An Atypical Life

After a bunch of emails went AWOL this week (thanks, gmail. thgmail) I realized I couldn’t procrastinate any longer, and moved some of my critical email accounts back onto my own server. That involved setting up:

• Apache + SSL/TLS - Van’s walkthrough is intelligent and accurate, and even goes into client-site certificates (which I’ve enforced)
• Dovecot for imap - the basic QuickConfig is sufficient, though I have discovered I cannot bind imap (non-SSL) only to localhost on this system, possibly due to the way virtual hosts are done. So it’s global imaps for everyone, which is fine naturally.
• RoundCube - gmail’s only true competition in the OSS webmail space, which is sad in a way. Kinda proves that people care more about “free as in beer” than “free as in speech.” Oh well. It’s not horrible, but it’s not as nice. And I still like it better than Thunderbird.

The big danger, of course, is that I’ll be missing out on gmail’s awesome anti-spam abilities. I’ll just have to see how well it fares over time. (Right now, the migrated email addresses aren’t public, so I’m feeling positive.)

Now that I’m done shaving yaks, I can get back to my schoolwork.

Those of us who live in Commonwealth countries, or travel a lot to them, often inform ourselves via the BBC News World Service, televised BBC News updates, etc. The musical intros/outros as of late have been some fairly good dance music. (I’ve been known to dance to some of them myself, alone in my hotel room.)

I took it on myself to research them today. They’re all composed by David Lowe, formerly known as Dreamcatcher. Turns out it’s incredibly difficult to get your hands on most of them. Aside from one 4-track album (BBC World: The Music, online at last.fm), the only place you can find them is by watching TV or listening to the World Service.

That’s why I’ve put cleaned up 256Kbps mp3s of them online - as a public service for people who like dancing to “apocalyptic rave” music in their underpants in hotel rooms. If the BBC wants me to take them down, I will - but they need to provide for an alternate means to obtain them. These tracks are not on the BBC World: The Music album. These were sourced by off-the-air recordings, cleaned up in Audacity and tagged by yours truly in Winamp 5.54. (You can argue with me over the Genre tagging in the comments if you want. Is it Soundtrack? Or is it Techno? Does it matter?)

If this is your first visit, you probably want this track: BBC News Countdown 2008 Extended Version (3 MB). If you liked that, you’ll probably want the zip file of all 10 tracks (18.7 MB). Contents:

• BBC News Countdown 2008 - Extended Version
• BBC News Countdown 2008 - Special Mix
• BBC News Countdown 2008 - Remix (author unknown)
• BBC News English Regions Opening 2008
• BBC News English Regions Closing 2008
• BBC News Network Titles 2008
• BBC News Newsline 2008
• BBC News Wales Today 2008
• BBC News Reporting Scotland 2008
• BBC Breakfast News 2008

Oh, and the “apocalyptic rave” reference? Bill Bailey:

After upgrading Waynemanor Studio’s Intel-based Mac to OSX 10.5 (10.5.5), I was unable to get the Mackie Onyx 1640 FireWire interface to stream audio successfully to/from the Mac. When playing audio from the Mac to the Onyx (just from the System Preferences Sound panel, selecting the Onyx FireWire 0838 output for system sounds and clicking the Purr sound - no DAW software), I’d get the spinning beachball for ~10s, then stuttering, clicking, popping sound would come out. Actually running my DAW made things worse; the application would hang, and Force Quit didn’t help. (Power cycling the Onyx allowed the Force Quit to work.)

Mackie lists this audio driver rollback (PDF) on their website, but the first try at it didn’t work. Here’s how I managed to finally get everything working correctly under Apple OSX 10.5.5:

1. Sign up for an Apple Developer Connection account. It’s free, and required to download the software you need.
2. Download both the FireWire SDK 26 for Mac OSX and the FireWire SDK 24 for Mac OSX.
3. Mount both image files and install the package files from both (FireWireSDK26.pkg and the confusingly-named FireWireSDK23.pkg). This will create directories under /Developer on your system drive.
4. From /Developer/FireWireSDK26/FireWireComponents, install the Leopard Final drivers. Reboot.
5. From /Developer/FireWireSDK26/FireWireComponents, install the FireWireAudio 2.4 drivers. Reboot.
6. Select Software > Extensions on the left-hand browser. Look for AppleFWAudio, and make sure it is version 2.4.0.
7. From /Developer/FireWireSDK24/FireWireComponents, install the FireWireAudio 2.0.1 drivers. Reboot
8. From the Apple menu, select About this Mac, then click the More Info button to start System Profiler.
9. Select Software > Extensions on the left-hand browser. Look for AppleFWAudio, and make sure it is version 2.0.1.
10. Go to the System Preferences > Sound panel and try sound output to the Onyx Firewire 0838. It should sound clear as a bell.

I don’t know why installing the latest SDK FW base drivers and the FireWireAudio 2.4 drivers first was required before the 2.0.1 drivers would correctly fire up, but it was. One warning: do not install the Leopard FireWire (not FireWireAudio) drivers from the 24 SDK. This caused my machine not to boot correctly, and I had to repair it using another machine.

Here’s hoping this helps someone out in the wild. I’d post it to the Mackie forum, but the moderators there have yet to enable my posting rights. :(

I am proud of this recipe - everything in it is local, organic, and truly “cooking with the seasons.” It is also truly a Canadian recipe, as the flavours are very reminiscent of the famous French Canadian Pea Soup.Any mid-west or “bread basket” town in North America, as well as parts of the UK and France should be able to find the main ingredients in season during the fall harvest.

Pictures to be posted after I repair my camera, which fell off the counter while making this dish :(

Ingredients

• 2 delicata squash, each about 500g
• 8 small potatoes - new, gold or red potatoes preferred, each no bigger than 100g, peeled and cut into eighths
• 2 local apples - peeled, cored, and diced
• 3 leeks, trimmed and chopped into 1cm wide discs
• 2 cloves garlic, sliced
• 1 medium chunk ginger, peeled and shredded, fibrous material removed
• 1.5 litres chicken or vegetable stock
• 2-4 tbsp olive oil, cooking grade
• 3 sprigs fresh thyme
• 1 tsp. ground cardamom
• 1 tsp. white pepper
• 2-4 tbsp, maple syrup
• sea salt to taste
• Cilantro for garnish
• Two or three strips bacon.

Directions

Halve squash and remove seeds. Place in baking dish; cover flesh in 1 tablespoon olive oil. Roast in an oven at 350°F for 45 minutes, until flesh is soft. Remove the squash and scrape the flesh from the skin. Reserve.

Meanwhile, boil potatoes until cooked.

At the same time, In a large heavy skillet, sautee the leeks and 1 Tbsp olive oil over medium-low heat until aromas are released. As the leeks caramelize, add the garlic and ginger. When the garlic and ginger have combined into the leeks, add the apples and 1 Tbsp of the maple syrup. Sautee until well blended.

Drain the potatoes. Add the sauteed vegetables and the squash flesh to the potatoes, then season with cardamom, the remainder of the maple syrup, white pepper and salt. Bring to a low boil, then turn off the heat. Use an immersion blender to blend most of the ingredients, leaving some chunks of potato.

Fry a fresh strip or three of bacon and crumble. Garnish with cilantro and the crumbled bacon bits. Serve immediately.

Will freeze and keep in the refrigerator for days.

OK, it’s not exactly spring anymore, but organic Ontario vegetables are everywhere, and my fridge is full of them. Here’s my quick and dirty pasta primavera. The lemon rind/zest (not grated!) gives this dish some extra zip.

Ingredients

• 1 bunch fresh broccoli florets, stems removed, separated into bite sized portions
• 1 handful (15-25) fresh green beans, washed and ends removed
• ½ sweet red pepper, cut into 12 sections about 3cm square each
• 2 Tbsp. olive oil
• 2 Tbsp. flour
  
• 1 large or 2 medium fresh cloves garlic
• 2 shallots (not green onions…)
• 1 tsp dried wild oregano
• 1 tsp dried red pepper flakes
  
• 1 ½ cups chicken broth (if you must use canned, go reduced sodium please)
• ½ cup crème fraîche
• ½ cup finely grated hard Italian cheese (Romano, Gran Padano, Parmesan, etc.)
• ½ of the skin of one lemon
• Linguini, water to cook
  

Directions

Start water boiling for pasta, using half of the lemon skin. When ready, cook linguini.

Steam broccoli, green beans, sweet red pepper, and the other half of the lemon skin until vegetables are soft and broccoli is a deep green. Meanwhile, sautee the shallots and garlic in the olive oil. When done, add the vegetables (removing the lemon peel) and sautée for 5 minutes. Add the flour to thicken and form a sort-of roux. Add chicken broth and crème fraîche; reduce liquid volume by ½.

When pasta is done cooking, drain and remove lemon. Add vegetable mixture to pasta. Add grated cheese and mix rapidly until mixture thickens slightly. Serve immediately.

Serves 4.

I think I have been waiting for this since 1982. Originally posted on Filmstalker.

Tr2n on RUTube:

Ingredients

• 2 acorn squash
• 1 lb. lean ground beef
• ½ c. pine nuts (or slivered almonds)
  
• 2 Tbsp. ground unsweetened cocoa
• 2 Tbsp. cinnamon
• 1 tsp. cayenne pepper
• 3 Tbsp. fresh grated ginger
  
• ¼ c. dried cherries (optional)
• Salt and pepper to taste.
• 1/2 c. grated cheese (I used a firm raw goat’s milk cheese)
• Balsamic vinegar

Directions

Halve acorn squash and remove seeds. Cut a small bit off the bottom so they sit up correctly. Place opening up in a microwave and cover with parchment paper or cling film. Heat on high for 7 minutes.

Meanwhile, in a large heavy skillet over medium-high heat, heat pine nuts until aroma is released. Add ground beef and brown; do not drain. Reduce heat to medium-low. Add cinnamon, cocoa and cayenne pepper. Stir until beef is well coated. Add ginger, and optionally dried cherries. Stir until aroma is released. Salt and pepper to taste.

Fill squash with beef mixture and return to microwave for 5-6 minutes on high. Cover with grated cheese and melt in microwave for 30-45 seconds.

Serve, drizzling balsamic vinegar over each squash half. Goes well with quinoa and sweet potatoes.

If guests prefer a more “rich” meal, add brown sugar or butter to the toppings.

Modified from http://cookpad.com/mykitchen/recipe/544198/ .

Ingredients

• 4 baby eggplant (aubergines)
• 150g ground pork
• 1 clove garlic, finely minced
• 1 thumb ginger, finely minced (about double the volume of your garlic)
• 1/2 tsp. doubanjiang, aka 辣豆瓣酱
• 1/2 tsp. this stuff (can anyone help with a real English name other than “maaraajyan”?
• 1 tsp. Chinese sweet black miso, aka 甜麺醤
• 1/2 tsp. chicken bone soup boullion dissolved in 150mL water (can substitute chicken boullion or 150mL real chicken bone stock)
• 1 Tbsp. Shaoxing rice wine (or other Chinese cooking rice wine)
• 2 tsp. dark soy sauce
• 1 tsp. hot sesame oil (or more to taste)
• 2 Tbsp. canola oil
• 1 Tbsp. potato starch (or wheat or corn starch, if you absolutely must), dissolved in 2 Tbsp. water
• 1/2 green onion, chopped or diced finely
• Some Szechuan peppercorns

Cut the eggplants in half, scoring on the skin at a 45 degree angle to the length of the eggplant. Soak the eggplant in salted water for 5 minutes, then drain. Stir-fry eggplant in hot wok and canola oil. Remove eggplant from pan. Drain oil. Brown ground pork in wok. Add all seasonings, save potato starch/water mixture, green onion and Szechuan peppercorns. Cook for 45-60 seconds to reduce liquid by half. Remove from heat, adding starch/water slurry to thicken sauge. Serve over medium-grain sticky white rice; season at table with freshly ground Szechuan peppercorns and green onion.

This recipe also makes excellent mapo tofu by substituting firm tofu for the eggplant.

Pictures coming soon.

I am just back from RSDC 2008. Conferences like this, related to my line of work, normally get me pumped up and excited for the coming year’s efforts. This conference, like so many other things in my life that used to be important to me it seems these days, just drained me. I am left wondering if I don’t have some sort of chronic fatigue syndrome or sleep disorder that is preventing me from having the levels of energy I need during the day to make things happen.

Rather than dive into a solipsistic morose ramble (screw all you self-obsessive types), I think I’m going to focus on the sun, and hope that a weekend of not thinking about work, school, or anything else that’s obligatory “cures” me. If not I will find out what’s behind all of this when I go on vacation the middle of next week.

Well, if you’ve visited my website in the last day, you’ll see I’ve added my plurk widget to the sidebar. I’m finding plurk altogether more motivational than twitter. A recent comparison of the two services I think was unfair to plurk, mostly due to overhyped twitter features that aren’t even working correctly half the time.

Even if Twitter solves their reliability concerns, plurk just feels more alive. It’s not a single thread with everyone’s crap mixed in (and hacks like #hashtags). It’s a threaded timeline: part web forum, part IM, and part IRC. And yes, a bit twitter, too. I like the fact that it’s Web 2.0 enough for my friends who won’t get on IRC (still my #1 place for synchronous) and that the web layout is attractive. The “get more points to get more features” thing is a pain, but I’d rather have that than some sort of “pay us $$ to get more features,” I think.

I moved over to plurk when some of my friends followed Leo Laporte over. I’m not a personality cult-er, but I do like keeping tabs on my friends. And I’m finding that plurk’s interface encourages more synchronous collaboration (read: chatting) than twitter ever did. In about 48h on the service I’ve managed 15 “plurks” (microblog entries) and 38 responses; I never hit that level of engagement with twitter.

Once they add some sort of SMS interface (I can’t get their IM interface to work…) it’ll be a sure fire hit, I think.

So you twitter types out there: would you miss me from twitter if i semi-abandoned it?