Category: Topslakr

Posts by Topslakr

Posted on

Food, Inc. Is Worth a Trip

Most movies dealing with the business of food are jam packed with horrible images and generally scary content. They typically seem hell bent on scaring you and then the movie just ends. This was not the case with Food, Inc. Sure, the film included the obligatory clips of the mistreatment of animals and other not so pleasant topics, but in the end I didn’t leave feeling powerless, I left thinking that I could, in a small way, begin to correct what is happening.

The movie was laid out around many topics, each of which is covered only briefly. They offer a description of what each problem area with our food supply is and then brought in some people to help put a real face to the issues.… Click here to read more!

Posted on

The Low Power Atom Server

Time for another incredibly exciting post about linux servers and their power use. I have built and tested my Atom server and I’m pretty excited to note that it uses 33 watts when idle and a whopping 37 when under heavy load. You can find a detailed description of the parts I ordered to assemble the server on another post on my blog, so I won’t go back into it here. I will need to make one change going forward though. Hitachi no longer makes the 80GB laptop hard drives that I was planning to use but Seagate’s Momentus drives are almost exactly the same power use.… Click here to read more!

Posted on

Building a Low Power, Atom based Server

As a geek and IT person by trade I have a somewhat unique setup at my home, in terms of computers. I have several web servers, a mail server and a large storage array that I keep running for my personal use. On the one hand, it’s fun for me and allows me to do things most people can’t dream of, but on the other hand it’s all valuable training setup and a great place to do testing before trying it on production servers at the office. The stakes are much lower for me then for the company I work for.… Click here to read more!

Posted on

Video Production has begun!

This past Saturday we began building our first poly tunnel. This project also signaled the start of filming for the upcoming video podcast. I enlisted some filming and photography help from a friend of mine that was there and I think we got enough recorded to make an episode work. Time will tell.

We have some final work to do on the tunnel which we are planning to take care of next weekend. Once that is done and filmed I should be able to start piecing together the video post, which makes me pretty nervous…

Fingers crossed!

Topslakr

Posted on

Starting a Video Podcast…

I’m preparing to go out on a limb here. I’ve ordered a camcorder, some various bits of kit and I plan to embark on a project to create compelling footage that is both entertaining and informational about… farming on a small scale. I just might be crazy.

I believe that producing a substantial amount of your own food will be easy and not take a tremendous amount of time. Based on this I am going to try and document my process to do just that and will publish my findings for all the world to see, even if I’m wrong. I don’t want to post some clips of me pulling weeds or looking at a gathered information about time spent per day ect, I want to talk about my process, the costs, the reasons, and how it turns out.… Click here to read more!

Posted on

A.I.G. Sues US for $306 Million, so what?

I’m not an especially political person. I exersice my right to vote here in the US and I stay current with what is happening but I generally try to avoid political discussion. This story on the NYTimes though struck me so I thought I’d pass along my quick thoughts…

Take a look at this story, and then come back: A.I.G. Sues U.S. for Return of $306 Million in Tax Payments

Basically, to me it’s all ‘Blah Blah Blah’. I’m not a tax person and, who knows, maybe they are ‘owed’ money. I’m not going to discuss that end of things. I think it’s ridiculous for them to sue the government with the governments money, but that is neither here nor there.… Click here to read more!

Posted on

Grow Your Own, Season 2

Spring is begining to come upon us here in the northeast of America. Over the past few weeks we’ve seen some warm temps, climbing into the 60s; We have also seen about a foot of snow in the past 10 days or so. Here in New England, it takes spring a few weeks to really get a foot hold. As it approaches however my mind is increasingly focused on developing (growing, if you will), last years vegetable experiment.

Last year I took a small plot of land, only 4′ by 8′ and grew a few vegetables. It was small, it was simple and it took almost no time at all.… Click here to read more!

Posted on

I like 35mm film, and I’m not ashamed.

If you look around the internet you will find what almost appears to be a bit of a film renaissance. People all over the internet are adding film back into their photography. It seems people are not abandoning digital for film, they are simply adding film to how they work. While the end result between digital and film are the same, pictures, they both have various strengths and weaknesses that can and should be exploited.

Digital is really great at a lot of things and I shoot 75% of my work on my Nikon D300. You can make thousands of tweaks to the camera, change the ISO speed at any time and can see what your shots look like right now.… Click here to read more!

Posted on

Into the Sky… Again!

I recently had a chance to go for another flight in the Cessna 180. The weather around here has been very cold lately so there were some concerns that the plane would not be willing to come to life. Dave, the pilot and owner, brought with him a pre-heater for the plane though so after ten or fifteen minutes of warming when we pulled it out of the hanger it started up almost immediately.

Once we got things moving we began taxiing out to the runway at Hampton Airfield (7B3). The whole place is a sheet of ice from the hanger to the runway.… Click here to read more!

Posted on

Fuji Superia 400 Film Review

When I first bought my Nikon FE I canvased a few people I know that have or do shoot film to find out what they recommend for a general use film. Something that I could use for whatever might come my way. Everyone said to look for a 400 speed film and a number of them pointed me squarely at this Fuji film. It’s a standard print film that can be handled and processed most anywhere. I bought a few 36 exposure rolls and went to town, so to speak.

I am pretty impressed with this film. It does have a healthy amount of grain to it, though it’s not distracting, and it does very well with shadow detail.… Click here to read more!