I’ve released blogtool version 1.0.1 into the wild.
This is a bug fix version. It fixes an error in HTML output where tags like \<img> were not being properly closed. Also takes care of stray ‘&’ characters that need to be escaped.
It also fixes some bugs in the getpost option related to converting the post HTML into it’s markdown equivalent. Nested inline elements were not properly accounted for and escaping of a number of characters was also added.
Awhile back, I linked to an article that explains how to become your own certificate authority. It’s a good article and following the instructions yields the desired results. As to why I wanted to be my own certificate authority, I just felt it was a superior implementation to self-signed certificates. Once the upfront work was put in for generating the config file and the root certificate, the rest is a matter of a few commands.
Well, I was a bit naive about that last bit. I also have to at least pay attention to advances in cryptography, including whether current techniques are becoming unsecure. Turns out the MD5 hashing algorithm used to sign SSL certificates is now considered broken, more or less.
Unfortunately for me, MD5 is the hashing function the above linked resource defaults to when creating the certificates. Fortunately for me, I’m not exactly a high value target for hackers. That said, I knew my certificates were going to be expiring soon anyway, so I decided to make the necessary mods to improve my situation.
I decided to change the hashing algorithm to SHA256, something that’s seems to be considered secure for the next decade or so. In order to make that change, the openssl.cnf file that’s created needs a few modifications. It is sufficient to modify all of the md5 references in the file to sha256.
One gotcha that did trip me up, however, was that I created my new root certificate with a new, more descriptive name. So to with the corresponding private key file. This was all well and good, but I forgot to update the config file appropriately as well. In particular, under the CA_default section of the file, the certificate and private_key lines need to reflect the appropriate new file names.
As a result, I thought I had generated new signed certificates for my mail server with the updated root certificate. But when I updated the Wife’s iPad, I was getting an error that the certificates weren’t considered trustworthy. It took me awhile before I realized my mistake- I’d simply created new certificates that were signed with the old root certificates, so I hadn’t improved anything.
Now that I’ve straightened things out, things are playing nicely again and I can forget about this stuff until next year. When I’ll probably go through this all again.
As in degrees, right now. It was actually warmer an hour ago, a whopping 5. I think it might start warming from here, but it’s been awhile since its been this cold.
Cool stuff, er, literally.
I thought I was done with the armoire, but as it turned out I made a mistake in my design. The mistake turns out to be obvious enough in hind sight, and it was easily remedied. This is more a matter of jotting it down so I remember for the next time this situation arrives.
The problem had everything to do with the drawers. They are large, solid wood doors made of maple, cherry and cedar on the bottoms. The shear size of them (nearly 3 1/2 feet wide and 2 feet deep) necessitated larger dimensions on all of the pieces, including the bottom which I made 3/8″ thick. The larger pieces means more weight, even before they get loaded up with whatever.
The drawers are mounted on Blum invisible drawer slides. These slides mount to the sides of the cabinet, but then hook under the drawer so when the drawer is pulled out the slides themselves are not seen.
To support the runners attached to the cabinet, I fashioned rails for attaching the slides. Those rails were mortised into the posts at the front and rear of the lower cabinet space. And that’s where the problem occurred. The glue holding those rails in place in their mortises let go under the combination of the weight of the drawers and the active, day-to-day usage of them. Because they let go, the drawers sagged and would hit the rails on the front that defined the drawer openings. The problem got so bad that one of the clips that attaches to the drawer itself, and then to the drawer slide, was knocked off of the drawer and made using the drawer basically impossible.
So, the fix was simple. First, I used a single screw in each end of the rails to reattach them to the post. Now, there’s not way for the rail to fail short of it actually breaking. Next, to make sure there is enough clearance, I reattached the drawers slide a little higher. The combination of fixes took care of the problem and the drawers work like new again.
The mistake I made was in not using the proper mechanical joint for attaching the rails. I should have used a sliding dovetail design instead of a straight up mortise. My assumption was I just need joint strength in the vertical direction. As it turned out, there was also a moment that I had to account for due to the drawer activity. A sliding dovetail would have handled the problem splendidly, pinning the rail into the post with no chance of it breaking out. Something for me to keep in mind for the next project I work on.
The world didn’t end today, but school for the current calendar year did. Go Mayans! I mean, seriously, what were the odds that they’d call a Friday in December for the day the world ended? They should get a little credit for that anyway.
Naturally, with 10 days off from school, the kids arrived home in their PJ’s and were bored 5 minutes later. As for the PJ’s, apparently, today is National Send Your Child to School in PJ’s day, or something to that effect. I hear it’s the latest thing in teaching technologies.
Via Wired’s GeekDad twitter feed, here’s a list of the top 50 Dad blog’s. Sadly, yours truly isn’t on the list. I’ll have to cull through some of them looking for inspiration for future posts.
One of the hard things about the blog for me, which I kind of anticipated, is coming up with interesting material. Obviously, the main source has been the kids and my trials and tribulations with raising them on a day-to-day basis. But they’re in a kind of holding pattern now, where change is slower so I’ve had fewer new things to write about. At least, that’s how it feels.
Thus, I’ve supplemented the blog with stuff about woodworking, computer maintenance (Linux particularly), bread recipes, football and other items along the way. Yet even here, the posts seem to take on the same flavor over time. Even with football, the themes are similar or at least they seem that way to me. Thus, I’ve posted less about football this year than any year previous.
I’ve no plans for going anywhere, but I’d like to find a new source to tap or a new angle from which to looks at things. In the meantime, check out some of the blogs in the links above, if nothing else you should be able to find something interesting to read.
In this case, literally!
I’ve been eating a lot of breakfast sausage of late because of a diet change, and I finally decided to give it a go making my own. Having only a basic idea of how to go about it (slice up some pork, season it then send it through a grinder), I googled it and up turned an Alton Brown recipe. I’ve found that, by and large, an Alton Brown recipe is a good place to start when venturing into uncharted cooking waters.
The only modification I made to the recipe was the amounts and I didn’t use any salt because the fatback was coated in it. I basically scaled everything up by a factor of 4 because I had a, roughly, 9 pound butt to slice up. Alright, enough with the snickering…
I went with one-and-a-half pounds of fatback. I’m not sure if what I got was salt pork, or fatback. It was labeled fatback, but was heavily coated in salt and seemed like it was alternately called salt pork. Perhaps I got something that was like bride-of-salt-pork-and-fatback.
Anyway, it was a long process turning all that meat and fat into sausage. I’d say I had about 3 hours worth of work into it. The three sticking points were cutting up the pork butt, sending the mixture through the grinder, and finally turning it all into patties. A lot of work making sausage. The patty making had me wondering about where I could get me some intestine. I suppose a sock might work as well. Or stockings…
Anyway, I’m happy to report that it’s a good recipe. I cooked up a patty and scarfed it down with gusto. The boy got to sample a bite as well and even he enjoyed it. The Wife will be the real test though- she not much of a sausage fan, but this doesn’t taste like store bought sausage, so perhaps it stands a chance.
At any rate, if you’re looking for something different, here’s your ticket.
Well, to be clear that’s not a doctor’s opinion; however, the evidence is pretty heavily in favor of that diagnosis. During his hockey practice on Wednesday, he collided with another player, hitting face-mask to face-mask in the process. He says that his head started hurting after that. When he came off the ice, he came right over to me and told me he had a headache. He complained it hurt more after we took the helmet off, though I attribute that to the adrenaline from practice running out.
We went home, he took a shower and went right to bed, but he didn’t sleep well. He got up a several points during the night to complain to me about his head and his room being hot. The fan helped him a bit with the room, but I told him there wasn’t much we could do about his head. We kept him out of school yesterday since his head was worse by the morning.
By midday, his head was feeling better and he said there was no more headache at that point. As bed time approached, however, he said it was starting to bother him again. He went to bed at the normal time and slept well, waking with no headache this morning. We sent him to school today.
The headache came back around midday today, as the school nurse called to let us know. The plan was to let him rest a bit and get him a little lunch and some drink and see how he did. We didn’t hear anything more today until he arrived home. He got off the bus and complained that his head was hurting again. He said it never really stopped but he didn’t want to go back to the nurse so he just stayed in class and took it easy during recess and some other things.
Somewhat compounding the problem is that he might be catching a cold. His colds are often times accompanied with headaches. The Wife and I are figuring to keep him out of hockey this weekend to be on the safe side and possibly ask his martial art instructors to give him a pass in sparring next week. He’s a bit young to chance getting multiple concussions.
I’ll note that the initial symptoms after hockey and such as he described are pretty similar to my own experience from being concussed, including the headache that peaked about 12 hours later. Fortunately, the helmet kept his experience from being on a par with my own. Unfortunately, it didn’t prevent it entirely- that’s disappointing.
Dear Boy and Lass-
I just wanted to send you a short letter to let you know that Sparky is getting very excited to see you again. All the Scout elves are trying to get lots of rest because they will soon be making nightly flights back to the North Pole.
I have received your Christmas Wish List letters. My elves have built a lot of great toys this year. I bet we may have something you would really like. Be good … and keep sharing with each other and listening to your Mommy and Daddy. Doing chores around the house would be a big help to them too.
Sparky will be visiting you very soon!
Love, Santa
This letter was waiting in our Christmas tree this morning. Full letterhead and everything on a golden, sort-of-sparkly paper. Sure looks official to me.
She doesn’t appear to have seen it since she returned from a business trip on Tuesday. She’s looked in all of the usual spots where it might be expected to turn up, but not dice as yet.
The amusing thing, to me, about the extenuating circumstances is … she hates the phone. She hates it with same gusto that I hate raisins. It’s a crappy smartphone knock off variety that is anything but a smartphone. It doesn’t respond to touch well or consistently. If it at least did that, I suspect she wouldn’t have near the hang ups with it that she does.
Unfortunately, I’m the one to blame for this particular circumstance. When I picked up the phone, I figured she would prefer a touch type phone as opposed to a keyboard based phone. At the time, she had an iPod (which she loves)- a fact that informed my decision to go with this smartphone knockoff. Ironically, I thought at the time it might end up like this if the phone failed to be responsive or if the touchscreen started to get flaky. One of those times when I didn’t want to be proven right.
So, given her intense dislike for the phone, I also have to wonder if it’s a coincidence that it disappeared in the first place…
Our fireplace rests in the family room, and across the room from it sits our couch. My spot is typically on the end next to a window. The couch is a couple of years old and comfortable, one of the dual recliner couches. It’s got a high back and the cushions are attached so they don’t slide off the couch when someone has been sitting on it for awhile.
When the fireplace gets tuned up and we’re running it all day long, it gets warm in the house like the Summer time. I’ve tried burning the fireplace with less wood, burning it faster, burning it slower. Nothing really changes the basic fact that it warms the downstairs up a lot. It’s designed to burn hot and it does that very well. The Wife likes the result.
YAWN!– Hoo, ‘scuse me.
Anyway, with the room nice and warm, my spot on the couch turns into a YAAWWWN! sleep trap. Not infrequently, my eyes start to get heavy after a couple of minutes of sitting in this spot. Especially if I’m sitting and reading something. YAWWWWWWN! I’ll start doing the bob-and-weave and start thinking “I’ll just close my eyes for a few minutes.”
Then I just kind of tilt my head back, YAWWWN! and rest a bit…
A CubMaster’s work is never done. Well, it seems that way at times. We’ve been wrapping up the first phase of our big fund raiser, which is a popcorn driven campaign. We’ve finished the selling and order phase, next comes the delivery phase and collection phase. In between all that, I had to accumulate all of the orders for all the kids in the pack and enter their orders. I also had to come up with individual sales numbers for each Scout because they get rewards for different levels of selling. As it happens, we had a good campaign and the majority of our Scouts earned rewards. Good for them, more work for me- but that’s what it takes to keep the troops happy.
In addition to the fund raiser, we also have our Pack’s recharter going on. That’s a process of demonstrating financial viability as well as good membership numbers and a sponsoring organization. With our charter, we remain members of the Boy Scouts of America and get access to insurance and other resources. The recharter falls on my shoulders as well, since I’m running the show.
Then there’s the routine orders of business like running my Den meetings, Pack planning meetings as well as orchestrating our Pack meetings. Basically, it’s a busy time of year.
Aside from the Scout stuff, there’s just the usual myriad of things going on around the house and life revolving around the kids. Hockey, martial arts, dance, school work, chores, and whatever else comes along. Time seems to fly by this time of year because there’s almost no down time.
Plus, with the cold that’s now descended there’s the fireplace duties to manage. While it hasn’t gotten super cold as yet, it seems to me that this Fall has been cooler than the past several so far. I’ve got several pieces of anecdotal evidence for that statement. For one, my first fire was lit way back in September. Further, I’ve already had a couple of strings of days and nights where I’ve maintained the fire 24/7 to keep the house warm. In past years, I haven’t had to do that until after Thanksgiving.
Lastly, but not leastly, we’re fast approaching Christmas. In fact, a lot of the stores already have Christmas decorations out and available. The Wife and I have further shopping to complete for the big day. Just one more thing to add to the pile.
A parent’s work is never done.
An early snow again this year. We didn’t get hit too hard here and right now it’s raining a little. The storm overall ended up being a little weaker here than I expected, with the winds dieing down in the evening. The trees were frosted last night with a light coating of snow, but it looks like the rain this morning removed it all.
It’s been pretty chilly for awhile now. I’ve been running the wood stove continuously for the past 4 days or so. Luckily, it’s supposed to let up over the next several days- the current burn rate on the wood supply is pretty high.
Oh, the kids got an early dismissal out of the deal. They also got a 2-hour delay this morning as a bonus. At least they don’t count as a day off. At the current rate of school cancellations, they’d have to stay in school into July.
Wow- 19 this morning when I got up. It’s no record, but it’s pretty chilly for this time of year. The past couple of days have all been cold and its been the first time I’ve run the fireplace continually since last Winter. And tomorrow, we’ve supposedly got a Nor’easter on the way, though I don’t imagine it’ll be bringing the snow.
The boy was a little frustrated with soccer after his practice was over tonight. I asked him what the problem was and he said “I can’t score goals.”
That seemed easy to me, “Well, you have to work on your kicking.”
“That doesn’t matter, I can’t score goals. I need to practice scoring goals.”
Now I was perplexed. Not about the problem, but what the hell was he thinking? So I asked “Well, what do you mean you can’t score goals?”
“Every time I go to kick a goal, the ball goes somewhere else.”
“That’s because you’re not kicking it right. You need to practice kicking, not goal scoring. Once you learn how to kick it, you can put the ball wherever you want.”
Silence from him after that. Heaven forbid he practice a little.
Lilliputing has some first impressions of the new Nook tablet style readers coming out for the holiday season. The Nook HD and the Nook HD+ are the new additions, the former a 7″ model and the latter a 9″ model.
It’s nice to see that they are running a more modern version of Android, at V4.0, which was supposedly a watershed moment for the OS in terms of user experience. Physically, if the pictures are accurate respecting the final version, looks like the distinctive carabiner is gone, at least on one of the models (the 7″ possibly?) They’ve also made some nice improvements in terms of making it more that just a reader, adding Bluetooth and B&N’s own video store. Most importantly, they’ve got a nice price point with the basic model starting at $199.
I’ll look forward to seeing some more reviews as we get closer to a launch date.
Overall, I still say the replacement refs are doing just fine. I know they’ve had some screwups the past couple of weeks, but the idea that they are ruining the game just doesn’t hold sway with me.
Looking at various sites like ESPN, Deadspin and PFT it’s clear they are trying to put pressure on the NFL owners to cave and do whatever it takes to get the locked out zebras back. I still say this is a fantasy.
I do still believe that the replacement refs will figure things out and there will be peace unto the land. Stuff like erroneously awarding reviews and miscounting timeouts are fixable issues. I’ve seen some rumblings that coaches are trying to intimidate them to get favorable calls, although it’s more likely to buffalo-them with BS to confuse them than anything. Assuming these aren’t being overblown in the first place by the sports media, I expect these sorts of tactics to become useless quickly.
Also, I don’t think it’s reasonable to expect these guys to make all the same calls that the real ones “would have made.” That’s putting the locked out guys on a pedestal they don’t belong on. We all know the locked out officials missed plays all the time. They were not, and are not, infallible. I mean really, if they were so great, why was everyone screaming for instant replay years ago? And yet all these years later, we’re still arguing over what a catch is…
The bottom line is the replacement refs will be around for a couple more weeks, probably more and everyone needs to get used to that idea. I still say they will improve and that, ultimately, the players on the field will be deciding games. Not the guys in stripes.
Right here is the real issue:
With the replacement officials not flagging illegal contact (after all, the penalty doesn’t even exist at the lower levels of the sport), a league source tells PFT that coaches are telling defenders to hold as much as they can, until the officials call it.
If you look past all the hyperbolic screaming from players this past weekend regarding the replacement refs and try to see what, exactly, their gripe is, this is what it really comes down to. Some players, and coaches, are pushing whatever boundaries they can to gain a competitive advantage. Lineman are going “hands to face”, DB’s are frisky with receivers, receivers are pushing off defenders. If these guys aren’t going to call it, then the players will try to get away with it.
The crying is from those who haven’t adjusted, or don’t want to. None of what I saw this weekend rose to the level of costing a team a game. What’s more, it goes both ways, just like with the regular guys. The offense isn’t getting the calls they want and the defense isn’t either.
The fact is, beyond a certain level, the quality of the game is in the players and coaches hands. Always has been, always will be. The question is if the replacement refs are below that level, and, complaints about replays taking too long not-withstanding, I haven’t seen or heard anything solid that says these guys aren’t there.
What it is is different, and some of these guys don’t like it.
In what is likely to be a final bid by PFT to tip the scales for the officials, Mike Florio informs us that some of the officials don’t have other jobs. This circumstance is certainly unfortunate for them and may well lead to some officials crossing the picket lines before this is over.
Further on, Florio can’t help himself with one final swipe at the replacement refs:
That number may be small, but they could become vocal as it becomes more and more clear that the NFL will continue to circle the wagons against any and all actual or perceived complaints regarding the performance of the replacement officials.
The fact is, week 1 wasn’t a debacle. Then, in the Thursday night game, they were barely mentioned. The simple fact is the officials aren’t affecting the outcome of games and they are not putting players at risk. That was FUD to begin with and now it’s been born out. Now that the season is in full swing, all of the stories are turning to the players and the games. Like it always has. The players and coaches win and lose the games.
Florio notes:
Right or wrong, we’re convinced the NFL isn’t going to blink.
Exactly. The fact is, the replacement officials have been entirely adequate. At this point, every game they work is that much more competent they will be for the next week.
Florio ends with a laugher:
That’s not picking sides.
HAH! Florio and the crew at PFT picked sides a long time ago. That he’s now trying to play the neutral observer role is as good a sign as any that it’s time for the regular officials to get their deal done, for their own good.
The standard Twitter widget that comes with the Mystique theme has a couple of shortcomings, in my opinion. One, any shortened URL’s are displayed using Twitters t.co link instead of whatever shortener the user may actually be using. I’ve installed a YOURLS site for just this purpose, so I’d like to see my site displayed. Second, hashtags are not linked back to a Twitter search.
Below the fold are a few lines of PHP that will address these problems. A brief word to the wise, these mods only work with Twitter’s API V1. API V1.1 will require OAuth to perform this task.