In preparation for the 24 Hours of Great Glen mountain bike race next weekend I purchased a CygoLight MityCross 350-Lumen LED headlight (on sale for $170). It arrived on the FEDEX truck yesterday and I took it out for this evening (9-10:30pm) for my first-ever night mountain-ride. Having only ridden…
I have recently reworked by computer backup strategy to ensure a high degree of reliability by backing my Mac laptop to two drives in two locations using Time Machine. These backups are encrypted as well to allow me to store them in non-ultra-secure locations while not increasing my exposure to…
Central Authentication Service (CAS) is a single-sign-on system for web applications written in Java that we have begun to deploy here at Middlebury College. Web applications communicate with it by forwarding users to the central login page and then checking the responces via a web-service protocol. A few months ago…
For the few weeks in spring that they are available, fiddleheads are a real treat. I find their flavor kind of like asparagus, but a bit nuttier. This pizza is a whole-wheat crust topped with pesto (some of the last of the 3 gallons I made in 2007), fiddleheads, portobello…
I’ve been regularly bicycle commuting since 2002 — though only since 2007 has my commute increased to 3 miles each way up from less than one. I commute pretty exclusively on my Cannondale road bike, as the full-suspension mountain bike with downhill tires is way too slow and the unicycle…
A few days ago we noticed that our internet connection seemed to be grinding to a halt. We’ve been on the same DSL plan for years without problems until Fairpoint bought out our service area from Verizon. I despise Verizon and just about all monopolistic telecoms and cable companies, but…
This weekend I build an outfeed table for the table saw and a stand for the new planer. The outfeed table was inspired by a design in Jim Tolpin’s Table Saw Magic. It folds down to make room or for moving the saw.
After getting several inches of snow on Monday, the weather has now warmed up and I was able to get out for my first bike ride of the season. It was a pretty blustery evening with west winds gusting up to 35mph, but was quite warm at about 50°F. I…
I’ve decided to learn a few new programming languages and web frameworks over the next year or so to broaden my experience and just to have fun. I figured that I’d start with Ruby and its Rails framework. Python (and its Django framework) are also at the top of my…
Ever since I first tasted it on a trip to Oaxaca, Mexico in 1999, I have maintained a special place in my heart for tortilla soup. Since then I’ve had good and no-so-good tortilla soup at restaurants and enjoyed a decent version in the Middlebury College dining halls. Over this…
