New Sun Recumbent (LWB)

I got a good deal on a Sun recumbent this weekend. I took it out for a 14 mile spin today. The LWB is really smooth, but takes some getting used to. High speed handling was excellent, the seat (I prefer mesh seats) is not too bad for a 'hard' seat. I will be experimenting with different seats, as well as different tires. I also like the simplicity of the chain drive, as well as 'default' components that aren't expensive to replace.

20 Inch tires are also nice, 20 tire choices vs 3. for the old 16's. I also like the shocks. VERY good, in fact better than my crane creek shock on the old satrday.

LWB is also easier to get up the stairs.

Ereader disaster and don't shop at borders!

Well, since I am going to be going into the hospital for an extended stay, I decided to look at an ereader (ebook) reader from sony, thinking that it would be worth a go.

I went to borders thinking it would be easy to return it, but only to find that they won't accept returns. The sony prs-700 is HORRIBLE. It is unreadable, it has awful resolution and the software blows HUGE chunks. E-ink display technology just isn't there yet, not enough contrast. I also found I had to make the text so large just to read it.

I will be waiting 5 years or so before trying e-ink agian. Otherwise, you are just better off buying a mac and using it to read....

I put it on ebay, and only hope to lose $25.00 in the deal.....will find out. Don't shop at borders, they suck!!!!! They are on my 'i am never going to shop here again regardless of how much they offer me in incentives".

Safari 4 and My thoughts on the Mac

Well, I am writing this on the new safari 4 browser. It seems loads faster than firefox. I can read google without waiting an eternity. If this was the one thing keeping me from going from firefox it was the speed. But safari thus far seems cool, fast, and stable. I will find out more. I also bought the brickmaster 200 by cuisinart. Its basically a convection toaster oven with rocks inside of it to get nice even heating and a good loaf of artesian like bread.

I finally perfected my chia seed loaf, and a friend is editing my book. I also love my new (actually old) noisy clacky keyboard from unicomp (I got the endura pro with the built in track-point). My mouse story also takes an interesting turn. The Microsoft mouse that I so horribly complained about is working fine now, and is my main mouse on the mac. Just don't use the Microsoft mouse drivers!!!!!

Freebsd 7.1 and Zfs for my NAS

Well, I finally updated my nas to 1tb this weekend. ZFS thus far has turned out to be very cool and easy.

1. No waiting 10,000 years for filesystems to format, zfs is instantaneously ready
2. ZFS automatically takes care of mirroring, even correcting 'bad' blocks on EITHER primary or 'mirror' e.g. if bad on primary, will look to 'mirror' for correct blocks. It can then correct the primary.
3. ZFS is still 'experimantal' and requires at least 1gb of memory to work. Here are the tweaks to add to the kernel:

vmem.kmem_size="512M"
vmem.kmem_size_max="512M"
zfs_load="YES"
vfs.zfs.arc.max="100M"
vfs.zfs.vdev.cache.size="10M"
vfs.zfs.prefetch_disable="1"
vfs.zfs.zil_disable="1"

Those entries go into the loader.conf in your /boot directory.

ZFS also uses TONS of processor. When I was sending 190gb of files processor was at 80-100%. So a multi core is necessary if you want to use on your 'main' machine....

I also threw in some apple customizations:

first, the MDNSresponder.conf file

# sample mDNSResponder conf file
#
# name type domain port text record
# ---- ---- ------ ---- -----------
Marilyn _afpovertcp._tcp local. 548
Marilyn _ssh._tcp local. 22

this lives in the /usr/local/etc mDNSResponder.conf file.

You also need to install the netatalk and the Mdnsersponder, and "HOWL" to get apple working. YOu also need the following in your /usr/local/etc/AppleVolumes.default

Just put your shares at the end e.g. /export.

The system went from 20mbps on a 1gbps network to 36mbps with appletalk. Also nice is the fact that I can 'browse' to the share.

The freebsd has seemed very stable, with the appropriate modifications. ZFS does use TONS of memory, however (200mb) on my setup....

Also cool is the ability to 'send' backups to any other nas on the network via a single command, and well as adding to the pool w/o having to do considerable resizing.

I haven't finished my 'time machine' project on it yet, but zfs quotas will ensure that they won't eat up the entire 1tb of disk.

Do Thomas' Dream of Electric Grills?

Well, I decided to get an electric grill this year since my old george foreman grill died after 5 years of hard service.

I had read about the weber q140 electric grill and balked at the price. $220.00 for a stupid grill! I shrieked. So I went to wally world and purchased a 'cheap' grill Still a benjamin, however. The thing turned out to be useless.

So I went out to a local ace (everyone else didn't have the q in stock, and that’s why I went to wally world) , and purchased it.

The other grill barely got up to 200 degrees. Fine for smoking, but for grilling 350 degrees or higher is needed.

My first burger on the q140 was great. Instead of being dry and poorly cooked, the hamburger was juicy, and cooked in only 8 minutes (the wally world special took nearly 15 mins to cook, and the burger was dry and horrid).

Th grill does require a table, since it isn't a free-standing unit. It did cost me $300.00, but I can now successfully grill on the required electric grill (we live in a complex that bans gas grills).

Don't waste your time on 'cheaper' grills.

Thomas

Mousetrap, Or How NOT to build one!!

Well, my mouse horrors are finally over. After trying out no less than 5 mice, I finally found one that works well with the mac. Here's the sordid tale:

1. Microsoft bluetooth mouse 4000- drivers wrecked mac, and the bluetooth would randomly wake the pc from sleep. Bluetooth required frequent re-pairings, and never worked reliably

2. Logitech wireless trackball (the coordless trackman optical), logitech control center blows up mac (time machine restore required), and the primary button hurts my thumb

3. Kensington wireless presenter mouse (bluetooth)- wonderful tracking, bluetooth flawless (power switch so it wouldn't turn on the computer from sleep), and no requirement for drivers. Hurts my hand after 5 minutes of use DOH!

4. Targus bluetooth laser mac mouse- it didn't hurt my hand as much, but the optical tracking thing for scrolling really stinks. It also takes longer to hurt my hand, 60 minutes.

5. SUCCESS! Logitech wireless LX8 cordless mouse. Nice tiny reciever, no ()#*()$&#()*%&()$*57 bluetooth, doesn't hurt my hand, has middle click and nice scrolly wheel. Avoid drivers like the plague since they brick the mac....

Tips: DO NOT buy a mouse online. There are so many different ones that its almost dizzying. Most of them suck, even though they look really cool. I bought at a local computer store and went back 4 times!!!!!!!

thomas

Named My mac

I had to re-do my pfsense soekris box yesterday because I forgot the password. In doing this, I found a new name for my mac. Igor (who is a munnster's character, the pet bat that grandpa used to experiment on, the bat is also emotionally sensitive).

I thought it was a very good name for the mac.