automaticable

Have you ever wanted to set up a subversion repository on your home computer? Whether it be for a new software project, versioning your personal documents, or any other reason, there are many benefits to using version control. Some free websites that will host your project for you, such as SourceForge or Google Code, but it’s often necessary to have a little bit more control.

I set up a subversion repository for a new project the other day, and the process was relatively painless. I’m using a standard Ubuntu Hardy Heron 8.04 desktop setup, with OpenDNS and DD-WRT for port-forwarding, and without an Apache web server. Keep reading to host your own subversion repository server.

Continue reading “How To: Host a Subversion Repository in Ubuntu Hardy”

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Last night I went grocery shopping and ended up buying seeds for a few different cooking herbs.  It’s something that I’ve been talking about doing for a while, and I finally have the opportunity to do it.  I picked up some chives, oregano, green onion, and sweet basil, as well as a parsley plant that’s already potted.  Since we haven’t quite felt the affects of spring yet, I plan on planting them in pots by a window inside to start.  Once they start to grow and the weather gets nicer, they’ll move to our balcony outside.

This is really my first “gardening” experience on my own, as minor as it might be.  The seed packets have some basic instructions on them that I think will get me through.  But, what other suggestions do people have?  How will I know when they are ready for “harvesting”, and how much can I cut off without killing the plant?  Are there any other herbs that are nice for growing in the kitchen?

FreeRice is a non-profit website that will donate 20 grains for each vocabulary question answered correctly.  From their about page:

FreeRice has two goals:

1. Provide English vocabulary to everyone for free.
2. Help end world hunger by providing rice to hungry people for free.

When you enter the site, you are presented with a fairly difficult vocabulary question, with a multiple choice answer.  For each one you get right, 20 grains are donated.  You can keep answering questions for as long as you like.  The questions seem to get harder based on your “vocabulary level.”  The donations are funded by a small advertising banner on the bottom of the page.

This seems like a really good test prep for anyone taking a standardized test this spring, especially the GRE.  And, you’re doing a good deed at the same time– what could be better?  I first came across the page from a blog article from SpreadFirefox.  In February, Firefox broke the 500 million download mark.  To celebrate, they made it their goal to donate 500,000,000 grains of rice through this website.  Cool stuff.

We ran out of coffee here at the house, and my roommate picked up some Folgers French Vanilla to replace it. I’m generally not picky about my coffee; our last batch was store-brand French roast (I do like French roast though). So the point is, that this new coffee is pretty amazing. Actually, it tastes only slightly above-average to me, but it smells like candy when you brew it. Every day around 8 AM, our house smells like sweet deliciousness. Perhaps I’m one step closer to having productive mornings.

What kind of coffee do you drink? Are you picky? Do you load it up with sugar and cream, or take it straight-up black?

For a long time I have had a strong aversion to sushi, mostly because I do not like the idea of eating raw fish. It’s not the flavor or the uncookedness (new word!) but the texture that gets me. I just can’t get over that feeling of raw sliminess on my tongue and throat…blech. But lately I have been a bit more adventurous and have gone to a number of different sushi restaurants around town. I started with mostly tempura sushi, then moved to non-tempura, but cooked rolls. All was good since this was all stuff I had eaten before, it just wasn’t all rolled up and called sushi. Since then I have actually had a number of real, uncooked sushi rolls, but luckily most of them have had an abundance of rice and very little fish, so the raw texture was not overwhelming. I have even gone as far as trying nigiri, raw fish that just sits on top of rice…that was kind of a mistake. I guess it is good that I tried it once, but I doubt I’ll ever do it again.

Today I ran across a pretty cool homemade sushi blog, Sushiday. I know making sushi at home can get expensive and messy with the product being nowhere near as good as authentic sushi, but this shushi blog makes it look so easy! I just wish they had step-by-step instructions with pictures like my absolute favorite food blog, FXcuisine. One of the great things about making sushi yourself is there will be no surprises. Don’t like raw fish? Cook it yourself. Like things extra spicy? Done! Want to try something sweet or fruity? Let’s experiment! I think one of these days I am going to get a few friends together for a sushi rolling party. We can make a ton of rice and get a bunch of nori (dried seaweed) and just fill them with whatever our hearts desire.

Sound fun? Give me some suggestions for what I should experiment with in the comments. Let’s get creative.

So I just made the most who-woulda-thunk-it discovery. Stumbling around the internet, I came across this blog with a tip on mason jars. It turns out that the opening on an average mason jar is sized and threaded just right to fit on your blender. Simply unscrew the bottom of the blender’s normal pitcher, and screw it right on top of your mason jar. Flip it over onto your blender base, and voila! This would make a terrific food processor, or a single-serving smoothie. In fact, you could call this a DIY Magic Bullet blender, on the cheap.

According to the article, this isn’t just coincidence, but dates back to a time when blenders were sold with a mason jar “attachment” included. A local bar around us gives out logo mason jars as mugs, and we’ve got about a dozen of them piled up in our cabinets. Now I’ve found a new use for them!

I know this is my second post about beef in a month, I’ll try to limit myself in the future. But, I was just reading an article from CBS about an ongoing recall of beef distributed out of Southern California, because they used “sick, or ‘downer’ cows.” Of course, the first thing that comes to mind is a cheap jab at the “happy cows from California” ad campaign that has been ongoing– I think they’re going to have to reconsider their slogan.

But all jokes aside, this is a big deal. 143 million pounds of meat were recalled. That’s over half-a-billion quarter pounders (thank you college math) deemed unfit for consumption. That’s enough meat to feed every child at a school of 2000 kids for a little over 783 years! So this is a big deal.

And that’s just what the meat was being used for– to feed school children. According to the article, around 120,000 pounds of the meat had been distributed to schools in Tennessee. 30 school districts across the state won’t be serving meat until further notice.

The question on my mind when I read the article, was whether it was really necessary to recall all that meat, just because the cows were a little depressed. However, they mention that these ‘downer’ cows are prone to “wallow in feces,” and thus have a much higher rate of disease. Most shocking was watching this video of workers jabbing the cows with forklifts to get them into their pen, along side the CEO trying to justify the treatment.

So, here we are now with the largest beef recall in the United States as a result. I hope that the press that this generates will expose more cases like this, and ultimately shape up the industry. I suppose this is why organizations like PETA exist, and why the vegan movement exists in general.

A few years ago, I decided that I wanted to be a connoisseur of three things when I grow up: wine, cheese, and apples. My interest in apples was spurred by a short article I read as part of an ACT prep, about a blind apple-tasting competition. It seemed silly that there would be a competition to correctly identify apples from one-another, yet elegant that these people were so into their apples.

So last week when I went shopping I bought a few Jonathan apples. To describe it physically, it’s a red, small- to medium-sized apple, with noticeable imperfections on its rough outer skin. Many of the ones I bought were missing the stem, although I’m not sure what that might imply. Anyway, on to the taste.

The skin was rough, and perhaps thicker than the average apple skin. The fleshy inside was a bit tart, which is unlike most red apples I’ve tasted. I wouldn’t compare it to a Granny Smith, but it was definitely a distinguishing feature. It wasn’t too tart to be undesirable, but instead it gave it a distinctive flavor. All apples are juicy, but I think this brand may have been a bit juicier than most. Of the ones I’ve tried so far, they have free of bruises, and delicious all the way through.

At this point I’ve only tried the Jonathan apple by itself, but I can image many possible pairings. For starters, this seems like more than a caramel-and-nut apple than peanut butter apple. Also, it would be very tasty to cook them down for baked apples or jam. If you find yourself with more apples than you can eat before their go bad, you might even consider using these in a warm, seasonal apple cider.

Overall, I would recommend this apple to anyone ready to break away from the traditional red delicious, or if you just wanted to try something new. I wouldn’t say this is my favorite apple, but I would definitely give it two thumbs up.

So, the FDA passed a bill last night officially declaring that cloned meat is safe to eat. Now, I live in a house with my fair share of vegetarian / organic-eating roommates, so this caused quite a stir. Therefore, I’d like to offer my own thoughts…

So the controversy over cloned meat is multi-level: is it really safe, does it hurt the animal, does it have the potential for health risks, etc. Well the fact of the matter is, we’ve been doing things like this for a long time, and it’s never been a problem. Genetically engineered foods have been on the market for decades, and there is no scientific evidence that shows them to be harmful. And cloned meats are even less likely to cause a problem, because no DNA is actually being modified, just reproduced.

The way that the whole process works (from my understanding), is that a prize-cow is chosen, and DNA is extracted through blood cells. Through chemistry magic, the DNA is coerced into an embryo, and inserted into a female cow. It gestates for a while, and then finally, out pops a baby clone. Now, the clone isn’t actually used for meat– that would be too expensive. Instead, it’s bread with other fine steers, and the offspring are used for meat.

So this brings me to the point on animal treatment. The new clones are the most expensive cows on the farm, and thus treated like kings. As far as the cow that produces the clone, the process is comparable to artificial insemination, which has been going on for years. So, you can expect PETA to be all over this one– but it’s nothing new.

Then, the quality of food. The meat that hits our grocery stores isn’t going to be any worse or more dangerous than what we have now. There’s no new DNA being introduced, and what you’re eating is a naturally-born cow. In fact, if anything, there’s less chance of disease, because the offspring will be more uniform across the board. If they test one hamburger and it’s disease free, chances are the rest will be too.

So I guess the last thing to consider is the future– how does this bode for our future, the farmer’s future, and the future of cows as we know it (as we know them?). From the consumer perspective, we can expect cheaper, higher-quality meat. As the process is perfected and universally adopted, the cows will be cheaper to produce, and they will be selectively bread for prize cows every time. This brings us to the farmer; with new technology, he can expect bigger, healthier cows that he can sell for a higher profit. And as for the cows, each new clone will be selected for higher immunity against disease and to be healthy, happy cows. All in all, it’s a win-win-win situation.

PS: You actually have nothing to worry about just yet; although the FDA has deemed clones safe to eat, the Department of Agriculture has asked for a further ban on cloned meat, for at least 2 more years.

PPS: Check out that sweet graphic above. I made that using GIMP in Ubuntu– cool huh?

I just read an article via TipNut with some tips to make drinking water more appealing, rather than soda. I’m a pretty strong believer in this for a few different reasons:

• It’s a heck of a lot cheaper to just drink water. And convenient!
• Soda makes your teeth feel pretty gross, which annoys me.
• Every article you’ll ever read about dieting tells you that drinking your calories is a waste. It doesn’t fill you up, and there’s no nutritional value to soda.

In the article they emphasize ways to make water more appealing, such as refrigerating water, or adding some lemon juice. I also like to keep the house stocked with Crystal Light, which is sugar free and packs around 20 calories to the liter.

I would also like to emphasize a similar mind trick– make soda seem less appealing. When buying soda, buy the two-liter bottles. They already mention that this saves you the mental obligation to drink the whole thing. But also, the two-liter bottles tend to go flat after opening, so it’ll be less apealing. Also, it’s cheaper.