New post by my sister over at the Park City Snowmamas site: a review of The Ski House Cookbook
Archive for the ‘Endorsements’ Category
Plug plug pluggity plug.
Tuesday, February 14th, 2012I heartily endorse this event or product. (#7 in a series)
Friday, February 3rd, 2012Back in May of last year, I wrote about upgrading my wireless router to a dual-band Netgear WNDR3700, and the problem posed by the lack of a dual-band wireless adapter in the Project e netbook.
Since then, I’ve been looking for a dual-band 2.4GHz – 5GHz 802.11N USB adapter that was fully supported by Ubuntu out of the box; no NDIS wrapper, just straight plug it in and have it work. I actually bought and returned one adapter that ended up not meeting those requirements. I kept looking, and kept beating my head against a wall.
The last time the issue came up, I noticed a mention of ThinkPenguin on the Ubuntu “WifiDocs/WirelessCardsSupported” page. “Okay,” I said to myself. “Why not check to see what they have?”
Sure enough, ThinkPenguin offered a dual-band USB wireless 802.11N adapter that they claimed would work right out of the box with all current versions of Ubuntu. It was a little more expensive than the 802.11N adapters that you find on sale at Fry’s, but by this point I was willing to pay a few extra dollars for something that would Just. Freaking. Work. So I placed an order.
I picked up the adapter last night, booted up the netbook, plugged it in, and…
…It. Just. Works. Right out of the box. Ubuntu had no problems recognizing the device, I had no problems connecting to my 5 GHz network (even without external antennas; more on this in a moment), and I’m getting the expected substantial speed improvement. If I get a chance, I’ll see if I can post some direct speed comparisons between ThinkPenguin’s adapter and the Asus built-in one.
I’ve also had occasion to communicate with ThinkPenguin support, and I was extremely impressed with the speed of their response; using their online support form, I got a response back to my questions in less than one hour. I consider that outstanding.
I will concede, as I said above, that ThinkPenguin’s offerings are a little more expensive than the stuff you find at Fry’s. I paid $64 for the adapter I ordered (plus about $6 for priority mail shipping); dual-band adapters at Fry’s typically seem to run about $40 (plus local tax of 8.25%) for name brands. The thing is, my time is worth more than $20/hour to me; I’m willing to pay for stuff that works right away, and does what I want it to do without limits.
If that’s the way you feel, I recommend you check out ThinkPenguin.
(One other point: you’ll note that I didn’t offer a specific link to the adapter I bought. That’s because, according to ThinkPenguin support, they’ve dropped that adapter from their catalog. TP states they plan to introduce a new adapter in the next month or two, as soon as they can raise funds to get the adapter produced. In the meantime, while the adapter I ordered is not listed on their site, TP still has a small stock available, and you can purchase it by contacting them through their website or calling 1-888-39-THINK (84465). Please note that I haven’t received any freebies from TP; I’m just a very satisfied customer.)
(Edited to add: Also, if you’re going to order an adapter that supports external antennas, just a note: it is easier to order both the adapter and the antennas at the same time. TP will still sell you the antennas as a separate item; they just don’t have them cataloged, and it will require an email/phone call.)
Getting high.
Thursday, January 5th, 2012My sister’s latest post is up at the Park City Snowmamas site:
Dealing with altitude sickness.
(I know she was looking for old photos of us as kids visiting Pikes Peak. The thing that stands out most vividly for me from that trip was the g-dd–n splitting headache. Granted, I was only 8 or 9 years old, but that was the worst headache I’d ever had in my life to that point.)
Brain buckets.
Wednesday, December 28th, 2011I mentioned this in passing in this week’s TMQ thread, but for all of those who don’t read it: my sister has a new post up at the Park City Snowmamas site.
Of course, that’s just my paraphrase of what she’s actually saying. My sister never uses the word “f–k” in conversation. Except for maybe when one of her boys tries to sneak a box of Pop-Tarts or a case of Monster energy drink into the house….
Plug plug pluggity plug.
Sunday, December 18th, 2011I have previously mentioned that my sister was named one of this year’s Park City Mountain Resort “Snowmamas”.
Her first post is now up at the site, and contains a whole list of recommendations for things to do with teenage boys in Park City. It would make a poor blogger very happy if you’d go over there and throw some clicks her way.
(Yes, that is my sister et al in the photo, just in case you were wondering.)
Everybody’s blogging these days.
Friday, October 14th, 2011Including my sister, the doctor, who is now one of the bloggers on the Park City Mountain Resort “Snowmamas” site.
I’m delighted.
I’m also a little jealous, as she’s already made more off of her blogging than I have in two years.
But that’s not important. If you’re planning a family ski vacation, I strongly encourage you to consider Park City Mountain Resort. I know my sister and her family have been very happy with their stays there.
0 day DEFCON 19 (and related random) notes
Thursday, August 4th, 2011So far, things have been relatively smooth. Just a few minor problems; I left a couple of things behind in Austin, but nothing that I can’t make do without.
There have been a couple of slightly unpleasant surprises. I discovered yesterday that one of my other favorite restaurants in Las Vegas, the Tillerman, abruptly closed in February. Google turned up this account of events from the Las Vegas Weekly: there’s a lot I disagree with in it (the neighborhood doesn’t strike me as being particularly sketchy, for example) but it is the best account I’ve been able to find.
I do have a badge, and I only had to wait in line two hours to get it. The other slightly unpleasant surprise, though, was that DEFCON decided that electronic badges are “passé”: this year’s badges are inert hunks of titanium, tied in with some sort of “puzzle based reality game”. (Joe Grand’s big enough to take care of himself, but the reference to “gameboy on a string” in the DEFCON program seems to me to be a nasty, though perhaps unintended, slap.)
Last night, I decided to try a place I’ve been driving past and thinking of trying since…oh, about 2000 or so. Yes, I know they’re a chain, but have you ever been to a Lawry’s The Prime Rib? Did you even know Lawry’s had restaurants, or were you just familiar with their seasoning salt? (There’s four Prime Ribs in the US: Vegas, Chicago, Beverly Hills, and Dallas.)
Having finally crossed that off my list, I have to say I’m glad I went. The Prime Rib’s an interesting place; the decor (at least in Vegas) reminds me of photos I’ve seen of Chasen’s and other old star hangouts in Los Angeles. And the whole experience has a certain…theatricality to it that’s missing from pretty every restaurant in existence today. Your waiter preps your salad in a spinning salad bowl at the table. When you’re ready for your meal, a carver comes by with a massive polished steel cart and cuts your prime rib off of what must be at least half a cow right in front of you. Plus there’s mashed potatoes and honest-to-Ghu Yorkshire pudding served with it. I think my late stepfather would have loved this place. He was a big prime rib fan, but I think he also would have gotten a kick out of the whole sort of…vintage experience, is the best way I can think of to describe it.
I’ve never really thought of Las Vegas as a bookish town, but Lawrence tipped me off to two vintage bookstores that I visited today. I heartily endorse both of them, and strongly recommend that you visit both. Doing so is pretty easy, as they’re basically right across the street from each other.
I’m sorry I didn’t catch the name of the gentleman who runs Greyhound’s Books, but he came across to me as someone who’s very much worth knowing. I wouldn’t describe him as “kind”, as I so often describe others; he seems intolerant of the rude, the willfully ignorant who wish to remain so, and others who would waste his time. (While I was there, he literally chased one person out of the store for using a cell phone.) But for the serious and polite book shopper, this store is a delight. He seems to be very strong on mystery, military history, and history in general. His food and cooking selection also seemed strong to me; he had the only copy of Cross Creek Cookery I’ve seen in probably five years of searching. (The owner also writes, along with other folks, at Books of Worth, an entertaining site I was previously unaware of.)
I didn’t want to press for details (I’m not sure it is any of my damn business) but Amber Unicorn Books appears to be related in some way to Greyhound’s Books. I didn’t have as much interaction with the owners there as I did with the Greyhound’s Books owner, but they certainly seemed like very nice folks. Amber Unicorn appears to be stronger in paperbacks, especially genre paperbacks, but also has a good stock of history, mystery, and law/true crime.
One thing that really struck me about both stores; the folks at both knocked 10% off the total of my purchases for no apparent reason, other than (I guess) I was reasonably polite and didn’t use my cellphone or urinate on their rugs. They didn’t have to do that, and it was very much appreciated.
(And it helped, especially at Amber Unicorn. They had a copy of Skeeter Skelton’s Good Friends, Good Guns, Good Whisky, a book I didn’t even know existed until today. I’ve written before about the gun writers I read growing up; I remember Skelton’s stories with great fondness. Especially the one reprinted in this volume about Dobe Grant and his crate full of Colt Single Action Army parts. When I read that for the first time, man, I wanted a vintage Single Action Army. Still do, come to think of it. I don’t want to say what I paid for that book; let’s just say “Nostalgia is a moron” and leave it at that.)
If you’re a serious book person, you have to visit both of these stores if you’re ever in Las Vegas.
Yet another food note.
Monday, June 27th, 2011This weekend was an off one for the Saturday Dining Conspiracy (and, yes, I know I’m behind on the website, but I’m hoping to get caught up soon).
A bunch of folks went to Machu Picchu in Pflugerville, and I heard good reports from them.
I, on the other hand, drove down to San Antonio with my sainted mother and spent a long hard day book shopping at the various Half-Price Books locations. Oh, the agony.
Anyway, while we were there, we had a very good meal at Mr. Cod. This is a place that appears to have aspirations of becoming a chain, but currently only has one location. The restaurant is tucked back in a strip center, and the decor isn’t much to look at. We’re talking your basic English fish and chips place here.
But the fish is good. Really, really good. My mother said she thought it was as good as Tino’s Seafood: I think I’d have to give Tino’s a slight edge, but that still makes Mr. Cod’s fish the second best fried fish I’ve ever had.
Enthusiastically recommended if you’re in the San Antonio area.
After action report: Orlando, FL.
Thursday, June 23rd, 2011As I alluded to previously, but did not make explicit, I spent much of the past week out of town. Specifically, I was in lovely Orlando, Florida, where the natives experience a curious phenomena involving water falling from the sky. They even have a word for it: “rain”.
(Actually, things have improved slightly in Austin since I returned, but we’re still in a drought, and they’re not going to bring back the fireworks this 4th. Oh, well.)
I was in Orlando for the annual convention of the Smith and Wesson Collector’s Association. I’d love to be able to talk more about some of the nifty stuff I saw there, but the S&WCA doesn’t really like having this stuff discussed on open Internet forums. (I think they see open discussion of what goes on at the conventions, as well as other member-only information, as being a disincentive to people joining. In other words, if you want to know all the inside S&W history like production numbers or shipping dates, or what goes on at the conventions, join the club.)
(And you really should, if you have a serious interest in S&W collecting. The S&WCA is a good organization that deserves your support.)
So if I can’t talk about the convention in detail, what can I talk about? Well, I can talk about what worked and what didn’t. I have to say that this was about as perfect a trip as I’ve had in a long time. With the exception of things being slightly tight getting to the gate in Austin for the flight out, and leaving some medication at home, everything went smooth as silk. (Well, okay, the flights on “Latvian People’s Airlines, Your Cattle-car In the Sky”, were packed to the gills with families flying to Disney. But I knew the job was dangerous when I took it.)
My travel configuration hasn’t changed much since my last two trips. The only significant addition is that I now have a smart phone. And, in spite of my issues with Android (which will probably be the subject of a longer post in the future), I have to say; a smart phone for travel is nearly worth its weight in gold. Being able to find things (like a restaurant, or a Wells Fargo ATM) wasn’t the only advantage; the Orlando Airport Marriott was charging $14 a day for wireless Internet access. Easy Tether Pro literally paid for itself the first day I was there, and every day after that was like money in the bank. I heartily endorse this product and/or service, and, yes, you can get EasyTether
Speaking of finding restaurants, food in Orlando was mostly just okay. The association has a cocktail party on Thursday night, and the hotel food there was pretty good (conch fritters, yum), but the Saturday banquet dinner was just not to my taste. I had a couple of fast food lunches with friends at Chipolte and Wendy’s, which were pretty much what you’d expect at each.
The best meals I had were at:
- Sonny’s Real Pit Bar-B-Q, which is a chain, but a regional one, serving mostly pork based barbecue at very reasonable prices.
- The Bonefish Grill near the hotel. Bonefish is also a chain, and a pretty large one; the holding company also owns Fleming’s, Outback, Carrabba’s, and Roy’s. That aside, I thought my fish (the imperial longfish) was a solid choice, even if it wasn’t local. (My close friend who was unofficially hosting the meal got slightly indignant when he found out the shrimp was from China. His indignation, however, was exceeded by that of a fellow diner who was offended by the 18% gratuity added to our checks.)
- Big Fin Seafood, the directions to which Google Maps on Android gets wrong wrong wrongity-wrong. Not that I’m bitter or anything. The blue crab crusted grouper was very good (and local!) and I enjoyed my meal very much. But (with a slice of key lime pie, soup, and a half-dozen oysters, plus tax and tip) the meal came to as much as a dinner at Fleming’s or Ruth’s Chris. It was good, but I’m not sure it was quite that good.
I have some photos I took on the grounds of the National UDT/SEAL Museum (another product and/or service I heartily endorse, and which deserves your support) and will probably be posting those to Flicker once I’ve had a chance to import and clean them up some.
I didn’t do as much reading on the trip as I usually do, but I did finish Chinaman’s Chance
I’m working my way through The Modern Day Gunslinger: The Ultimate Handgun Training Manual
After action report: Las Vegas, NV.
Wednesday, August 4th, 2010I covered a lot of stuff in my previous travel report, so this will mostly just be updates.
- Project e worked spectacularly well at DEFCON. This is the first chance I’ve had to really push the battery life, and I was able to get an good 12+ hours out of the battery without running it totally dry. (This was with the machine set to “powersave” and putting it into “standby” or “hibernate” when I was in the dealer’s room, or driving around with Mike the Musicologist and Andrew. Continuous usage with the wireless would have been more like 6+ hours, I think, which is still pretty impressive.)
- My one regret is that I forgot my Alfa external WiFi adapter. I would have enjoyed playing with that at the convention.
- The 5.11 bailout bag also worked out well for lugging around Project e and various other equipment. Again, I was able to carry a pretty good load, including the laptop, charger, books, a couple of bottles of water, the small camera, and miscellaneous other necessities.
- MtM has the Nikon with him and has been taking a lot of photos. As you saw below, I did use the Nikon to take some Gehry photos. When I have more time, I’m going to put up an expanded and annotated Flickr photo set; I did some side-by-side experiments with aperture priority vs. automatic exposure.
- Food in Las Vegas was, without exception, pretty darn good. The worst meal I had (at the Four Kegs) was still better than average (and I didn’t order the stromboli, which is the house specialty). We also had a very good (if loud) tapas meal at Firefly* on Paradise, the usual wonderful meal at Lotus of Siam, the previously mentioned dinner at Shabu-Shabu Paradise, and a Moroccan meal at Marrakech. (I had not previously had Moroccan food, so I can’t comment on how authentic it was. I certainly enjoyed my meal, and the belly dancer didn’t hurt.)
Vegas does have something of a shortage of good breakfast places outside of the casinos (and even inside of the casinos, if you’re not looking for a buffet). We had several good breakfasts at Blueberry Hill on Flamingo and one excellent breakfast at The Egg and I on Sahara. I know that MtM and Andrew went to a good Italian place in New York, New York while I was at the convention, and I’ll let them comment on that. - Between Tucson and Las Vegas, the refurbished Kindle I ordered arrived, and it went on this trip. I’m sure I’ll have more to say about the Kindle later on, but my first impression is “Meh”. I did manage to read John Clark’s Ignition! in PDF format and a Project Gutenberg MOBI format copy of Heart of Darkness without too much trouble, but my experiences with other PDF files and eBooks have been inconsistent.
- On the other hand, I finished, and highly recommend, Ubuntu for Non-Geeks 4th Edition
and am almost finished with Cisco Routers for the Desperate 2nd Edition
(also recommended). No Starch Press rocks. And the coupon code “DEFCON18” will get you a 30% discount. And they’re running a half-price sale on all e-books.
- My Southwest experience this time was much more pleasant. No misplaced bags, and no flight delays. One thing that was particularly unusual was going through the security line in Las Vegas; I had, literally, no wait. Just walked straight up to the TSA agent and got in line for the metal detector. It took longer to take my shoes off and the laptop out than it did to get through the rest of security.
My thanks to, in no particular order, the DEFCON 18 staff and presenters, No Starch Press, UNIX Surplus, SEREPick, Lotus of Siam, Shabu-Shabu Paradise, Sarah at the iBar in the Rio, and the unknown belly dancer at Marrakech.
Special thanks to my high-speed, low-drag travel companions in the primary, Mike the Musicologist and Andrew “Porous concrete? What were they thinking?” Wimsatt.
DEFCON 18 notes: Day 2.
Sunday, August 1st, 2010Saturday was kind of a rough day at DEFCON 18. But then, Saturday is always a rough day at DEFCON.
I don’t feel it’d be fair to review or summarize the “Extreme-range RFID Tracking” panel; I came in about 20 minutes late. (We lingered a bit over a very good breakfast at Blueberry Hill.) What I was able to gather is that Padget’s set a new record for long distance RFID reading, and that upping the radio power works for increasing RFID reading range up to a point. (Edited to add 8/10/2010: added link to Black Hat 2010 version of paper. Here’s a link to Paget’s blog entry about the session.)
I was not able to get into “Jackpotting Automated Teller Machines Redux” due to extreme overcrowding. (Edited to add 8/9/2010: The Black Hat website has what purports to be MP4 video of Jack’s version of the presentation at Black Hat 2010. I have not sat down and watched it yet.)
I did attend the “This is not the droid you’re looking for…” panel, mostly because I was camping out for the next talk. This panel turned out to be more interesting than I expected; the presenters demonstrated a proof-of-concept rootkit for Android phones that allows you to do all sorts of fun stuff; grab contact information, grab SMS messages, grab location information (all three of these are stored in SQLite databases on the Android), and even make phone calls from the phone. The presenters haven’t weaponized the attack yet, but claim it should be easy to do so.
“Practical Cellphone Spying“: Another nifty panel. Padget discussed the concepts behind IMSI catching, and gave a live demo of cellphone interception on the AT&T network. The key takeaway here for me was that the same technology used by law enforcement to intercept calls is now coming down to the point where it will be wrapped in a turnkey package and sold to people with more questionable motivations. (Edited to add 8/10/2010: added link to Paget’s blog entry which includes slides.)
“How to Hack Millions of Routers“: I went to this because Lawrence put in a special request. The short version is that a large number of commercially available routers (such as those used by Verizon FIOS) are vulnerable to a clever attack using DNS rebinding and load balancing. Heffner has also released a tool that automates this attack. (This is another Black Hat talk that got a lot of attention in the press; the link above includes a copy of Heffner’s white paper which details the attack vector.)
(Edited to add 8/9/2010: I’ve added a link to Heffner’s Black Hat version of this talk, which as far as I can tell, is pretty similar to the DEFCON 18 version.)
I didn’t attend either “Hacking with Hardware: Introducing the Universal RF Usb Keboard Emulation Device – URFUKED” or “Programmable HID USB Keystroke Dongle: Using the Teensy as a Pen Testing Device“. (Edited to add 8/10/2010: added a link to the Teensy project from the Irongeek website. The bottom of that page has a link to the DEFCON presentation. I’ve also added a link to HackerWarrior.com for the USB Keyboard Emulation Device; that directory appears to contain a copy of the presentation, plus code.)
Instead, I left a little early, had a very nice sake fueled dinner at Shabu-Shabu Paradise in Henderson (a restaurant I enthusiastically endorse), sidecars at the iBar in the Rio (sadly, we did not get to play with the Microsoft Surface), and Penn & Teller.
The three of us saw Penn and Teller back in 2006, and we wondered how much the show had changed since then. Mike the Musicologist estimated that about 50% of the show was new; I think the percentage is a little higher than that, but my memory may be faulty. I was not unhappy that they ended the show with the .357 magnums; the bullet-catching illusion fascinates me, and I’m still trying to figure out how Penn and Teller do it. (Jim Steinmeyer’s The Glorious Deception: The Double Life of William Robinson, aka Chung Ling Soo
The other thing we all noticed is that Penn and Teller’s show has become a bit more explicitly political; in addition to the .357 magnum closer, which has always included 2nd Amendment references (and big kudos to P&T for reciting the Four Rules), the show also included references to flag burning, the Chinese Bill of Rights (“What Chinese Bill of Rights?” Exactly.) and the stupidity of the TSA. Penn and Teller even sell the Security Edition of the Bill of Rights in their gift shop for a lousy $5. (Quote: “We want McCarran Airport to be flooded with these.”) Not that any of us were bothered by the politics; I think all three of us lay claim to at least some form of Libertarianism. And if you’re the kind of person who would take offense at Penn and Teller’s politics, I won’t tell you “don’t go”; I’ll tell you “go, and have your world view challenged”.
(I’d also like to give Penn and Teller kudos for keeping gift shop prices low. Both Andrew and I picked up DVDs
After action report: Tucson, AZ.
Wednesday, July 21st, 2010My regular readers (and my irregular readers, too; come to think of it, “Whipped Cream Irregulars” would be a good name for a band) may have figured out by now that I’ve spent much of the past week on the road. Specifically, I was in Tucson for the annual convention of the Smith and Wesson Collectors Association. (You might have been able to guess that I also made a brief trip to the Phoenix/Scottsdale area so I could visit Taliesin West.)
I’m not going to talk much about what went on at that convention here, since it is a closed private convention, and I’m not comfortable discussing the organization’s affairs on a public blog. (Jay G. and the rest of the Vicious Circle gang might be amused to know that there was an actual S&W police bike, manufactured in Springfield, MA and complete with lights and siren, on display at the convention. I didn’t get a chance to take a photo.) I will say I had a great time at the convention, and in Tucson in general. Sadly, I didn’t have time to hit any used bookstores or gun stores in the area, but maybe next time.
This is the first extended road trip I’ve taken since last year’s DEFCON, so I thought it might be interesting to do some notes about what worked and didn’t work on this trip.