time all year.  Whether you like it or not.  It is fine for the 7 1/2 months that we're in Summer Time, but in the dark days of winter, getting up at 5AM is not pleasant. 

Time is an artificial construct that we all depend on.  But there's a better solution than setting clocks or stubbornly refusing to set your mom's intractable car clock or having to remember to set the Shortwave Radio in the living room... or just how to set the blasted thing.

Just Set It And Forget It.

Simple huh?  We are slowly but surely extending summer.  A week here, a week there.  Why not just hold a referrendum and say the majority wins.  Let odd places like Arizona excluding the Navajo reservations or the Western corners of Indiana not change, but those areas where people live and have to go through this twice a year decide what they want to do and stick to it.

Britain is now discussing "Double Summer Time" where instead of shifting from Standard to Summer Time, it's spring ahead two hours.  Talk about Jet Lag.  You get used to laying in at 6AM but 6AM is really 4AM and then the time shifts back and the dog is getting you up two hours earlier.

So how about it world? Sure there are benefits to Standard Time, just as there are benefits to Daylight Savings Time.  So lets just choose one and stop this all in its tracks! 

What's that I'm hearing?  Is it?  Oh... the sound of crickets and silence....

Oh well, then for now, I've got another bunch of clocks to set...

How NOT to Make Espresso

After commenting on Facebook that I was "contemplating a mug of espresso", I decided to act...

For most people who choose to make the warm beverage of choice, it is usually not a life threatening act.  In my case...  Well just judge for yourself.

It started when I was broken out of the Disco Cave.  I have been listening to Deevaradio.net all morning on the noise canceling headphones.   Just loud enough to drown out the background noise that is not canceled by the headphones, it makes for a very productive mindset.  Basically it's just good enough that I can't hear people in the house speaking at a normal volume from 10 feet away.  

I had been searching all morning through the job boards for Project Management and Senior positions in the Broward County Florida area and it gets tiresome.   300 pages on a Saturday, 160 every other day.  I decided I needed some of the brown life giving fluid that so enamored itself to me years ago.

Yes, Espresso.

Getting out of the big green chair, I grabbed all the equipment and laid it out on the counter.  I have a can of unopened decaf Cafe Bustelo, my own roasted Hawaiian estate grown coffee, Hazelnut simple syrup, saccharine packets, and some optional leftover from Valentine's Day Whipped Cream. 

Going into the kitchen means that of course, everyone in the house follows.  Kevin got out there and said "I see it's time to make Waffles".  After a quick back and forth, we got the mix that we bought on the clearance rack at GFS, laid out 5 eggs and 1 cup of home churned butter.  The dog decided to come in and look at us with a slight tilt to her head that is leftover from the stroke. 

As I'm looking at her and back to the burners that were warming, I realized that the non stick skillet should not be on the burners since if the thing is scorched, it will kill the parrot.  Bending down, I wrench open the cabinet under the burners and set the skillet on top of the "mulch" that has grown from the collection of baking sheets and pots and pans.   Closing the cabinet, I manage to give blood to the art by scraping my elbow on the little metal doo-dad that holds the door closed too tightly.  While all of this is happening, the skillet falls on my right foot.

At this point, Kevin takes pity on me, and the skillet out of my hand and puts them on the other side of the cabinet, safely.

Step over to the sink and away from the metal mulch and begin to prep the espresso as the burner warms...

I have to open the can of Cafe Bustelo, so reaching into the Idiot Drawer to get the can opener, I'm showing that the world is not built for a man who is 6'4" and built like a baseball player... I stick my hand on a fork that is in the drawer.   To add injury to insult to injury, I manage to stick my hand on the lid of the coffee can as I toss it into the recycling.

Yes, I can see that it will be an interesting morning...

Luckily I manage to scoop out two scoops of Decaf Cafe Bustelo into the Espresso Maker and three scoops of my Hawaiian home roasted coffee to top it off without further injury.  Screwing the water and coffee chamber onto the rest of the maker, it goes onto the now glowing red hot stove. 

Believe it or not, I didn't burn myself!  

Yet.

The espresso went on without a hitch, but espresso is always made by forcing live steam and boiling hot water under pressure through grounds.   There is a fair amount of steam, bubbling, and aroma that is released into the house.  Toward the end, the maker will sputter and spit out some hot lava of espresso at you so you should make sure that the lid is securely down over the coffee vessel.

I didn't.

Yours truly had to watch.  Oooh Shiny Things.  Brown Coffee syrup! 

It was then that I decided to take a closer look.   If you see me later and notice a small red dot on my right cheek just under the eye, it was at this point that I acquired it as well as a spray of coffee.  211 degrees by my guess.


Cursing at my own confusion, I walked over to the sink and poured the steaming beverage over the Sweet N Low, thus steaming off the rest of my right arm in the process.  Luckily it wasn't a burn, merely a major annoyance...

Ahh Art...

Yeah Drama is an Art Form, isn't it?

Swirling in the big 16 ounce mug, there was 12 ounces more or less of espresso.  I added to it some Hazelnut Syrup, creamer to lighten it, then a nice layer of Whipped Cream to the top and walked it over to the desk. 

After the doorbell rang and I managed to answer it after running through the house pulling up my pants... I had a short talk with Lisa about her impending salmon dinner.  I was able to get back to my big green chair and start on the cooled espresso.

The warm laptop was placed on my lap, and Diva Disco went back on my head with a familiar classic that I remember from the 1970s...


Oh no, not I
I will survive
as long as i know how to love
I know I will stay alive
I've got all my life to live
I've got all my love to give
and I'll survive
I will survive...

Good espresso ...

Tsunami in Japan, Worst on Weather Channel

You know, I had my opinions and my TV Viewing Habits proven to me to be true today.

This morning my neighbor let me know of the tragedy that hit Japan today.  She had told me that there was a large earthquake off the coast of Japan and that there as a massive Tsunami that made it there and was heading toward Hawaii.  After I got home, I turned on the news to view what there was on this event.

First I turned on the BBC World News.  Perfectly crisp, concise and factual coverage.  I have watched the BBC and listened to it all of my life.  If I am looking for news, it is the first place I go.  They showed what video footage they had and presented the information clearly...

After about a half hour it got repetitive unfortunately, so I started to channel surf.  First jumping to MSNBC which had on the Right Wing Revisionist Republican Propaganda Machine of Joe Scarborough railing about how terrible it was that Democrats exist and that they probably hate puppies and kittens and they are vile and the cause of all of the evil in the world. 

Can you tell I didn't stay there long? 

I jumped to CNN for more right wing propaganda.  Pretty much the same, although done by nameless puppets and talking heads instead of "Someone You Might Have Heard Of". 

I came to the conclusion quickly that finding alternate sources of factual information to the BBC was going to be very difficult in the right wing dominated morass that television "news" has become in the United States. 

I wasn't going to put on Fox News -  My Television would have exploded.

Seeing that the weather here turned markedly cold I wanted to see what the forecast was going to be for the week.  Unseasonably cool, highs in the low 70s.  South Florida in March.

That meant that I was on The Weather Channel.

Ok, I have watched The Weather Channel for years, ever since I first got my first cable subscription.  They started out only doing weather.  But that doesn't keep you watching for long, although there are some folks who are quite addicted to this.  Pretty radar maps, local forecasts, and reporters sent to Your Town can make for compelling video... For about a Half Hour.

It's been said that if you see Jim Cantore in your city, head for higher ground.

Well... Tuning into TWC in the morning means that you are in for a treat.  You get to watch Ken and Barbie try to pronounce hard words and try to make sentences that are actually coherent. 

By this I mean Abrams and Bettes.   Have you had the pleasure of watching this team?  It turned an international tragedy into a sitcom.  They were not hired for their intelligence, I am sure ... I think they were hired by how well they fill their clothes because their heads seemed about as empty as the stereotype can be.

I found myself laughing as these two clowns were making breathless predictions of dire and doom as the Tsunami was approaching.   Mind you, they weren't the only ones that were so dreadful.  In Alaska, Cindi Preller of the Alaska Tsunami Center was speaking about the first waves hitting the outer Aleutian Islands.  She needs to do a little fact checking because she was told that 2 1/2 feet of water hit the islands and that means that it was... um... uh... about 5 feet. 

Ok, Basic Math here.   A Meter is 39.37 inches.  Three feet, Three Inches.  A good rule of thumb is to take the height in feet, multiply by 12, add another 10 percent.   You could even say that 3 feet equal a meter - most Americans wouldn't have a clue and it would be closer.   Roughly a Meter is technically correct.

Am I being Pedantic?  I Don't Think So since this is a person who works with this sort of information as a living... Hey Cindi - Back to school with you.

So back to the whole craziness in the studio...

It turns out that as bad of a Stuffed Suit that Mike Abrams is, Stephanie Bettes is even more of a bobble head than Barbie can even dream to be.

Like the first talking Barbies said "Math is Hard (giggle)".

Thankfully most of the women I know are much more intelligent than that.

As we watched the web camera that was on Waikiki Beach, we were treated to Stephanie Bettes showing her intelligence again.  The Tsunami was predicted to arrive there at 8:07.  She insisted that that was EXACT.  She was watching the clock and once said "It's just 45 seconds until it arrives".  Ok, so you have a wave coming across the vast Pacific Ocean that was predicted to hit the Hawaiian Islands at 8:07am Eastern.  This means that it would BEGIN to effect the long Island Chain around then.  If you are on the South East side of the Island that you are on, it would have been later, North East would be sooner, and the further to the North East of the chain you'd get it faster.  This woman actually thought that it was going to happen as programmed.

A Mind is a Terrible thing to Lose.  By this time I was laughing at the TV.

Since it hadn't hit, she noticed that there were three people standing on the beach and got very annoyed by saying "That just seems very unsafe to me at this time" and kept repeating it.  Yes, There's a Tsunami coming, yes, it is unsafe, yes these people know about it but no you don't have to keep repeating it.  Being dazzled by a police helicopter looking for people on the beach at that time, she asked the Tropical Weather Expert what that could be. 

Here's a suggestion, Stephanie - You need a sedative.  Maybe it will help, now go play in the sand box or with your blocks.  We'll send Mark over shortly.

She clearly did not know what actually caused the Tsunami because she was asking this same expert whether another one would happen.  Yes, in geological time, somewhere in the world another undersea earthquake would happen, there will be another.  Since there hasn't been an earthquake in Japan since then, Thank God, there will not be another Tsunami following this one ... TODAY.

After laughing at this, I went back to doing my own thing.  Having Ken and Barbie, I mean Abrams and Bettes on the TV was a bit too much so I muted the TV and worked on a few web pages.  When I finished, I unmuted the sound in time to hear Jen Carfagno at the "Expert Desk" pronounce the King Kamehameha Hotel as the "Kammey Ha Ha Ha Hotel".  

You can learn for yourself how to pronounce that word and a bit about Hawaiian History at the above link...

I realize that these aren't the best and brightest at NBC and the Weather Channel, but please have someone on there who aren't able to turn a tragedy into a comedy event.

The reports of a Seven Foot Surge from the Tsunami in Hawaii was tragic enough, these folks should probably be asking questions more like "Do You Want Fries With That" or "Can I show You To Your Seat".  Having these two present information about an international tragedy seems highly misplaced.