AlexH

You can plug your keyboard into either PS/2 port. I spent about 5 minutes trying to figure out why Tracy’s keyboard didn’t work, and mine did, after moving our computers. I couldn’t see the back of either machine but I thought I remembered which socket was for the keyboard. Even though I guessed wrong, it worked on my computer, so I was confused why it didn’t work on Tracy’s computer even though I could feel that it was plugged into the same socket.

Of course, it still needs to be in the right socket to get into the BIOS menu so I’m going to change mine around as well.

We had a Mexican dinner at Justin’s place last night, and Willow brought a really good black bean soup:

• 1-3 Tbsp Butter
• 1 large onion
• 2-3 chopped carrots
• 2 diced tomatos
• 3/4 cup chopped cilantro

Fry the above ingredients until carrots are tender.

• 2 cans black beans
• 1 can corn kernals
• 2-3 cups water

Add the above ingrediants to pot, bring to boil, then simmer for 5-10 minutes

• 3 Tbsp brown sugar
• 3-5 Tbsp sambal olek (or similar hot sauce)

Add and stir thoroughly.  Simmer until water thickens up.

Serve with sour cream, grated cheese, or cornbread.

technorati tags: food, recipe, mexican

As promised, Jared from the car club posted pictures:

• Going into the slalom
• Coming out of a Corvette box
• Wussy little burnout (I like my tires)
• Straightaway in the fog
• Me (on the left) and a Mazda 3 driver
• Coming across the finish line

I look fatter than usual in the picture but it’s because it was really cold out there so I had about 4 layers on. Plus I have helmet hair, so not a very flattering picture.

technorati tags: vancouver, weather, autocross, firebird, photos, fog

David Drucker (and others in Vancouver) have posted about the fog that’s blanketed Vancouver and the rest of the Lower Mainland for the past few days:

This has to be the foggiest day we’ve ever seen here. Visibility is about 1 block. You can see your breath.

Loud Murmurs: In the Fog

It seems to happen every few years where we get a long stretch of fog for about a week.  I was hoping to get some cool shots from my autocross on the weekend but I forgot my camera.  Hopefully others in the UBC Sports Car Club will have some pics that I can share.

technorati tags: vancouver, weather

Introducing our newest innovation — KitchenAid® Drawer Dishwashers. A unique two-drawer system delivers the powerful performance of two independent dishwashers in the same space as a standard dishwasher, giving you the freedom to run small loads as often as you like.

KitchenAid®: Find Drawer Dishwasher

I’ve been saying for a long time that when I buy a place and I’m able to renovate the kitchen, I’m going to put two dishwashers in, one for clean dishes, the other for dirty ones. This cool setup puts two drawers in the same space as a standard dishwasher!  Great idea!  It should be better for the environment and the water heating bill as well since you can run smaller loads when you need them.  I wonder if any stores in Vancouver carry them.

technorati tags: food

Kijiji was launched in 2005 to create a venue where a whole community could meet and help each other. Our members come to our community to find a home, get a job, share their interests with friends, invite the public to an event, find an item they were looking for, or even to offer a gift.

Kijiji : About Kijiji

I logged in to eBay this morning to dream about cars that I want to buy, and found a message about Kijiji.  It’s a free Buy and Sell type website, but the categories they present are strangely familiar to Craigslist.  They already have almost 2000 items in the Buy and Sell section, and almost 600 in the Vehicles.

But wait, didn’t eBay buy a stake in Craigslist?

I had recently sold a monitor on Craigslist so I thought I would see if they are cross posting, but it doesn’t look like that is happening.

Now it leaves me wondering why they would release a project that competes directly with Craigslist.

I’m going to browse the forums to see if I can find more information.

technorati tags: vancouver, craigslist, ebay, computers, tech, web, kijiji

A scary article on Tony’s Wine Warehouse in Dallas, Texas:

This deeply irks many longtime professionals in the Dallas wine trade. Tony’s, they insist, butters its bread by dispensing instructional swill during class sessions–preying on participants’ gullibility to justify inflated prices, often for wines well past their prime obtained mostly from distributor closeout lists. This sullies the whole wine trade, they say.

dallasobserver.com | News & Features | Feature | Sour Grapes | 2005-11-10

It sounds like a used car lot, but with wine!

technorati tags: wine, dallas

I am very interested in mesh networking, and it sounds like Macedonia is leading the way:

By using what is called mesh technology, Macedonia Connects is creating not wi-fi hot-spots, but hot-zones which stretch 15 kilometres over a city. Formerly part of Yugoslavia and previously better known as a potential ethnic trouble spot, Macedonia is now rapidly becoming a wi-fi hotspot.

BBC NEWS | Programmes | Click Online | Macedonia leads world with wi-fi

I hope they are successful, and they can share their experience in running the network with the rest of the world.  I’d love to see a mesh covering all of Vancouver.  I’m doing my part, but unfortunately I’m in a basement suite and there aren’t any other mesh nodes nearby.

technorati tags: wifi, mesh

According to News 1130, Mirage Auto Sales can no longer sell cars. This is great news for the consumer because they have been scamming inexperienced cars buyers for many years.

I’m happy to see this happen because I’m constantly seeing kids post on local car boards about this great deal they think they’ve found. It usually ends up that the cars are rebuilts and/or out-of-province cars that are unsafe to be driven.

The RBC Online Banking site has added some additional security information to their sign in process. They ask you three questions that you can define yourself, which I assume are stored in plain text on their servers. You also provide the answers, which I hope are stored as encrypted data on their servers.

Once you answer those 3 questions, you have the option of storing a cookie on your computer so it won’t ask you the questions on this computer again.

I think the hope here is that if someone does manage to grab your password through a keystroke logger, they still won’t know the answers to the questions that you answered earlier.

Of course, it can fail in two places:

• Initial Setup: If you have a keystroke logger snooping on your data during the setup phase, your security has been comprimised.
• The Cookie: It assumes that the hackers won’t be able to copy the cookie information and use it to bypass the question authentication.

But it does provide a bit more security without being too restrictive, so I’m happy that they are working on this.