How to

curated links

2011-03-10T08:41:00.000-08:00

I was just reminded of this blog and remembered how much I enjoy sharing here. It occurred to me that much of how I capture interesting howto's lately has been on delicious.com. I myself need to go back and ponder those things which at that moment seem important knowledge to bookmark. You may find my howto tag here: http://www.delicious.com/erogneby/howto. Enjoy!

HowTo get root on a Kindle

2008-01-26T15:49:00.000-08:00

So in 3 days I will have in my hands an Amazon Kindle. The prospect of having a wireless web browser with a decent screen and no monthly fee is pretty cool to start with. Not to mention the whole e-book on e-ink thing. And guess what? it runs on Linux.

However what self respecting diy/maker/hacker/tinkerer would want to stop there? Of course being somewhat of a generalist I prefer to stand on the shoulders of giants. Enter Igor Skochinsky who figured out the pinout of the console jack and how to get a command line. I already own a TTL-USB cable...

http://igorsk.blogspot.com/2007/12/hacking-kindle-part-1-getting-console.html
http://igorsk.blogspot.com/2007/12/hacking-kindle-part-2-bootloader-and.html
http://igorsk.blogspot.com/2007/12/hacking-kindle-part-3-root-shell-and.html

Now I just wonder if dropbear will run on it?

How to make spicy peanut sauce

2006-05-14T12:32:00.000-07:00

I made some really tasty peanut sauce a couple days ago that we had on some tofu, spinach fettuccini, red and yellow bell peppers, and grated carrots and cucumbers. It was a build your own noodle salad.

SPICY PEANUT SAUCE

2 peeled garlic cloves
1 peeled piece of fresh ginger (about the size of your pinky)
1+ teaspoon of hot chile paste
1/2 cup smooth peanut butter
1/4 cup soy sauce
3 1/2 tablespoons sugar
3 1/2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
3 tablespoons sesame oil
3+ tablespoons of water

Combine it all in your Cuisinart with the blade. Run for 30 seconds, pulse 10 times or so, run for another 30 seconds.

It should be pourable. If it's too thick add a bit more water.

Enjoy on noodles, garden rolls, veggies...

How to make the perfect Mint Julep

2006-04-18T13:01:00.000-07:00

It is writen opposite the title page in my leather bound 1946 addition of The Gentleman's Companion that "The Mint Julep is one of mankind's truly civilized inventions." I tend to agree.

I will quote the recipe in said volume verbatim complete with spelling errors. It is the only one I have seen that specifies using red-stemmed mint which I have found is in fact superior.

The "instructions" follow 3 pages of diatribe about the various debates, stories, and folklore surounding the drink. Such as the fact that in 1926 the only place that still had the finest bourbon was Manila. Or "...No sane Kentucky planter, in full possession of his faculties will yield an inch to any Marylander when it comes to admitting rye is superior to bourbon in a Julep, when actually, a Julep is international and has been international for years --just as the matters of radio and flying are international."

On with the nuts and bolts:

Chill glasses, whether silver cups or otherwise.
Use glasses of sixteen ounce capacity.
Use two and a half jiggers of likker for sixteen ounce glass, two for fourteen ounce.
Use red-stemmed mint, simply because red-stemmed mint is more pleasantly aromatic. Use fresh mint, and cut stems short just before putting in as final garnish --to make them bleed.
Don't bruise that first installment of tender mint leaves more than very slightly. The inner leaf juices are bitter and cannot have profitable flavour. Bruise one between the teeth, then chew it up and find out.
Don't expect to get a wacking good Julep out of six months old "bourbon" or "rye." We can't.
Don't use coarse ice, use finely cracked ice --very fine.
Don't over-garnish with sliced orange and random fruits. With Juleps, and in fact any drink of delicate quality in its own right, don't add anything with a different strong scent -and orange, lemon, and certain other fruits have a very potent aroma. . . . The aroma of a bourbon Julep should be bourbon and mint -not bourbon, mind, and a fruit store. Garnish simply without trying to gild the lily. A julep is more than a mere chilled liquid; it is a tradition which is to be respected. The mint itself is a delight to the eye, just as we admire parsley against a fine red snapper, or permit feminine associates the use of red nail polish, or grace a mother's table with flowers. So let the Julep feast the eye and nostril properly -not supply unending, edible diversions from the main theme. We don't need to eat all the trimmings, after all -but we always do! . . . That is why ripe pineapple is so beneficial -and eaten after the julep is gone, the marinated fruit is delicious.
Take care that all sugar is worked into syrup before ice and liquor are put in. Reason: If sugar is left in granular form, when chilled the dissolving process is radically slowed down. Especially when sipping through a straw you will suddenly find yourself inhaling a furiously saccharine slug which will ruin the memory of the lovely drink just preceding this disastrous end. . . . This is why we personally use gomme, or bar, syrup for all juleps. Mint leaves stick to the glass' inner walls even better than with the sugar-water mix. One final stir before garnish goes in distributes this quickly disolved syrup evenly through the entire drink. Ergo. . .

(at this point there are 8 different recipes listed all with slight variations so I will proceed with a abreviated and collated version of instructions.)

Toss 1/2 tablespoon of sugar and 2 tablespoons of water in the glass, then drop in 6 mint tips and muddle slightly taking care to coat the glass with the oils.

Fill glass halfway with your finely cracked ice.

Add s few more sprigs of slightly bruised mint.

Fill with ice. pour in bourbon. Do not stir, wisely let nature take it's coarse.

Garnish with mint sprigs, and two small straws. Allow the glass to become frosted before serving.

And that my friends, is worth the wait. Enjoy!

How to Master DDR

2006-04-06T10:51:00.000-07:00

This popped up on an RSS feed I have on my google home:

"How to master Dance Dance Revolution"

I am going to have to explore this site more, because I am big fan of both How-to's and of the collaborative wiki format.

How to prepare for disaster

2006-04-06T10:13:00.000-07:00

A few months ago I attended a neighborhood meeting about disaster preparedness. It was hosted by a neighbor but a person from SDART (Seattle Disaster Aid & Response Teams) came and gave a presentation and handed out some pretty cool booklets. One of the best things I found out is that water should be stored with no air in the bottle, and the best bottles to use are 2 liter soda bottles.

I ran across a website today put out by the S.F. Office of Emergency Services and it seemed like it had a lot of good basic information regardless of where you live. I like the build a kit sections. Check it out: http://www.72hours.org/

How to tie knots

2006-03-25T19:57:00.000-08:00

I just ran across a really great site on tying knots. They have photos of the knot in different stages, and they appear to be pretty well indexed by use: sailing, climbing, etc. They also thankfully explain when you might use all of these different knots.

http://www.animatedknots.com/

Enjoy!

a good find

2006-03-22T08:12:00.000-08:00

Some of you may have noticed that I've been collecting links to worthy "How to" and DIY resources over there on the sidebar. Well I just found one that warrants a post!

http://www.instructables.com/ lets folks post step by step instructions complete with photos of how to do any number of things. It seems to be mostly building stuff, but I did see a how to make pesto page.

Interestingly enough, I found instructions on how to make a marshmellow gun. My father-in-law is an expert crafter of these. Notice in all the photos the use of proper eye protection!

When you feel yourself craving more power you might want to step it up to this potato cannon.

There is a pretty good variety of content. Lots of bicycle mods, and low budget photography tips like how to make a light box.

How to get rid of ants.

2006-03-15T18:11:00.000-08:00

Living in the Northwest, ants in the home aren't that big of an issue unless god forbid they are the dreaded carpenter ants. When I lived in a more southern latitude (Athens,GA) ants were a lot more common around the house.

I was browsing around on the DIY Tribe the other day and came across a post on ants. I thought I would collate some of the more interesting solutions here.

uncooked instant quick grits. (they take it back to the queen and it blows her guts apart)
finely powdered diatomaceous earth. (it cuts up their exoskeleton and they bleed to death and dry out -workers only)
pepper. Black, red, chili, whatever you got. They just don't like it.
borax and sugar mixed together. Kills. (dangerous to pets -beware)
mint oil.
cinnamon.

There were quite a few commercial products that got rave reviews too, but I found these "home remedies" more interesting.

How to cook a goose

2006-03-04T10:08:00.000-08:00

Last December we threw a holiday dinner party pot luck with some friends at which we were in charge of the main course. You always hear about the "Christmas goose" in Dickens and the like, but who has actually had goose? (sans buckshot...) None of us had. So, as it was viewed as a hands down success I thought I would share here how I prepared it.

Required:

a goose. plucked and butchered. (where any desired organs are in a little sack stuffed inside)
an oven capable of 400' F
rubber gloves
pliers
trussing needle and heavy twine
a "as big as you can find" stock pot
a sharp paring knife
a roasting rack
a roasting pan. (disposable ok)
if goose is frozen you'll need a cooler or bathtub too.
salt and pepper
8-10 eaters of meat
4 hours, not counting thawing

Some things you should know: Geese are both serious athletes and water fowl. Given these facts they are pretty much all dark meat that is very lean. This meat is covered with a pretty substantial layer of fat. The removal of this fat during the cooking process is pretty much the secret to tasty goose.

So you can (somewhat suprisingly) find yourself a goose at the local supermarket. It's right there with the frozen turkeys and chickens wrapped in plastic. The Larry's market I got mine at had stocked up for the holidays but they carry them all year round. I think they even get some non-frozen ones in at the holidays. To thaw the frozen bird fill your cooler up with water about half way and put the goose, shrinkwrap and all, in the cooler overnight.

Four hours before mealtime put on your rubber gloves, remove your goose from the cooler, peel off the plastic and pat it dry with some paper towels. Start heating your oven up to 325' F at this time.

Grab your pliers and look for any remaining quills in the skin and pull them out. Pull back the skin on the neck opening and locate the wishbone. (it basically goes in a V around the opening) Scrape it with your knife until the bone is visible and then cut it away from the flesh.

Pull out the neck and the sac-o-organs and set them aside in case you want to make stock or gravy. Grab your knife again and cut away any of the globs of fat on the inside or around either opening.

Next pick up your trussing needle and prick the skin all over every couple inches taking care not to stick the meat, but to get into the fat. This is one of the key steps to tastiness. Don't skimp on the holes, the fat will drain out through these while cooking.

Fill your stock pot about half full with water and bring it to a boil. You are then going to dip the goose in the boiling water first one end and then the other. About a minute on each side, but you can tell when it's done because goose bumps will appear. This step gets rid of some of the fat, but also tightens up the skin making it easier for the fat to get out during roasting.

Pat the goose dry.

At this point the experts say to let it dry in your fridge for 24 hours, but I did not and it turned out fine.

Pack both ends with stuffing and sew them shut with your trussing needle and twine. The stuffing we used was apples, sage, carmelized onions, bacon and dried bread with some beaten eggs, salt and pepper.

Place the goose on your roasting rack in your roasting pan. If you are using a disposable pan put it all on a jellyroll pan for some stability. Make sure that your roasting rack holds the goose 2-3 inches above the bottom of the roasting pan. Pop it all in the oven and set your timer for an hour and a half.

90 minutes later, pull it all out and get rid of most of the fat in the pan trying not to disturb the brown bits on the bottom in case you want to make gravy. (wasn't really needed) Then roll the goose onto it's back and put it back in for another hour and 15 minutes.

75 minutes later, test the internal temperature. 170' F is cooked. At this point crank the oven up to 400' F and put the goose in for another 15 minutes. This is to crisp up the skin.

15 minutes later, take it out and let it rest for 30 minutes uncovered.

You goose is cooked! Remove stuffing, carve and plate.

Notice the crispy skin, and the dark meat in the photos below.

How to order custom made clothes on-line

2006-02-23T14:37:00.000-08:00

I ran across a site where you can order a "custom" dress on-line. Said site can be found here: http://www.dressbydesign.com/ For $189 you get to to select all kinds of parameters. Floor length corduroy ball gown anyone?

This reminds me that Levis use to have a site where you could order custom made jeans. I think it was called "original spin". The page seems to redirect to their current splash page now.

If you have that perfect pair of jeans IC3D Jeans will "copy" them for you for $100. The site is a little weird, but I like the concept.

Nike has a level of customization with their NIKEiD line. The ones I mocked up ended up looking like clown shoes.

I think I am going to search around for more along the lines of dress by design. A dress shirt maker would be cool... Feel free to send in your findings!

Update: It looks like Lands' End does custom shirts! Starting at $50 and they save your info for re-ordering.

How to explain that loud scary sound the subway makes

2006-02-15T22:12:00.000-08:00

This one is by special request from EB who has an inquisitive daughter. A very sweet young girl who like many people of a tender age dislike loud unexpected sounds.

The NYC subways have both electric and pneumatic (compressed air powered) breaks. The loud sound you are hearing could be from the primary pneumatic breaking system releasing the air pressure used to bring the train to a stop. However I suspect since this seems to happen when the train is at rest for a while (and not just a quick stop) that it is actually a spring-applied parking break engaging by releasing the air holding the springs back. I think releasing the air from the parking break also makes more sense because you wouldn't want to release all of the pressure from the main breaks.

Pneumatics are also used to operate the subway doors.

Additional reading:
http://www.nycsubway.org/nyc/nywb/nywb3.html

How to make infrared goggles

2006-02-15T14:34:00.000-08:00

This one is from Bill Beaty, a fixture in the Seattle fringe science scene. I wasn't aware that the human eye could see in the infrared range but appearently we can. Your basic instructions to converts some welding goggles to infrared filters using lighting gels can be found here:

http://www.amasci.com/amateur/irgoggl.html

Cost? $20. Walking around is broad daylight looking like a mad scientist? Priceless.

How to tell a raven from a crow

2006-02-13T17:29:00.000-08:00

If you find yourself wondering, "was that just a really big crow?" then it probably wasn't. Most crows are around the size of a pigeon while ravens can get to be more of a hawk like size. However there are a couple other key things that will help you tell them apart:

What does it sound like? A raven makes a "wrack wrack..." sound, while a crow is more of a raucous laugh of "haw haw haw.."
What shape is it's tail? Rounded like a C (for Crow) or pointed like a V (for raVen)?

One last tip: if it looks scruffy in the chest then it's probably a raven.

How to Stencil

2006-02-12T10:23:00.000-08:00

I've been making woodcuts off and on for a few years now. I like the balance of design and execution it offers. I ran across this stencil site today and realized that these guys use a lot of the same design and seperation techniques that I use when making multi-block prints. The only real difference is the added consideration of stencil integrity and support of void areas in the stencil. That and the fact that with woodblocks you remove what you don't want inked instead of the image.

Check out the tutorials page: http://www.stencilrevolution.com/tutorials/

This has a lot more appeal to me that silkscreening. It's probably because this too has that same balance of design and execution.

Why this blog?

2006-02-11T09:57:00.000-08:00

In our world of prepackaged goods and experts with laser focused specialties sometimes it's good just to know how to do something yourself. How to do something, anything, without having to become that narrow focused expert... How to be a little more self reliant and a little less like a cog in a machine... How to try something new, just to try something new... How to recover some of that ingenuity that us Americans were once famous for...

The maxim, "a little knowledge goes a long way." pretty much sums it up.

What should you expect to see here? Anything from how to deliver a baby, to how to make the perfect mint julep. I'll be posting some of my own trials and attempts, linking to other succinct sources, and also republishing some older pre-internet knowledge.

I hope you find that kernel of knowledge you are seeking and perhaps a kernel or two you weren't looking for.

Enjoy!