Category: Weblog

Recently, my friend Xeni completed her cancer treatment. I gave her a medal for that hard work.
She wrote about it on Boing Boing.
Many people asked how they could do the same thing. To be honest, it was super simple.
I went to Crown Awards, a site for all kinds of trophies and medals. I was amazed at the wide range of options.
You simply choose what ever medal you feel appropriate, click away and you enter what ever inscription you want. You can even choose whatever ribbon you want. Very straight forward. The cost was under $20. Takes less than 5 minutes.
When it arrives, the inscription plate is separate and you apply it to the medal. The medal comes with a small case. For Xeni, I wrapped the box and gave it to my friends Sean and Tara, who see her regularly.
If you know someone that deserves a medal, there’s no reason not to give them one. Giving respect and happiness to people is one of the best things you can do.

It’s been eleven years since the attack on September 11th.
Like many things in life it seems both like yesterday and a very long time ago.
I am happy to see the rebuilding in New York and the movement forward in healing these great wounds. The spirit of Americans to overcome adversity is unmatched and proven time and time again. I am always optimistic that we and our children will solve the problems that come our way, making the entire world a better place.
What concerns me is the continued rise of intolerance.
Intolerance, taken to an extreme, is what caused the attacks in the first place.
Seeing intolerance rise in America, is disheartening.
America, we are a better country than this.
We all love our country, our families, and want a bright future for our children.
We are all on the same side, trying to make the most out of life and liberty with as much happiness as possible.
We are all in this great experiment together and need to start treating each other better, assuming best intentions rather than malice.

With Apple’s announcement of the new Mac Book Pro, the interwebs had to find something to fret about and it appears that repair and upgradability is the new hobby horse for pundits to ride.
Kyle Wiens of ifixit wrote a good opinion story on the new Mac Book Pro.
I can’t disagree with what he wrote, it’s completely accurate. But he’s completely wrong that it’s a problem.
ZDNet, MSNBC, and CNET have all jumped on the FUD bandwagon with the story.
Choo, choo, all aboard the Pundit Express to PageHitsVille!
Thanks to a lucky combination of good brain wiring, an electrical engineer father, and an understanding and patient wife, I do a lot of repair and fixing around the home. I’ve repaired everything from our house wiring, dish washers, dryers, ovens, lamps, clocks, to the assorted home electronics of friends and family. I build my desktop computer from scratch. I like fixing things. But it’s a skill set that’s in decline.
The decline is not due to some evil plan by manufacturers, it’s due to the public desire for better products to appear regularly. The desire to buy good, low price, and reliable products that work out of the box is the driver for seeing the lack of ‘fixability’ in the new laptop line. And it’s not a bad thing.
Back in the 70s, there were TV commercials for self repair of your television set. You picked up a set of stickers at the testing unit at the supermarket, went home, opened your TV, pulled out all the tubes using stickers to match sockets and vacuum tubes, took all the tubes to the tester, plugged them in until you found the bad one(s), and bought the replacement. Take everything home, replug all the tubes, and hope the problem went away.

Sounds a little crazy right? Driving around town with vacuum tubes and finding replacement parts at your local supermarket? It sounds quaint and fun, but trust me the whole process sucked. Such a thing is unthinkable these days.
Today’s television experience is undeniably wonderful in comparison. No color drift, no warm up, no fine tuning, no horizontal and vertical lock, no buzzing, or any of the other symptoms commonly found with tube TVs. Today’s TVs are also now nearly impossible for the average person to repair due to modern manufacturing techniques from surface mount soldering to sealed assemblies. Today’s TVs are also better in every, single way than those from 20 years ago.
Most other technologies follow the same trajectories. I’m old enough that my first car had a carburetor and distribution cap, both of which had to be manually calibrated and was a huge pain in the ass. It took experience and skill to set them up properly. Today’s cars have electronic fuel injection and ignition controlled by a computer in the car. It’s exceedingly hard to tweak these things in the average car today. There is a sub-culture of ‘tuner car’ enthusiasts that rip out the standard car computer, replace it, and hack their performance to their heart’s content.

But 99.999% of automobile owners will never consider such a thing. For the vast majority of people, cars have never been more reliable and easier to drive.
In both cases what we have today works better, is cheaper, and is far less of a headache to own than similar items in the past. And this is a VERY GOOD THING.
To meet the demands of today’s consumer, modern manufacturing basically requires the very measures that the punditry is railing against. Fastening optimization, robotic soldering, minimization of variation, exacting tolerances, and made to order componentry are required to delivery great products.
To ask that every piece of modern electronics is designed to allow the tiny fraction of hackers to upgrade is the height of hubris, unreasonable, and a huge imposition on everyone else that has no desire to ever crack the case. All that ‘upgradability’ ends up making the product cost more and be more susceptible to failure. Catering to the fringe is not the way to make good products. Making the best product you can for a low price is the way to make good products, even if it means eliminating upgradability and home repair.
Hackers, hot rodders, and makers will always find a way to do what they want, but it shouldn’t come at the expense of everyone else that simply wants a good, reliable product.
For internet pundits to prattle on about non-upgradability as a serious issue is the height of disinformation. Anyone that NEEDS more than 768 GIGABYTES of storage in a laptop is a huge exception case. Anyone that wants to replace their LCD panel at home is simply a masochist.
So settle down interwebs, relax, and enjoy the amazing time we live in that such products are available.

When I ride my bike solo, I like to listen to podcasts and music in my right ear. I leave my left ear open to hear the other sounds around me. You can try telling me this is a bad idea or illegal, but you’re wrong. It rocks.
I run the earbud cable down inside my jersey, and in the past cut a small hole inside the rear pocket to pass the plug through to plug into my phone, which I keep in a jersey pocket.
I’ve wanted a better way to make the hole and experimented a bit with grommets to see what works. Here’s how I hacked my newest jersey.

You can pick up a grommet kit at a fabric store like JoAnn’s. It’s not that expensive, under $10. Make sure you get the kit that includes the mini anvil and setter.

I place the grommet in my right rear jersey pocket. Since I’m right handed, it’s the easiest pocket to reach into and pull the cord through.

When you are sure the setup is in the place you want, inside the pocket and only through one layer of cloth, you whack it with a hammer to set the grommet. You need to hit hard since you are bending metal. I used a nice, heavy framing hammer.

Pull out the setter and the anvil and you should have the grommet in place. You might have to trim an excess fabric.

I placed the smooth side of the grommet inside the jersey so it doesn’t catch against my base layer or my skin.

Here’s the grommet with the gigantic plug feed through. Your plug will probably be smaller, but I’m using the One Good Earbud which for some reason uses the giant plug.

I’ve been brewing beer on occasion for over 20 years, starting when I was in college and learn such a thing was possible in my Science of Beverages class in my senior year.
Always lurking out beyond the homebrew scene was the idea of making spirits. More complicated than making beer or wine and requiring the use of a still, it seemed out of reach. Being officially illegal didn’t help either. But the idea lingered on in the back of my mind.
Recently, I stumbled upon a device called an Easystill. Basically, it was a water distillation unit that could be used to distill alcohol as well. As Darth Vader would say, “All too easy…”
The idea of distillation is simple. Alcohol boils at a temperature less than water, so if you get temperature above 78 °C but below 100 °C, the alcohol becomes vapor, leaving the water behind. A still captures the vapor, cools it enough to turn it back to liquid, allowing you to capture it.
The EasyStill does all that in a tabletop device that you can store in the closet or garage when you are finished. Obviously, I had to order one.
I read up a lot at homedistiller.org and reddit/r/firewater while I waited for delivery.

I started with making a simple wash. Moonshine people call it a wash, beer brewers call it a wort, but it’s basically the same thing. I used 5 pounds of sugar, 2.5 pounds of cracked rye, and 2.5 pounds of malted barley. Traditional whiskey is made with sugar and corn, but I was hoping to get some rye flavors.

I cooked the wash at 155 °F for about ninety minutes. I probably should have used some sort of calculator to determine the optimal time and temperature to convert the most starch to sugar, but I’m not taking this too seriously. The wash was super sweet when I finished.

I strained out the grain from the wash and let it cool to around 95 °F and pitched 3 packages of champagne yeast into the fermenter. Ideally, I should have used a distiller’s yeast with a higher alcohol tolerance, but the local shop didn’t have any. Champagne yeast was the next best thing for allowing maximum alcohol conversion before the yeast died.

Put the fermenter top on, fill the airlock, and cross my fingers that the fermentation starts. So far this is exactly like the process for brewing beer.

After about four days, the fermented stopped and I cracked the lid. Now was the moment of truth. The alcohol percentage was probably under 10% at this point. I didn’t have a hydrometer, so I couldn’t take an accurate reading.

I put 4 liters of wash into the fermenter and turned the EasyStill on. It had come with a long tube that I filled with activated charcoal. I couldn’t figure out how they intended this to work, so I made do with this Rube Goldberg set-up.

The first things that evaporate are the nasty things like methanol and other distillates that you shouldn’t drink. The recommendation is to discard the first 50 mL that comes out, but I played it safe and tossed out double that, 100 mL, the so-called foreshot.
I then tasted what was dripping out, and sure enough it was alcohol. Success.

I started capturing in a larger container. From turning on the still to first drops took about 45-60 minutes, and then ran around 2 hours under there was more water than alcohol coming out.

I did three runs of the wash and gathered up each into an old apple juice bottle, appropriately marked.
In total, I had around 3.5 liters of booze. I didn’t have an alcoholmeter, so I didn’t have an accurate reading, but it was probably 15-20% alcohol. The taste was smooth, but lacked any flavor characteristic of a whiskey or rye.
The guys are my local poker game seemed to enjoy it.

I wanted a strong liquor, so I ran the first pass through the still one more time. I ended up with 750 mL of final product.
At this point it tasted like a neutral spirit, like grain alcohol, without a lot of flavor, but smooth and not harsh. Enough to warm your insides, but not so strong to taste harsh.

I had acquired an alcoholmeter by this point and found that the moonshine was 75 proof, meaning 37.5% alcohol, just a little bit less than store bought whiskey.
The real test was to see if people liked to drink it. I took it to a friend’s BBQ and everyone sampled it. And they liked it! Some people drank multiple shots.
Obviously, there is a huge amount to learn about making whiskey that I haven’t touched on from more complex recipes to maximizing the “hearts” (best part of the distillation) to aging with wood. Nevertheless, I had a good time and found that you can make your own moonshine without a big investment or large amount of space.
So as long as you are willing to break federal laws against home distillation, give it a try.

I’m posting this more to help others on the interwebs find help, rather than because Loyal Cruft Readers will find it awesome.
For the last year or so, there was a strong smell of sulfur or rotten eggs that occurred when we washed clothes in our washing machine. It seemed to get worse over time.
I tried searching on The Google, but didn’t find a lot of good answers. I cleaned the washer with various things like vinegar and baking soda, and even tried the washing machine cleaners sold at the store. They would help a little, but nothing solved the problem.
We even had the plumber out and he was stumped as to what was going on.
The clothes came out clean and had no smell, so I determined it wasn’t in the washing tub itself. I was beginning to think I’d never figure it out.
Then one day I saw a clump fall out of the drain hose into the sink in the laundry room. I looked into the drain hose and saw this:

Sure enough, there was a bunch of nasty stuff growing in the drain hose. I could smell the sulfur coming from it. That made sense, the drain hose would have water in it even after a wash cycle since it never fully drained. Perfect growing medium for some sort of organic, foul smelling sludge that must suck the sulfur out of the lauryl sulfate that is found in most detergents. I studied engineering not biochemistry, so all I know is it smelled like hydrogen sulfide.
I went to an online parts store and they had the part for ~$30 and even a video that showed how to replace it.
Replacing the drain hose took me about 15 minutes (mainly since I’ve taken it apart so many times) and I did a test run. No smell.
I’ve run the washing machine about 5 times now and the smell seems gone. So if you are having the sulfur smell from your clothes washing machine, consider replacing the drain hose!

One hundred years ago, this month, Edgar Rice Burroughs published the first story about John Carter and his adventures on Mars, known as Barsoom to it’s inhabitants. The story was hugely popular and launched his legendary career.

Soon after this, he wrote Tarzan, and began a career of writing wonderful fiction series that inspired many in the 20th century in both science and literature. Ranging from Pellucidar, the hollow Earth, to Venus, to the Moon, the stories focused on adventure in new worlds. Hugely successful, Burroughs was wealthy enough to buy a ranch estate in Southern California large enough that it literally created the city of Tarzana around it. Burroughs died in 1950 and the age of 74. Personally, I’ve read many of his stories and have come to love them, especially the Barsoom series.
The laws of copyright are complicated and elude my understanding when it comes to figuring out exactly when stories leave copyright and enter the public domain. Regardless of my understanding, somehow, much of Burroughs early work has entered the public domain. Several years ago, I printed my own edition of A Princess of Mars.
Today you can see what happens when good stories enter the public domain.

Besides the widely advertised movie of John Carter, there are five different comic book series and a new book of short stories.
Top left: Warlord of Mars by Dynamite Comics – Retelling the basic John Carter story
Top middle: John Carter: The World of Mars by Marvel Comics – A prequel story to the soon to be released Disney movie
Top right: Under the Moons of Mars – An anthology of new short stories taking place on Barsoom by various authors
Bottom left: Warlord of Mars: Fall of Barsoom by Dynamite Comics – Tales of Barsoom from before John Carter arrived
Bottom middle: John Carter of Mars: A Princess of Mars by Marvel Comics – Retelling the basic John Carter story
Bottom right: Warlord of Mars Dejah Thoris by Dynamite Comics – New adventures of a scantily clad Dejah Thoris
A sixth comic, John Carter: Gods of Mars is coming out later this year.
As you can seen, a literal plethora of new art, stories, and interpretations of the story of John Carter and Barsoom happening, 62 years after Edgar Rice Burroughs died, helping to introduce a new generation to his wonderful work.
Much of this is due to the stories falling into the public domain, allowing new artists and writers to get involved in the world of Barsoom. The publishing world has not collapsed and Edgar Rice Burroughs, Inc. is doing fine still licensing content, selling merchandise, and holding conventions, 62 years after the original author died.
On the back of the Under the Moons of Mars book is this statement.

Clearly, this effort is a sign of the future as more stories fall into the public domain. Imagine how great it would be to have new takes on Superman, Mickey Mouse, and Bugs Bunny by various artists and writers. Clearly we have a while to wait until some of those fall into the public domain, but what we see about John Carter is a good sign.
Of course, nothing is simple when money is involved, so recently the Estate of Edgar Rice Burroughs sued Dynamite for trademark infringement, which is different than copyright. As the legal battles continue, I will be happy to read everything and help pay this generation’s artists and writers for their work in continuing the story of Barsoom.
If you want to read the original stories for free, visit the Project Gutenberg where much of his work is available in a variety of digital formats.

After marrying into a a Chinese family, I was introduced to cha siu, an Asian style of roasted pork that I’ve come to love. A little cha siu over rice is fantastic treat. You’ve problably seen it before or had it inside a bun.

Photo by hensever

Cha siu is marinated and roasted slowly on skewers to melt off the fat and crisp up a bit. While visiting family in Cincinnati, we have home made cha siu and I decided to try it at home. With a Crufty twist, of course.

I bought a couple pounds of pork shoulder and sliced it into strips.

For the marinade, I used the mix my Chinese mother-in-law gave me. I considered researching recipes, but when your Chinese mother-in-law tells you how to do something, you listen.

Traditionally, cha siu is bright red and this mix was no different. I think red dye was the majority ingredient. It was time to don the nitrile gloves to prevent permanent staining of m hands.

I mixed the marinade and soaked the pork in it. Overnight into the fridge it went, to suck up the maximum amount of flavor.

I got into my mind that I need to roast the cha siu hanging vertically and not in a pan (as I was shown by my Chinese mother-in-law). I went out and got some inexpensive metal skewers. Here I realized that this might not be the optimal plan. I had been taken in by the picture on the seasoning mix that showed the pork on a skewer, like a shishkabob. I did my best to hang it, but could think of a better way in the moment.
I hung it in my smoker from an upper rack and set the burner to keep the heat around 350 degrees. After about 45 minutes, it was done. Easy breezy.

Roasted cha siu, still on the skewer.

After slicing, it appears to look like cha siu. Red ring around edges and glistening with melted fat. I tossed it onto a bowl of rice and begun to eat.

It was OK. Not bad, not great. Just OK. You could taste the seasoning, but just not as strongly as what I get at an Asian butcher. As you can see, I had plenty of leftovers.
There are two changes I’ll make the next time.
First, I’ll simply rub the seasoning on the pork, rather than adding water. I think this will allow more of the sugar to stick to the pork and get caramelized in the cooking to maintain the delicious sweetness. Just like a dry rub in smoking, the maximum flavor will come for the spices and flavors sitting directly on the meat overnight.
Second, rather than a vertical skewer, I’ll hang the strip from a hook, letting gravity to do it’s work. It will avoid the skewer sag and let even more of the fat melt off. Also, it will be a lot easier to handle and I’ll avoid burning my wrist on a skewer.
Overall, I’m pleased with the outcome, but plan try again for better results.

Things I believe

• R2D2 is the true hero of the Star Wars saga.
• Pennies should be eliminated.
• The dollar coin should replace the dollar bill.
• There should be playoffs in Division 1 NCAA Football.
• Deckard is a replicant.
• Lee Harvey Oswald didn’t act alone.
• The Designated Hitter is an abomination.
• Gimme Shelter is the best Rolling Stone song.
• Fighting should not be allowed in professional hockey.
• Fish Out of Water is the best Disney character.