Making, baking, and (un-)breaking things in Southeast Michigan.
Since Friday the following things have happened:
Leave a Comment· Found out that the mother of a friend of Danielle’s is going into hospice this week.
· A coworker and friend’s grandma was found on the floor of her room disoriented, leading to the discovery of a baseball-sized tumor behind her eye.
· My grandpa’s brother, and his only remaining sibling, died.
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Tonight’s beer is Dark Horse Brewing‘s Perkulator Coffee Dopplebock. It’s nice, but interesting. It’s got the coffee taste which one would normally associate with a really dark breakfast stout, but it’s lighter and a bit maltier. This is a nice beer.
Mmm. It’s time for the Perkulator. And Cajmere’s Percolator, which comes to you via Detroit’s The New Dance Show.
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In anticipation of our forthcoming vacation to the UK I’ve begun a thorough cleaning of the house. I really like going on vacation and coming back home to a nice, clean house. As part of this I spent a few hours today cleaning the bathrooms resulting in things like this very shiny faucet.
I also started doing all the outstanding laundry and did a bunch of dishes. Part of the dishes was cleaning off the Aerobie AeroPress which builds up some rather interesting residue on the rubber plunger and flat stirring paddle. Tonight before washing it I partially scraped it off and took that photo above. As you can see it’s a very fine, oily residue.
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Every couple of months I notice an abnormal, particularly thick whisker growing out of the right side of my neck just above my laryngeal prominence (Adam’s apple). The most recent time I found one of these I pulled it out and saved it so that I could photograph it. Here it is compared to a normal whisker removed from the same part of my neck after not shaving for approximately one week. Click on the photo or here for the photo at full resolution.
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Today Danielle and I headed out to Cabela’s in Dundee, MI to find a winter jacket for her. Unfortunately, and contrary to what others had told us, the store did not have a decent selection of plus sized jackets. In fact, they only had one style of plus jackets, in four rather poor colors, without having the particular size which would fit best. Also, the store was nowhere near as impressive as I was led to believe, particularly in light of its place as a major local tourist destination. Except for a rare gun area the store didn’t have any particularly special items. It did have a large mountain in the center covered in stuffed animalsand a bunch of dioramas around the sides also full of stuffed animals which seemed a bit over the top, but not as over the top as the giant bronze statue of two bears fighting over a moose skull located in front of the store.
Heading back we decided to swing by REI in Ann Arbor thinking that we’d be able to quickly stop at the store and get back on the express way. Due to the ramp nearest to REI being closed and initially good traffic at the point where we could exit we pushed on further into the city and ended up stuck in game day traffic. To make it even better, this was the MSU / U of M game. We ended up stopping off at a Cottage Inn and getting a bit to eat while waiting out the traffic.
Before heading out to Ann Arbor we met up with a friend of ours named Sarah and had lunch at Lebanese Grill. I had a large plate of mjadara (as seen above) which was absolutely excellent, Danielle had some beef shawarma, and Sarah had a chicken fattoush salad. Mmm!
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This is a very, very good stew made with hominy and seitan. Danielle made it yesterday, but I’m only now having a chance to eat some. It’s very, very, very good.
The recipe for it may be found in Cooking Light Annual Recipes 2008 at the very beginning of page 374.
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While setting up my Nokia E51 w/ VOIP I was informed that the communication between the handset and the server uses the ITU-T G.711 µ-law codec for the audio without any additional encryption, meaning that it is relatively easy to capture and listen in on. I’d never done a VOIP capture and decode, so I set set up a capture on the firewall (tcpdump -i gem0 -s 2000 -w file.cap host x.x.x.x) and grabbed a test phone call made to Danielle as she sat in the living room with some friends.
After opening the capture in Wireshark I used the basic built-in VOIP analysis tool to get the windows shown above. The main window is the capture and decode itself, another shows the one detected VoIP call and its details, and the third is a basic playback window replying the voice of the phone call. (Click on the image above or here for a full resolution copy of the screenshot.)
Using the RTP stream analysis stuff one is able to save out the audio as an .au file. I was running into some problems with this as one half of the conversation was padded by a few minutes of silence during export (a Wireshark bug, it seems), but the audio is still very much available. Both halves of the conversation were then brought it into Audacity, aligned, the level of the inbound (remote, Danielle) side was brought up a bit, and the audio was exported it as an MP3: voip_capture_sample.mp3.
This capture and decoding was easy for me to do because of the ready access to my own network and lack of encryption of the session. Getting another person’s calls is generally a bit more complicated. That said, imagine how easy it must be for a large government agency with a tremendous budget, amazing computing resources, and access to the backbones of the country’s telecommunications infrastructure.
Leave a CommentMy current cell phone is a Nokia E51, one of Nokia’s more recent Symbian Series 60 cell phones. Beyond being a decent phone with a decent camera it also happens to do 802.11 wireless and be a SIP endpoint.
In short, this means that my cell phone can also be a VoIP client. Today, thanks to
Since there were a few quirks with getting this going I wanted to document the settings used in the phone for connecting to the Asterisk-based server.
First, make sure your phone has a valid wireless network connection available, which is done via Tools → Settings → Connection → Access points. Without a configured, functional AP your phone won’t be able to connect to the internet.
Now, to configure the phone itself, the following settings must be made:
Tools → Settings → Connection → SIP settings
Profile name: NameGoesHere
Service profile: IETF
Default access point: (Pick your access point from before.)
Public user name: sip:c0nsumer@sip.host.com
Use compression: No
Registration: Always on
Use security: NoTools → Settings → Connection → SIP settings → Proxy server
Proxy server address: sip.host.com
Realm: asterisk
User name: c0nsumer
Password: PasswordGoesHere
Allow loose routing: Yes
Transport type: UDP
Port: 5060Tools → Settings → Connection → SIP settings → Registrar server
Proxy server address: sip.host.com
Realm: asterisk
User name: c0nsumer
Password: PasswordGoesHere
Transport type: UDP
Port: 5060Tools → Settings → Connection → Internet tel.
Create a profile with a name of your choice, then associate the SIP profile created earlier with this. This will set up one profile which can then be used to make calls across the network via VoIP.
After this, set your new NameGoesHere profile as the default via Tools → Settings → Connection → SIP settings → Options → Default profile.
With these settings your phone will always connect to the AP whenever it is found and register with the VoIP server. It will then be able to make and receive calls. Setting Registration to When needed makes the phone prompt before connecting to the AP and the SIP server when an attempt to dial an internet call is made. Inbound calls will not work in this case.
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After letting it age in the carboy for almost a year I bottled my latest batch of hard cider tonight. Having sat for so long it had almost completely cleared, resulting in some interestingly stratified sediment in the bottom. After racking it into the bottling bucket I added 160g of dextrose and a packet of Red Star Pasteur Champagne Yeast which made the cider cloudy again, but it should settle in the bottles after carbonation.
I was able to get exactly two cases (48 bottles) filled, plus one plastic bottle as a carbonation test container. Three of the glass bottles from the case used the dregs so it might have a bit more yeast in the bottom, but it should taste fine. These were specially marked so they may be avoided.
This cider started out with an original gravity of 1.082 (on 10-Nov-2008 at 5:00 PM), was at 1.020 when racked to the smaller carboy for aging (24-Nov-2007 at 3:34 PM), and today read 1.005. Based on the formula in this Wikipedia article those numbers puts the cider at 10.4% ABV. Not bad for some local cider, dark brown sugar, and local honey.
Now I just have to wait a few weeks or so for it to carbonate before trying it. After that it might take a few more months to finish settling out and completely clear again, but it should be good to drink as soon as its fizzy. Tonight I drank the leftovers from establishing density and that tasted like a tart, lightly sweet heavy apple wine, so I have good hopes for it once it’s fizzy.
1 CommentIf you live in the state of Michigan, when you go to vote on November 4th you will be asked to vote on two proposals, 08-1 and 08-2 (State Proposals: November 4, 2008 General Election [PDF], from the State of Michigan).
I would like to ask you to vote YES on each of these proposals. Here is the text of each proposal along with why I feel that you should support it:
PROPOSAL 08-1: A LEGISLATIVE INITIATIVE TO PERMIT THE USE AND CULTIVATION OF MARIJUANA FOR SPECIFIED MEDICAL CONDITIONS
The proposed law would:
· Permit physician approved use of marijuana by registered patients with debilitating medical conditions including cancer, glaucoma, HIV, AIDS, hepatitis C, MS and other conditions as may be approved by the Department of Community Health.
· Permit registered individuals to grow limited amounts of marijuana for qualifying patients in an enclosed, locked facility.
· Require Department of Community Health to establish an identification card system for patients qualified to use marijuana and individuals qualified to grow marijuana.
· Permit registered and unregistered patients and primary caregivers to assert medical reasons for using marijuana as a defense to any prosecution involving marijuana.
My Comments:
In our country marijuana (specifically Tetrahydrocannabinols) is currently classified by the Federal government as a Schedule I drug, requiring that this drug not be prescribed for any reason. This is despite research showing that THC can be effective in treating a number of conditions, particularly the nausea which is associated with chemotherapy.
This legislation proposes allowing marijuana (and thus THC) to be prescribed by doctors for treating conditions as seen fit. We currently allow doctors to prescribe countless other controlled substances (opiates, in particular) which will help patients, so why not this?
Sure, it’ll fly in the face of Federal law, but changing things at a state level is the first step towards removing this Federal prohibition. It’s a slippery slope which we must start down, as once a critical mass of states adopt reasonable legislation such as this the Federal government (and in particular the DEA and drug lobbying firms) will be unable to stop it.
PROPOSAL 08-2: A PROPOSAL TO AMEND THE STATE CONSTITUTION TO ADDRESS HUMAN EMBRYO AND HUMAN EMBRYONIC STEM CELL RESEARCH IN MICHIGAN
The proposed constitutional amendment would:
· Expand use of human embryos for any research permitted under federal law subject to the following limits: the embryos —— are created for fertility treatment purposes;
— are not suitable for implantation or are in excess of clinical needs;
— would be discarded unless used for research;
— were donated by the person seeking fertility treatment.· Provide that stem cells cannot be taken from human embryos more than 14 days after cell division begins.
· Prohibit any person from selling or purchasing human embryos for stem cell research.
· Prohibit state and local laws that prevent, restrict or discourage stem cell research; future therapies and cures.
My Comments:
As I read this law, it will allow medical research to continue to explore the possibilities of stem cells to without imposing undue restrictions. I feel that we should do whatever we can to understand both our selves and the world around us (particularly things which may help us as a society), and I see nothing in this legislation which should be problematic. I see this legislation as bringing potential research to Michigan (read: jobs) while potentially helping the world.
One particular site, 2goes2far.com is the flag bearer forarguments against this law, but each argument seems to be quite far off base. Here’s how I see each argument, as presented by TV commercials the group is showing:
3 Comments· Bull and Bricklayer: Both ads indicate that this legislation will cost taxpayers money, despite there being nothing in the text of the legislation indicating where funding will come from.
· In The Name Of Good: States that this law will allow unrestricted research on live human embryos, visually comparing the research to poorly conducted science headlines interspersed with images of black people. Tries to equate this research with scientists taking advantage of the helpless.
· In The Wrong Hands: Hints that this law will allow “profit-driven corporations” (aren’t they all?) to find a way to profit from producing embryos via purchases made from women. As selling eggs is legal and this law outlaws the sale of embryos, I don’t see how this argument applies.
· Teacher’s Pet: Hints that scientists will make human-animal hybrids after talking about using combinations of human and animal DNA for research and how this is too extreme. The jump from DNA research to full-on hybrids is a huge jump and strikes me as misguided, at best.
