NOVEMBER 2015
Sunday 2015.11.29
This Really is a Trailer Park
I must be careful about what I say. No names.
Early last week I made those lemon custards I blogged about. The lemons I used for the juice and zest came from a neighbor's tree. She's decent enough. But in getting the lemons, I was invited to visit for a few minutes. Someone else was there, another resident in the trailer park. She has a dog. As I sat there, she was eating a creamy dessert and — hold onto something sturdy — she occasionally fed her dog some of the dessert, letting it eat off her spoon, which she continued to eat with. I was offered some dessert. You are probably not surprised to know I declined. Some of the remarks you hear about trailer parks really are true.
I know you don't need to live in a mobile home in a trailer park to let your dog eat off your spoon. However, as much as I love dogs — I grew up with them — sharing my eating utensils with a dog seems a little beyond my capacity.
I do like having the lemons, though.
I Hate When That Happens
I'll admit to a fault. I sometimes don't do well with frustrations. My emotions get a little mixed up. Should I be angry? Should I cuss and throw something that won't break? Should I burst into tears? So, what brought this on…
This computer, the one I write my blog on and do everything else associated with my web site and my YouTube channel is kept off line. I use my other computer for the Internet. I even copy my web site files to that computer, via flash drive, and upload to the hosting service from there. I like to know that this computer, even though I faithfully do backups and keep good archives, is safe from viruses.
Two weeks ago I needed to get updates for Windows 10. I put this computer on line to get the updates and evidently my computer updated my video software too. I wasn't paying attention. Then I went to get screen captures for my recipe PDFs and the aspect ratio was wrong. What should have been 1920x1080 (my video camera's setting) was now 1440x1080. I tried and tried to find a fix. Nothing. I felt sooooo frustrated while it took the better part of an afternoon to solve the problem.
It turned out that my former software setting, XDCAM HD, was no longer the same. It was changed to a different aspect ratio. Now I'm supposed to use something I didn't have before — XDCAM HD422. I don't know why. I don't need to know. Having found the new format, everything is back to normal again.
From the little bit of research I did, XDCAM HD422 is something new being offered on Sony video cameras. My camera is a Sony, but it's a relatively old one — PMW EX1R — now discontinued. However, I guess because it records at 1920x1080p it's in the HD422 category. I'm not sure about that, but the software now works properly with my camera's video files; so, despite the frustrations, everything is back to normal.
Black Friday…
…so called because retail businesses expect to earn so much money from holiday sales that they make a considerable profit, i.e. get out of the red ink (loss) and into the black ink. Back in the good ol' days Costco would occasionally have some great sales on DVD blank disks. During a good sale you could purchase a 100-disc stack of TDK blanks and get a second stack for free. Two for one. They don't even sell blank disks anymore. This week Newegg (where I buy most of my computer parts) had a one-day sale on TDK DVD blanks — buy one, get one free, with free shipping. I use a lot of them because I archive all my video files to them, besides the usual backups. So I stocked up.
The last purchase I was waiting to make for my new computers was for new Dell 27-inch 4K monitors. I watched Amazon and Newegg. Neither offered the monitors at a good Black Friday price. However, I received a Microsoft email announcing their holiday sale. I checked it out, found the monitors I wanted (same model number) at $50 off Amazon's price ($100 lower than Newegg), and ordered two. There was a shipping notice in my email this morning. I should receive the monitors in a few days.
And, Finally, a Little Bit of Bling to Wear
I picked up my repaired bracelet at the jeweler yesterday morning. They replaced the clasp. I can wear it for the first time. As I mentioned on Wednesday, it had a broken clasp when I found it about 25 years ago. I wore it at yesterday's World News discussion group, which was a lively meeting. The past two weeks were filled with news items worthy of discussion — Putin, Syria and Turkey, Republican and Democratic candidate polls, Paris and London, climate change, and the list goes on. I typically have half a dozen articles to discuss. Yesterday I went to the meeting with more than 20.
Wednesday 2015.11.25
For those in the USA:
Happy Thanksgiving Tomorrow
This year I have no plans for the holiday, other than to avoid a neighbor. I mentioned avoiding her last year because the previous year she invited me to a Thanksgiving dinner. Everything, even the mashed potatoes, was cold. Maybe in her mind the day is for sharing some food, without any consideration for the traditions that are usually associated with the holiday meal. Dinner at her home had nothing in common with those depicted in any of Norman Rockwell's paintings.
Last Thanksgiving I went to a Chinese buffet. Okay, so it had nothing in common with the traditions either, but at least the food was warm.
More Bling
This time it's bling for me, not my computer. About 25 years ago I found a piece of jewelry in a car wash vacuum cleaner. I was helping a friend maintain the car wash and that day I was shoveling the dirt and debris from the bottom of the vacuum cleaners. At times, it was a very unglorious job. But it provided me free rent; so no complaints.
The jewelry I found was a solid 14K gold men's bracelet with a broken clasp. My friend told me, "If no one calls to recover it, it's yours." No one claimed it; so I tossed it into a jewelry box and thought I might get the clasp replaced someday. It's 25 years later and I finally got around to it this week.
I figured it might be worth it because at today's gold prices 17 grams of 14K gold is worth around $340. I looked at similar 8-inch bracelets on line and the prices ranged from about $350 to more than $500. So I brought the bracelet to a jeweler I trust.
They called with an estimate yesterday morning. $240. I was expecting the repair to cost a lot, but I never expected it to be that expensive. I told them to go ahead and fix it. My rationale was simple. The bracelet was free. At $240, that is less than the value of the gold by about $100. And the bracelet, when fixed, is worth around twice the cost of repairing it. Why not? I hope to have it on my wrist Saturday morning, to wear to our next World News discussion group.
Tedious Stuff
After the new computers are built, then it's time to sort through all the cables, components, and other items that weren't needed to complete the build. I don't enjoy it, but it must be done. The power supply unit might have shipped with a dozen cables, only five of which were needed. All the others are there, just in case you might need them, but the extras are leftovers, almost as undesirable as the leftovers crowding your refrigerator shelves. What should be saved? What could be discarded? What can be recycled? It's tedious and I've been at it for a few days now.
Added to the chore are the boxes in the shed. They have all the saved stuff from the last time I built computers eight years ago. Is there any need to save IDE cables and components? No one uses them anymore. 1.44 diskette drives? Out. Old parallel printer cables? Gone.
Svuotafrigo
A friend from Italy describes dishes like ravioli and calzones as svotafrigo, literally "refrigerator emptier." The idea is to package up leftovers in pasta dough or pastry and serve them as a new and different dish. That is what I videoed today, finally making the Agnolotti I blogged about two weeks ago. To refresh your memory, they are like ravioli, only they are made with one sheet of dough, not two. The sheet is folded over the filling, crimped, then trimmed. Ravioli are typically square, although there are round ones (anolini, according to my Encyclopedia of Pasta).
My encyclopedia describes anolini as "the emblem of gastronomic civility" in Parma, Italy. The book suggests agnolotti, from the Piedmont area of Italy, as more of a middle-class dish. Now made throughout Italy, there is no one size or shape. They vary by region. I think the recipe is good for people who do not have a ravioli form. They can simply make the pasta dough (see my recipe for Pasta from Scratch) and fold it over the filling, cutting it to whatever size and shape they like.
The traditional sauce is concentrated meat juices, sometimes with added wine. Tomato sauce is popular now. I am using fresh tomatoes.
Sunday 2015.11.22
Lemon Custard, OMG!
As planned, I made the Lemon Custard on Wednesday after posting my blog. I was surprised. The recipe calls for a lot of sour cream and I thought the flavor might be too tart. I'm not crazy about sour flavors. Even lemonade, which I drink a lot in summer, has to be watered down and sweetened quite a bit before I can enjoy it. The lemon custard was fantastic. Mildly tart, with just enough lemon flavor to be delicious, and not too sweet. The texture was slightly firm because of the gelatin, but not too much so. It really is a delicious, and easy, dessert.
I decided to dress them up a little. The custards can be garnished with fresh fruit in season, such as blueberries, raspberries, sliced strawberries, etc. In the morning, when my home was a little cold, I warmed up my kitchen by roasting some whole pecans. Then I chopped about half of them briefly in the food processor, and then sprinkled them on top after garnishing with the lemon syrup I made. For variety, I put whole pecans, in a decorative pattern, on top of another and then draped the custard with the syrup. The pecans added a little more flavor and gave the custard a slightly elegant eye appeal. I was also able to find berries in the store. They were a little expensive, but I don't mind spending the money for this web site. Between the YouTube payments and a few donations, the cost is covered fairly well.
I only gave away two of the six I made. They were too good to part with; so I ate the remaining four myself — not all at once, but they were gone by the end of the day.
The Bling is the Light at the End of the Tunnel
Yesterday marked the end (I hope) of the upgrades to these new computers. The last of the small parts arrived in the mail. During the afternoon I installed the new Y-cables to make better use of the USB 3.0 ports, connecting them to the 3.0 header on the motherboard. I installed a mobile rack that will accept both a 5.25 inch hard disk drive and a 3.5 disk drive. And, finally, I swapped the cover on the Titan X Hybrid graphics card. It adds one more light to the inside of my case, which already looks like the Las Vegas strip at night (maybe I exaggerate). Now, rather than a dark card, it glows with the label "EVGA GTX Hybrid." Cool enough.
I was done by 5:00, just in time to sit down with a cup of tea. The upgrade took all afternoon because sometimes I can be a little fussy about how everything goes together. I am happy now. I really do think this completes the process of building two dream machine "Extreme Production Rig" computers. At more than $5,000 each, they'd better be extreme.
Wednesday 2015.11.18
Delving Into BIOS
My new Corsair 640D cases have a hard disk drive/solid state drive (HDD/SSD) dock built into the top, under a little door. In an ideal situation, I should be able to slide a drive into the dock and then copy files to it, such as when doing a quick backup. However, the drives would not "hot plug", also known as "hot swap."
I looked at the status of my SATA ports. They were set, by default, to AHCI, which is where they need to be for hot swapping. The individual ports (there are ten of them on my motherboard) were all set to "Hot Plug disabled", which is as it should be. Your internal HDD and Blu-Ray burner are connected to SATA ports. There is no need for those ports to be set to Hot Plug. I remembered connecting my dock to SATA port 10 when I assembled by computer; so I enabled Hot Plug for that port. Problem solved, sort of.
It doesn't work every time. It isn't consistent and reliable. Insert the same hard disk drive later — and nothing happens. I can hear the drive spin up; so I know the computer recognizes it, but no window opens. I suppose if I fiddled around with settings somewhere long enough I might fix it, but I plan to use the dock only to back up my cooking videos, and these computers boot very quickly. A reboot to access the backup disk won't waste my day.
I might also point out that my motherboard (MSI X99A Godlike Gaming) BIOS menu is superb. It makes so much more sense than the BIOS in my old computers. Someone did a lot of thinking.
A Little More Bling
When I was ordering parts I mentioned getting a EVGA Titan X Hybrid graphics card. It's the card currently in this computer, the one I'm typing this blog on. It has hoses and a radiator with fan because it is liquid cooled.
Evidently EVGA decided the card wasn't pretty enough. Compared to the Titan Z, maybe that's true. The Titan Z has bling.
EVGA has been running a special offer. Be one of the early purchasers to register your Titan X Hybrid and receive a free replacement cover (they call it a shroud) that looks similar to the Z, silver and black, more high tech. I received an email on Monday, saying I would soon receive one. Just pay a small shipping fee, about $7.00, if I remember correctly. I should have it early next week, and hopefully they'll include instructions for changing the cover.
And hopefully I am nearing the end of adding little tweaks to these computers. With the addition of new cases, which I am liking more and more, I ordered a few minor parts to finish things up cleanly — more modern cables, new fans, better mobile racks, nothing expensive. I really want to reach a "finished" stage. I'm almost there. I hope to be completely done by Sunday.
Something Old, Something New
Here is one reason why I spent $8,000 two years ago to have a really nice shed constructed in my back yard — I can store stuff. I do throw things away, or more accurately, disassemble them and put the metal and plastic in the recycling bin. Some things, however, might be useful again later; so I hold onto them.
One example is my old caddy bays. I have two of them. They were in the first computers I ever built, back when SATA was first becoming popular and IDE was still mainstream. (That will make sense to some of you — remember those ribbon cables?) The caddy bays use SATA cables.
The frame portion is secured in a bay in the front of the computer. The drawer, or caddy, holds a hard disk. The concept is to have a hot swap drive that I can move from one computer to the other. Mine have been in storage because no case since those first ones had room enough for them. They are too long. The back of the caddy bay frame would be obstructed by the edge of the motherboard, preventing the frame from being installed.
My new cases are deeper, front to back, by four inches. There is plenty of room. The color doesn't go well with the basic black of my new computer cases. All the components are the same color and I really like the under-stated black. However, I do like these old caddy bays. The hard disk is wrapped in an aluminum shell, which provides excellent cooling. Each bay has its own fan too.
I'll be experimenting with them in my new computers. If I don't like them, they can always be removed and returned to storage, or tossed into recycling.
Custard
I haven't neglected cooking videos altogether. Today I am videoing an experiment with a Lemon Custard recipe I found in a restaurant trade journal. I'm curious about it for two reasons.
- It uses a lot of sour cream and mascarpone. These will be tart custards.
- The recipe also uses gelatin. The custards are "set up" in the refrigerator rather than baked, similar to a chocolate mousse recipe I want to video someday.
As usual, the lemons came from my neighbor's tree. And the recipe is ultra easy, after some very quick prep — zest and juice the lemons. All the ingredients are combined in one step, heated, and ladled into custard cups. Refrigerate overnight. Garnish and serve the next day. What could be easier?
Sunday 2015.11.15
Uh-Oh
I drive myself nuts sometimes. I know better, but try to practice what you know when caught in the moment. Case in point (which is kind of a pun, if you'll excuse me):
I mentioned on Wednesday that I ordered new computer cases. About 3:00 in the morning on Thursday I woke up, suspecting I had ordered the wrong cases. It wasn't a dream. It was something else, but I can't define it.
I keep my laptop computer next to my bed at night because the first thing I usually do each morning is clean the junk out of my email before I start my day, before I even get out of bed to make my morning cup of coffee. So, at the 3:00 in the morning I looked at the order I placed for the cases. They are for ATX form factor motherboards. Mine are ATX-Extended. I wasn't sure what that meant. I Googled "compare atx and atx-extended motherboards" and one site said my motherboards would not fit in the cases I had ordered. They were already shipped. Too late to cancel. I felt stupid and ashamed. I usually do more research before making a purchase like this.
After the fact, I know better. In the morning I did more research. Maybe there was a way to modify the case to accept my motherboard. The cases are certainly large enough. They have the same depth as my current cases, but they are wider and taller. I hoped to find a template that might tell me where to drill new holes for the posts that support the mobo. That's when I noticed something.
The larger motherboards are fastened down with 12 screws. Mine use nine. I opened a case to make certain. Yep, nine. I measured my board and compared it with the ATX boards in my older computers. The new mobos are the same height and only an inch wider. Maybe that is what "extended" means. The extra width is where it doesn't matter.
I looked at the enlarged photos of the new cases. Nine posts to hold the mobo and in what appeared to be the correct configuration. Finally, I looked up the specifications of my current cases. They're ATX, and my boards fit — tight, but they fit. I measured my old ATX boards. They're 9½ x 12 inches. The new mobos are 10½ x 12 inches. So that extra inch must be the "extended" part.
Anxiety melts away and I wonder again why I put myself through this kind of worry by making assumptions before I gather all the facts. It's something I've been doing for years and I'm still trying to learn how not to.
The company from which I order computer parts is only about 100 miles away and if I order early enough they ship the same day. By late Thursday the new cases had arrived. With joyful anticipation I opened the boxes and looked at the space inside. It's the correct configuration and there is practically enough room to live in there. Okay, I'm exaggerating. But it gave me a wicked idea. What should I do with the old cases?
What if I were to buy some doll house furniture and partition the insides of the cases to look like New York tenements?
And Not Uh-Oh
I spent nearly two hours looking at the new cases, studying every angle, planning how I was going to use them. Some people are like that. They don't just dive in; they study a situation every possible way and then proceed cautiously.
These cases didn't need any modding. I should have ordered them in the first place. If you're wondering what I bought, they're Corsair 650Ds, discontinued, but probably the most intelligent design I ever saw in a computer case. Thankfully the vendor still had them in stock.
The one exception was the front USB 3.0 ports. They are connected to long "pass through" cables that are supposed to be routed through the computer and then out the back, where they then plug into two USB ports. My motherboards have two USB 3.0 20-pin headers for internal connections. Each header powers two USB 3.0 ports. Thankfully someone makes a cable for that. Plug the two front cables into that cable, and then plug the other end into the header. Easy problem solved.
Filters Revisited
The filters I put on my computer are working well. They are becoming discolored with dust. Evidently the idea of using Swiffer brand dusting cloths as filters works to catch dust. The reduced air flow raises the heat inside by very little; so I'll continue to use them, changing them every month or two. I'll know next year how much dust, if any, gets inside.
And so, finally, no Feature Recipe this week because, as you see above, I've been too busy with my new computers.
Wednesday 2015.11.11
Still Looking for the Perfect Computer Case
I'm almost happy with the cases I bought for my new computers. The insides, however, aren't quite large enough for everything I've squeezed in there and the top isn't configured perfectly for my CPU liquid cooler radiators (which I've learned are usually called RADs in the reviews). As I mentioned in earlier blog posts, I voided almost every warranty trying to make things fit. I'm comfortable with modding. I even expect it. But when everything still doesn't come together exactly the way it should inside a $5,000 computer, then it isn't truly an extreme "dream machine" rig. Instead, it's a compromise rig. I want dream machines.
Today I ordered another two cases. They were very well reviewed and they are manufactured by the same company that makes the CPU liquid cooler, and my cooler model is listed as compatible with the case; so it's gotta fit, right? The case is 2½ inches taller, the same width, and an inch deeper. The extra room should, hopefully, let me get in there up to my elbows as I piece everything together. The one disappointment is that the cases don't have a have 3½-inch bay in front. I wanted one of those. However, I can get an adapter to fit into one of the 5¼-inch bays. Amazon sells them.
Even better, Amazon sells a mobile rack that holds both a thin 3½-inch SSD (solid state drive) and a 5¼-inch HDD (hard drive). How cool is that? I have both types of drives. AND — it includes two USB 3.0 ports. I ordered two, one for each computer, because they give me the configuration I want. Initially I had hoped to build dual-boot systems, like my former computers, letting me still use XP for my legacy software. Alas, I wasn't able to load XP on these computers. They are evidently too technologically advanced. So, I'll move the boot drive inside and use the mobile rack for backups or for transferring files.
I don't relish the idea of completely disassembling these computers and building them again. However, I won't need to load the operating system or software again; so that will save me a couple days. And what to do with these current cases? They've been too heavily modified to ever hope of returning them for a refund. Recylcle the materials? Donate them to the charity thrift shop? I'll think about that later.
So Many Recipes, So Little Time
This week I found two more recipes I want to video. Both recipes came from a restaurant trade journal. Trade journals go to businesses; you rarely seen them in stores. I prefer recipes like this because they are written by restaurant chefs. I know they'll work. I can't always trust recipes in cookbooks.
One is a lemon custard dessert that is made with mascarpone cheese. I like this idea because I make my own mascarpone. It isn't difficult and it costs a lot less than the product sold in the stores. I've had good success with it.
The other recipe is for something called "agnolotti." I never heard of it, and it's a bit complicated. Evidently it's a step backward from ravioli. As I understand it, ravioli is made with two sheets of pasta dough. You lay down one sheet, add little dollops of filling, and then arrange a second pasta sheet on top. Seal all the way around and trim. I have recipes for ravioli on this web site. See Chicken and Pesto Ravioli, Ravioli with Roasted Tomato Sauce, and Smoked Salmon Ravioli. I have two ravioli forms; one shapes larger and the other makes smaller ravioli.
Agnolotti, my Encyclopedia of Pasta by Oretta Zanini de Vita explains, is made with a single sheet of pasta dough. You roll it very thin and then cut it into squares. Place a dollop of filling in the center and then fold the dough over it, sealing around the three edges to enclose the filling. I'm wondering this: Why not roll out the sheet of dough as usual, but don't cut it yet. Arrange little piles of filling on the sheet, fold one long edge over (both edges if the sheet is wide enough) and seal, then trim. If you use a fluted cutter for that jagged edge you see on ravioli, you'd have a neater trim.
An Italian fan of the web site describes these dishes as "refrigerator emptiers," svuotafrigo, the idea being that cooks made ravioli or calzones to clear the leftovers out of the refrigerator, wrapping them in dough or pastry and serving them again with sauce or as a snack. Some sources say Marco Polo brought the idea for pasta to Italy from China. Others say this is not true. There are similarities in many cultures. My Chinese dumplings, often seen as "pot stickers," are similar in design, but I don't think they are svuotafrigo. One Chinese friend, who happens to be an excellent cook, has low regard for leftovers. Her husband describes discarding leftovers as a status symbol. "If you can afford to throw food in the trash it indicates you are rich." (I happen to know his wife serves him leftovers the following day after she prepares one of her fantastic meals for friends.)
Watery Eyes
One of the advantages of cold mornings this time of year is that they provide a good opportunity for seasoning cast iron. I don't have many pieces; two griddles, two skillets, and one carbon still skillet that I keep seasoned as well. After they've gone through their full cycle of seasonings in the oven, which takes several days to a week, they can be touched up easily on the stove. Brush lightly with flax oil and heat to above 500°F, then hold at that temperature for at least 20 minutes. Then let cool.
Turn off the smoke alarms. The pans do smoke, and with all the windows closed (it's cold outside), the smoke makes my eyes water. I seasoned one of the griddles this morning.
And, Finally, No Car
Bummer, sort of. I brought my car in early yesterday morning for periodic maintenance and a smog inspection. I also told them about a problem they've never been able to fix. The engine runs rough, like it's firing on only five cylinders rather than six. This time they have to find and fix the problem in order to get the vehicle to pass smog. They had it all day yesterday and still hadn't figured out the problem. On the one hand, I look forward to having a smooth running engine with plenty of power again. On the other hand, how much is this going to cost me?
If there's a potential bright side, the shuttle driver who drove me home yesterday is also a cooking enthusiast. Once again, I mentioned the offer of someone doing videos with me. Two people in my tiny mobile home kitchen actually works very well in a video. It adds interest. I gave him my email address. I won't expect any response though. I've made offers before. No one ever responds. Maybe I look like a serial killer. The one I wanted to work with most was a student in a culinary program. He wanted to use the videos to promote the school. I hoped I would learn a lot about cooking from him, but I never heard from him.
So now I'm without a car for at least another day. No matter. It's a 1993 with only 64,000 miles on it. I bought it new. The mileage indicates how little I use it. I put more mileage on my bicycle.
Sunday 2015.11.08
To Game, or Not to Game?
My all-time favorite game was Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri (SMAC). I have the Alien Crossfire expansion pack. Alas, the last operating system that would run it was Windows XP. The purpose of having dual-boot computers was to keep my legacy software. On these new computers I tried to include dual-boot capability. However, I can't load XP. It is simply too old.
There are some space exploration and conquering games available. The two that I looked into are Galactic Civilizations III (GC3) and Distance Worlds Universe (DWU). Neither one really uses the full gaming capabilities of these computers with their EVGA Titan graphics cards. GC3 is a turn-based game, which is the way my old SMAC operated. DWU operates in realtime. I'm not sure of the full implications of that technology.
In SMAC, you drop down on a randomly-generated planet and other than the space immediately surrounding your base, the remainder of the world is shrouded in black. You need to explore to find the best places to build additional bases that take advantage of available resources to help your faction survive and thrive. Along the way, you develop technologies that help you build better defenses and make better use of resources. And, when necessary, you war with other factions. There is only the one planet.
In GC3 you arrive in a randomly generated galaxy and other than the space around your home planet, Earth, the rest of the galaxy is blacked out. Like SMAC, you explore and exploit.
DWU appears to be a universe rather than a galaxy or planet. It's supposed to be big — so big that some of the reviews say to take advantage of automation. There is too much for one person to manage. I know the least about this one, but I want to try both.
I ordered DWU. It will arrive later this week. Meanwhile, GC3 sells as a download. No waiting.
Galactic Civilizations III and My Computer
This game was my first test of the Titan Z graphics card. My temperature monitor device (I'm so glad I purchased one for each computer) soon sounded an alarm. The graphics card temperature climbed to 55°C (131°F). Most of the articles I'd read online say to keep things below 60°C. (Although one article about overclocking said 90°C was a safe upper limit for the Titans.) I removed the side cover, which allowed more air to flow into the computer, and the card cooled down enough to turn off the alarm.
The other computer — the one I allow online — had the liquid cooled Titan X Hybrid card. So on Friday morning I switched them and ran the game again. The maximum temperature I recorded was 46°C (115°F), well within the safe limit. That was on a cool morning, about 68°F in my home office. I'll be curious to see what happens on a warm 80°+ day.
Working on the computers — switching cards and fans, etc. — also gave me a good look at the dust filters (Swiffer brand dusting cloths) under bright lighting. They are working. The filters are already picking up a light shade of gray where the fans pull air through them. These filters have been in place for about a week. I suspect I'll need to change them at the beginning of each month. Check out this blog a year from now and maybe I'll be writing about how much, or little, dust actually accumulated inside.
Down With a Cold
On Friday evening my first cold virus in a long time started making me sick. I wonder if I picked it up earlier in the day when I attended a meeting about my benefits in retirement. I transition to Medicare in 2016 and I needed to learn about the Part D programs. More than a hundred people attended; so I might have picked up the cold from one of them.
The advantage is that I am stuck at home with this sickness and that gave me plenty of time to update my web site for today. I am featuring the Lamb and Sausage Pie that I blogged about on Wednesday. It was already on this web site, but I didn't have a video on YouTube. There are a few more of those recipes to video again. I'll do those during the coming months.
Saving People From Themselves
I never know what to do about grossly incorrect comments on my YouTube videos. Leave them in place and let the person be humiliated by contrary responses? Or protect them by removing the comment?
This morning I read a comment about my Texas Chili recipe. She claimed it was the exact opposite of real Texas chili, but she never explained why. My recipe came from the late Craig Claiborne, a famous food columnist for the New York Times (which I explained in the video). He was considered an afficionado on chili and often judged chili cook-off contests. No one knew more about chili than he did. He is also the author of several cookbooks, one of which I have in my library.
I do believe that everyone has the right to express an opinion, but having an opinion does not make someone an authority. It only makes them opinionated. I defer to Claiborne, not someone with an opinion; therefore, I removed the comment. I don't want the comment section on that video to become a forum for a flame war, which might not have happened, but removing one comment is easier than removing 20 later.
Wednesday 2015.11.04
Still Modding
After Sunday's upload to the web site and YouTube, I started working on the inside of this computer again. The slim fan arrived on Saturday, but I wasn't able to get to it, what with a World News Discussion Group to attend in the afternoon and then dinner and conversation with the group facilitator during the evening. I didn't get home until around 9:30 and by then it was too late to begin the work.
So now this computer has a slim fan where a thick, heavily modified fan used to be. The new fan still needed to be shaved a little, but it's a better fit. And try to find 7/8-inch screws. They're either ¾ inch or 1 inch. So out came the Dremel again to cut those screws down in size.
The other computer was upgraded a little by replacing a fan I had removed and then adding a dust filter.
Still Cooking
On Monday it rained. It was a good day to spend in the kitchen shooting a video. I made Rabbit Ragu with Pappardelle. I've cooked with pappardelle before, such as Lamb and Pappardelle. If you're not familiar with it, it's the second-largest of the flat Italian noodles, lasagna being the largest. Pappardelle is often served with game meat, such as rabbit. I had rabbit in the freezer; so this seemed like a good opportunity to use it.
Some skills are quickly forgotten unless practiced regularly. I did try to imagine how the food would look on a plate, and I thought I knew which would be the best plate to use. Boy, was I wrong! See the recipe for my photographic error.
The food looks decent enough, but ivory-colored pasta and a beige plate don't work together. The pasta almost disappears.
The food was delicious though. I like homemade pasta anyway, and I like ragu (which is a chunky sauce, compared to marinara, a smooth sauce). I was introduced to it many years ago when I lived in Connecticut. A woman I dated briefly was making it one day in the family kitchen. She explained it. Her's was a vegetable ragu.
Those who are familiar with my blogs and videos know that I often give the video food away to my neighbors. Not this time. The sauce was good enough to keep. I portioned it into little plastic packets, like my Minute Meals, and put it in the freezer. It will be convenient this winter when guests show up unexpected.
Now that the weather is finally changing, I feel like working in the kitchen again. All during September and October most days were very warm, in the low to mid 80s and sometimes in the 90s. We hit higher than 100°F one day. Here in November the daytime temperatures are hovering in the 70s and for the first time this season the heat came on last night. So I'm starting to give myself some cooking assignments.
I don't know that I'll ever be able to return to my former schedule of a new recipe and video every week, but I'm trying.
I can report that editing videos on this new computer is so much better than on the old one. The encoding time is so much faster. A 15-minute video used to take about an hour to encode. Yesterday's Rabbit Ragout video was under 18 minutes long. The encoding took 14½ minutes.
Last month I blogged about Lamb and Sausage Pie. If everything goes according to plan, that will be Sunday's feature recipe and YouTube upload. The recipe has been here on this web site for a long time, but there wasn't a YouTube video. There are a few of those and I'm working toward getting them all onto my YouTube channel.
Still Computing
I learned something new (I think) this week. I've been reading a book about Windows 10 and the author says it is better to "sleep" the computer rather than power it down. In sleep mode it uses very little electricity. When I turn off these new computers, they do something strange when powering them up the next day. They start up, turn themselves off, and then boot up. It's weird. If I simply put them in sleep mode, they power up quickly. Maybe Windows 10 is programmed to work that way. Or maybe it has something to do with these motherboards. Whatever the reason, sleeping the computer works fine for me.
Sunday 2015.11.01
Up and Running
Both computers are now built. One fan of the web site commented, "Gamers never go short on cosmetics." Although I am not a gamer, and I didn't set out to build an extreme gaming rig — instead, I wanted an extreme production rig — my computers are nonetheless excellent gaming machines. There is enough muscle in this case to power through the most demanding games. The GeForce GTX EVGA Titan Z graphics card is currently the best gaming card available.
The lights on the motherboard are red because MSI's logo is a red dragon, but I can change those colors. I can even set the motherboard to cycle through colors on its own. But, really, this is a production rig. To keep this one safe from viruses (no virus protection software is 100% effective), it will remain permanently off line, except to get Windows updates. I'll use this rig to write recipes for my web site, edit and encode my cooking videos for YouTube, and update my web site pages. I'm thinking I won't even use this computer to upload the web pages to my hosting service. I can transfer the files to the other computer, its twin, and upload from there. That computer is allowed on line.
So far, the filters are working well. On a warm day here this week, 82°F, with all the covers on and the filters in place, my other computer peaked at 99°F (37°C). That's tolerable. Only time will tell. In six months, or one year, when I take the covers off and look inside, how much dust will I see? I can only hope to see very little.
If you're wondering what I mean by filters, I use a Swiffer brand dusting cloth. Little magnets hold it in place over the intake fans.
Setting all the fans as intakes, with no exhaust fans, won't inflate the computer until it pops. There are hundreds of places where air can flow out. The goal is to only allow filtered air into the computer. How it gets out is its own concern.
Granted, the filters aren't pretty. They almost defeat the purpose of having such an extreme rig. I've seen worse. I think I mentioned in an earlier blog post seeing photos of computers without any cases, sitting on a towel, with all sort of wires and tubes hooked up, like something in a hospital intensive care unit. Filters or not, mine still look like computers, not a physics experiment.
Meanwhile, there are always several settings to tweak and they drive me crazy until I get them right. For example, I copied my web site files to my new computer and I updated my blog. When I tried to save, I received an "access denied" message. Grrr. It wasn't difficult to fix, after I did enough research to figure out how to solve it. In "My Computer," now known as "This PC," I right-clicked on the drive letter with the files on it and chose "Properties," then I selected the "Security" tab. I edited "Everyone" to have full control. There is only me, so I guess I count as everyone. Click "Apply" and it goes through the entire drive to give "Everyone" full access to all the files. That solved the "access denied" problem.
That's one of the issues with a new computer. It takes a while to get all these little settings configured correctly. You open a previously-saved document and a dialog box pops up to say "Font not found." Oh, yeah, I'm supposed to copy those to the new computer too. These little annoyances disappear with time. Eventually everything will be set up correctly.
And I've said it before, but it's worth saying again. These computers are quiet. Even with all the covers off, the computers make far less noise than my old computers with all the covers on. More than once I shined a flashlight inside to see if all the fans were spinning. What with two computers running and a window fan keeping the room cool, I'd sometimes wear my Bose Quiet Comfort 15 noise cancelling headphones for some peace and quiet. But with these new computers, both can run at the same time and the only sound in the room is the window fan, and that isn't loud at all.
I can also report something about USB 3.0. I transfered a 439MB video file onto an old flash drive. It took 1 minute, 17 seconds. Okay, not a life-shortener. Transferring the file to a new USB 3.0 thumb drive took 12 seconds. I haven't yet figured out what I'll do with that extra minute in my life.
Are these worth $10,000. For me, yes. For example, Friday morning I needed to copy some fonts from my old computer to a flash drive and then to my new computer. The old computer took many minutes to run through some kind of internal maintenace thing before it would open the drives and let me get my fonts. And this was after I booted it a few times to get it to open windows. The new computers, after they work though all their internal hardware checks, boot up quickly.
As one friend says, Everyone deserves to endulge once in a while. After spending nearly $20,000 on a new storage shed, new copper pipes in my home, and new landscaping, this expenditure was an indulgence that I needed, and felt I deserved.
Finally, Welcome to Standard Time
Those of us who were on Daylight Saving Time turned our clocks back (or, mine did it automatically overnight) one hour today. The days will seem an hour shorter, which means I need to plan my cooking videos better for natural lighting to still be available when I'm done and ready to shoot the final photographs of the food.