Author: Topslakr

Posted on

Grow Your Own: The Garden is a Reality!

The garden has been built, planted and is now growing. Some might say that since no posts have come forth that those facts prove that I am behind in my posting. Those people would be correct.

The garden is a single 4′ x 8′ raised bed. For it’s construction I bought two 12 foot 2×12’s and cut 4 feet off of the end of each. A attached them with an internal bracket and a top bracket. It took only a few minutes to put together but think ahead as to which screws you will use. Make sure they are the right size for both the bracket and the depth of the wood.… Click here to read more!

Posted on

Apple Leopard Server: Two Weeks Later

So, it’s been installed and running for two weeks. I think I made it pretty clear in the first review that it’s good but not perfect, nothing is and over the past 14 days I’ve had a chance to really dig in and learn new things and fix some problems.

If you have been following my twitter updates you may have noticed some, shall we say, frustrations, with the VPN server that come with Leopard server. Me, being lazy, setup a simple PPTP VPN for my use that I use to connect back home when I’m on the road or looking to secure my traffic from whatever random wireless I’m connected to.… Click here to read more!

Posted on

Review: Apple’s Leopard Server

As you may have read in my twitter feed, I have installed Mac OS X Leopard Server on a basically stock Mac Mini for my personal use. The Mini hosts email and webmail, calendars, directory services and a VPN without any problems at all.

For a little bit of background, by day I am a Windows and Linux admin and am responsible for about dozen servers and ~750 users. I am very comfortable with servers and how they work so this setup was not my first go in the world of servers. This web server is hosted on one of my Linux servers as a matter of fact.… Click here to read more!

Posted on

Choosing Film – Part One

It never occurred to me that buying film could be so confusing. With digital you just pick and ISO setting and go but with film each manufacturer makes a number of different kinds of film based on it’s speed, the way the grain looks, and if it’s color or black and white. I’ve been trying to pick out a few types of film as of late to bring on a short trip I’m taking north in the next few days. I received a great comment on my first Nikon FE post that pointed me toward a very simple approach to buying film.… Click here to read more!

Posted on

My Nikon FE

Well, I bought the FE. Got it at my local camera store, Eagle Photo. Used, of course, but in quite good condition. It appears to have been well loved but so far so good. I bought it with a ton of cheap, expired film so that I can test to see if it works correctly ect.

My Nikon FE

When I called their earlier today they told me they had the FE and a 24mm f/2.8 lens for very little money. I said great, I’ll be there before you close. When I got there the FE was there and looked good but the 24mm they were talking about was an off brand Tokina.… Click here to read more!

Posted on

Cooking a Pork Rib Roast

A few weekends ago I roasted a Pork Rib Roast with a friend of mine. Neither one of use had ever eaten one.. let alone cooked one, so it was a bit of an adventure. He and I both enjoy cooking though so we gathered family and his pork reluctant girlfriend and prepared a feast. I’ve included a good number of images that are at the bottom of the post. I think I’ve posted information throughout this post that should explain them all…

The first step was to acquire the hunk of beast. I headed out to The Meat House the night before so see what they could do.… Click here to read more!

Posted on

NAB News: Red Scarlet

NAB, or the National Association of Broadcasters, is holding their annual conference in Las Vegas this week. It’s a place for a number of companies to show off their new products ect. Standard conference stuff. Something quite interesting has caught my eye though, it’s the Red Scarlet.

I’m not usually a big video guy. I prefer sill images to video but the camera looks amazing. It shoots at 3k, well above current HD video standards, and will sell, as a complete package, for somewhere around the $3000 range. Time will tell how close they come to what they have announced, we won’t know until next year, but if it does hit the $3000 mark I may just have to pick one up.… Click here to read more!

Posted on

Traffic Lights – Time Wasters for All!

I few months ago my route to work changed and now includes about a dozen traffic lights. I used to have to commute 90+ minutes down toward Boston in traffic but since my office has moved I now have the option of taking a more rural route. I’m not complaining.. it’s a huge improvement over the traffic and truth be told I could still cover most of my current commute on highways if I wanted to. It’s not that I’m unhappy with the lights, it’s just that I think they could be programmed to work more efficiently. Let me also preface this by mentioning that all of these observations are likely null and void in a more urban area where traffic is ubiquitous.… Click here to read more!

Posted on

Macbreak Weekly with Patrick Wilson

This weeks Macbreak Weekly has guest Patrick Wilson, the drummer from Weezer. During the show they do talk a bit about technology and Mac’s but a good portion of it turned into a great interview with him. He has a lot to say and I have to say, he says it well. I’m not a great fan of Weezer but he has a lot of insight and it’s a great listen.

To listen or download:

Macbreak Weekley Ep82

Topslakr

Posted on

Review: Norco DS-1220

The DS-1220 is great. It was dead easy to setup and has caused me to trouble at all. I installed Fedora 8 in the days leading up to the delivery the the DS-1220 based solely on the fact that I saw something on the web that said the controller card worked in Fedora. Come to find out the drivers for the card are actually available in the current kernel and most distributions are coming with the driver available as a module. I did nothing to setup or install the Norco DS-1220 at all.

Let me take a short step back and bring you through the torment that got me to this place.… Click here to read more!