late night fast food

so tony and i had to get out of the house last night and when we came back we were STARVED! him from working out just before and me from school school school.

quickly put some piccolini to boil and started working on a sauce.
big metal bowl, two eggs, 4T grated imported parmesan, some salt, 2T butter, 2T olive oil and dried oregano cause i had it.

i put the bowl near the burner so the top was just by the boiling pot and let it sit while i cut up some turkey ham into a pretty fine dice (multi packs of luch meat are my favorite)

1/2 cup of peas in the microwave for 1:40 while i whisked the meat into the sauce.

right before pasta was done i added about 3T of the pasta water to temper the eggs.

as soon as the pasta was done i drained it quickly and tossed it right into the sauce so the heat cooked the eggs. all the while tossing to prevent curdling.

added the peas and tossed again.

oops, forgot that i used about 1/2T WHITE PEPPER (very frakkin important to use white pepper) while whisking.

two paper plates and a movie later and we were two happy dudes. i think that we downed a total of 1/2lb uncooked pasta in about 7 minutes.

total cook time: however long it took to cook the pasta plus 20 seconds to toss. i have no idea cause we had a pretty good buzz going.


anyways it was fun and Tony is thinking of presenting it to his manager as a "healthy" pasta carbonara. i suppose if you left out the butter an used more oil and dashed in Bacon Salt (tm) you could really get away with it. i'm never sure how to reheat carbonara tho. i usually toss it in a pan as it is heating up, but i don't think that people in a hurry are gonna want to even do that little amount of cooking.

And don't forget about that bacon salt. it's vegetarian and low sodium (?!) and it's fantastic. there is also Baconaise, just think that with lettuce and tomato and bread and you have a guilt free BLT!!!

everything is better with bacon.

Pop-Up Card Designer

Pop-Up Card Designer


OH OH OH!!!!!! I HAVE BEEN WANTING SOMETHING LIKE THIS FOREVER!!!!!!!!!! and by forever i mean since i saw that article in OMNI, and by that i mean like when i was about 13 i think, okay, time to dig those out. mom says she wants those out of the house, i say that they are too valuable to me. especially the last issue from the quartely that says "WE'RE BACK!" and then they were done. too bad for penthouse publishing, and too bad for we dedicated readers.

Evil Mad Scientist Laboratories - A Simple and Cheap Dark-Detecting LED Circuit

Evil Mad Scientist Laboratories - A Simple and Cheap Dark-Detecting LED Circuit

you know, there are times when you wish you would have published things when you came up with them. grrr, i remember getting exactly this circuit when i was experimenting with FLED based solar engines that had photovore instincts built in.

but hey good for them! and i hope this simple circuit gets some mroe use, perhaps built into a solarbot circuit to add to a night based animatronic.

bad joke of the day

a man goes to a restaurant and sits.

the waitress comes over (pretty and a short skirt) and asks him what he'd like.
he says "i'd like a quickie"

she walks away, composes herself and comes back.

"what would you like?"

he looks her up and down and replies "i'd like a quickie!"

she slaps him and storms off.

man in the next booth leans over and says "it's pronounced quiche"

Time and Space

i was thinking; without time and space, we wouldn't be able to exist, at least not separately. it is time that keeps everything from happening at the same time.

however, that being said; time isn't the hard part right now, space is. distance is a cruel punishment; not for the longing, for the chance for the chance. it's like knowing how to count cards enough to win some in vegas and never being able to use it. but that is a numbers game, like frogs fertilizing, it's a numbers game, the eggs are down there waiting and the male comes across and tries. where's the love in that? of course love is a loaded word. familial love, romantic love, love of the idea of love. love of food, love of drink ( i know they're similar but it's two different things to me) love of legos, love of friendship, love of fun.

one of my favorite quotes: "you make your own fun; if you don't make it, it ain't fun, it's entertainment." from the david mamet film "state and main"

well, i have to go now. i just wanted the universe that space is killing me.

Hack Attack: Turn your $60 router into a $600 router

Hack Attack: Turn your $60 router into a $600 router

Hack Attack: Turn your $60 router into a $600 router

by Adam Pash

Of all the great DIY projects at this year's Maker Faire, the one project that really caught my eye involved converting a regular old $60 router into a powerful, highly configurable $600 router. The router has an interesting history, but all you really need to know is that the special sauce lies in embedding Linux in your router. I found this project especially attractive because: 1) It's easy, and 2) it's totally free.

So when I got the chance, I dove into converting my own router. After a relatively simple firmware upgrade, you can boost your wireless signal, prioritize what programs get your precious bandwidth, and do lots of other simple or potentially much more complicated things to improve your computing experience. Today I'm going to walk you through upgrading your router's firmware to the powerful open source DD-WRT firmware.

What you'll need:

1. One of the supported routers. I used a Linksys WRT54GL Wireless router that I picked up from Newegg, and the instructions that follow detail the upgrade process specifically for that router and its close siblings. If you're upgrading one of the other supported routers, you might want to look into instructions specific to your router. These instructions may generally work for other supported routers, but I'm not making any promises.
2. The generic DD-WRT v23 SP1 mini firmware version located here.*
3. The generic DD-WRT v23 SP1 standard firmware version located here.*

*You'll be upgrading the firmware twice, first using the mini firmware, then using the standard.

Upgrading your router to the DD-WRT firmware

Check out this gallery for the detailed step-by-step upgrade with screenshots. When you're finished, come back here for some of my favorite tweaks.

Update, October '07: Reader Josh Harris writes in:

All the new WRT54G routers being sold now are v8, and the previous DD-WRT software didn't work on them. However, recent versions added support for the new v8 router— but it's a little more in depth.

Got this to work on the WRT54G v8 (should work on 7 as well, just replace the files with the corresponding 7 version):

First of all, use IE explorer. Firefox didn't work at all on this for me, even after install. Second, go to this page. Read the textfile carefully and follow its instructions. Two edits to the textfile:

1. Make sure you go to command prompt and type ipconfig /all. Record the default gateway, the subnet mask, and the two DNS addresses. When you set the IP address manually on your desktop/laptop to 192.168.1.100 as per the instructions, you will need to set these 4 numbers as well.

2. Don't forget when you do the tftp that you need to be in the folder that contains the downloaded dd-wrt.v24_micro_wrt54gv8.bin file (for example, if it is in C:/Downloads, type /cd C:/Downloads).

Lastly don't forget you need to be on a wire to the router, and download both vxworkskillerGv8.bin and dd-wrt.v24_micro_wrt54gv8.bin before you start. Following this procedure will install the micro version on your router.

After this, switch your laptop/desktop back to receiving your IP address via DHCP rather than the manual configuration you set as per the instructions. You will be able to access the DD-WRt micro install via 192.168.1.1 with the login username root and the password admin. From here, you still need to install the DD-WRT standard.

Unfortunately, you cannot go any farther than this with WRT54G v7 and v8 because Linksys downgraded the physical memory in these recent models. However, micro is still an improvement over the original Linksys firmware.

Boost your wireless signal

The first thing I did after I finished the firmware upgrade was give my wireless signal a much needed boost ("needed" in the sense any signal boosting that can be done needs to be done, right?). Doing so is trivial.

Go to the Wireless tab, then to Advanced Settings. Find the entry labeled Xmit Power, which is set by default at a paltry 28mW, and can be set up to 251mW. To be honest, I don't know much about the science of the whole process, but I do know that 251 is WAY bigger than 28. However, you probably don't want to pump it up to 251mW right away.

The DD-WRT manual suggests that a "safe increase of up to 70 would be suitable for most users." Anything too much above that and you'd be flirting with overheating your router and damaging the life of your router (though I've heard that many people have pushed it up to 100 or above). So go ahead and change your Xmit Power to 70 and click the Save Settings button at the bottom of the page.

I can't measure for sure how the signal boost has improved things for me since I've just moved into this apartment, but I can say that the signal is full bars pretty much anywhere I go. How's that for scientific?

Throttling your bandwidth by program

While most routers treat one request for bandwidth the same as any other, your new $600 router is a step above. By setting up QoS (Quality of Service) rules, you can give priority to your interactive traffic (like VoIP, web browsing, or gaming) while throttling traffic that doesn't require a steady rate of bandwidth to function (like P2P programs).

Doing so will ensure that even if your network gets clogged with lots of file sharing, you'll still have enough bandwidth left over to make all of your free SkypeOut phone calls. If you've got roommates who tend to sponge up a lot of bandwidth, you can even prioritize by IP address.

What to do if you brick your router

If, god forbid, while flashing your firmware you end up "bricking" your router, don't worry - all is not lost. The DD-WRT wiki (a great resource of all things DD-WRT) can help you recover from a bad flash.

Of course, your router will handle securing your network, port forwarding, and all the other things your regular old router does.

Obviously I've just scratched the surface here, so if you decide to try this out, there's a lot of potential for other things you can do. Any readers tricked out a router with DD-WRT or one of the other open source distros? Tell us what tweaks have worked for you in the comments or at tips at lifehacker.com.

just a letter to the universe

thank you for bringing things into my life that are needed, keeping most of the things out of my life that are harmful, and making me realize that now it has happened. there is someone that i think about very much who wants to make a difference in the world and appreciates the good things in life that are completely free. of course i bet she likes things that cost money, but don't we all.

perhaps i wish that it had happened sooner, but maybe the universe was telling me something, if not for the time that i have had i wouldn't be the person who i am today.

huge good news as well! i have been approached for the public show for next years houdini club of wisconsin convention next year! what a boost for the ego! i'll be up there with some of my heroes, david williamson, tom mullica, mark bond, doc eason and bobby sheets. and yes i call him bobby because that's how i heard his name from when i first got into the gig, from a great man whom we all miss Sneaky Pete, whose shoes are hard to fill, and i don't think i ever will, but i hope to carry on his legacy.

anyways, i'm starting to ramble in my own head which means that it is time to stop geeking out.

it's amazing, when i first starting using a computer in a bar, people looked at me like i was crazy, now it is an everyday occurrence. now perhaps someday i won't get teased when i pull out the knitting needles anywhere. of course i should probably start making things other than rectangles, but renee seemed to like her scarf.

i love you universe, and thanks for the return.

the only constellation i can see in the city is orion, and the bright lights make me think of her.

i'm not a wallpaper type of person, but i may use some of these for hanging pretty things on the walls

Mike Swanson's Blog : Wallpaper Images

new favorite photo!

New friend Latice Fuentes, she's the cuter of the two in red. okay she's the only cute one.