Swickerath Terminal

For the past month or so I’ve been experimenting with making my own soda. I’ve tried a few different methods:

1. Creating a Simple Syrup and adding it to club soda.
2. Brewing a syrup and adding yeast to naturally carbonate the soda.
3. Creating a soda culture (home made yeast) to add to a syrup to naturally carbonate the soda (still a work in progress).

So far I’ve had mixed results.  My first attempt was making a Cream Soda by making a simple syrup and mixing with Club Soda.  It actually turned out OK.  The recipe I used can be found here: http://busycooks.about.com/od/quicktips/qt/simplesyrup.htm

My second attempt was making a Ginger Ale and naturally carbonating it with yeast.  I followed this recipe: http://biology.clc.uc.edu/fankhauser/cheese/ginger_ale_ag0.htm.  This was pretty good as well, though it does have a yeasty flavor. The Ginger Ale you get from this method is a dry Ginger Ale (more like Canada Dry than Vernor’s, which is a Golden Ginger Ale).  I made this recipe multiple times with good success and even experimented with fruit sodas instead of ginger.  I also started using the following sites for reference when experimenting:

• http://www.learningherbs.com/ginger_ale_recipe.html
• http://wildschwein.wordpress.com/2007/07/11/ye-olde-fashioned-homemade-ginger-beer-theory-and-practice/

I did have one batch that turned out horribly wrong.  It had a distinct rotten flavor.   I was attempting to make a more flavorful ginger ale by using cloves and vanilla, but somewhere something went wrong.

My current attempt is with making Lacto Fermented soda by making my own soda culture.  I am following these videos:

Make your own soda part 1

Make your own soda part 2

Make your own Ginger Beer part 1

Make your own Ginger Beer part 2

We recently decided to cancel cable (again) with hopes of saving some money and since most of the shows we watched were on network TV (with the exception of sports, which I’m just screwed w/o cable). I have had a “HD” antenna for awhile that has worked pretty darn well:

I’m not sure what brand it is, as it actually has no writing on it at all.  But, it has worked very well for the last several years and outperformed my first attempt of making my own antenna.  The main problem with this model is that is very directional.  So, I could not get all of the major networks to come in unless I manually rotated the antenna, and even then It was difficult (I do use http://antennaweb.org to find the towers).

I decided to give home made antennas another shot, with the intention of making a model that was not so ugly that it would be embarrassing to have in my family room.  So, I created another DB8 “coat hanger” antenna that you find all over the web.  I followed the plans found here: http://www.tvantennaplans.com/.  It turned out fairly well:

As you can see, I created a wooden base, slightly routed the edges, and used fairly nice scrap wood.  I had intended to stain it pending reception results.  I also created a temporary reflector out of cardboard and tin foil, which besides being ugly did not help reception indoors.  The performance was on par with my store bought antenna, but with the same directional limitation, and still fairly ugly.

My next attempt was creating a “fractal antenna” from the plans found here: http://www.instructables.com/id/How-to-make-a-fractal-antenna-for-HDTV-DTV-plus-/.  I go the idea after watching a Nova episode on Fractal Geometry.  While the antenna worked, it just did not work as well as the others.  However, it seemed to respond better to a reflector.

Here is a pic of the factal (alone and compared to the DB8):

The only real advantage of the Fractal is it’s size, it is much smaller. Some people actually mount the antenna on the back of a picture frame so it is out of site.

I was not satisfied with the performance of either of my homemade antennas as they did not out perform the store bought antenna.  So, I took them back out to the work bench to experiment.  I used a monitor with a coax input and a digital tuner that I got free during the digital transition.  The tuner reports signal strength and quality which helps to try to fine tune the reception.

The first thing I noticed off the bat is that the signal is better in the garage than the family room.  I played around with positioning the reflector on the DB8 and Fractal and got some decent results, but I could never pull stations from opposite directions at the same time.  I tried added more fractals to the antenna and I also created another DB8 using the fractal shaped wires but these attempts did not give my any better reception.

By this time I wore out the screw holes in my original DB8 model and decided to create a new 2×4 version that would hold up a little better.  I also added a Fractal antenna to the back, basically just so I could just switch the Balun (the part the coax cable screws into) back and forth for easier experimentation.  After trying several combinations of positioning and reflectors I ended up wiring the Fractal from the back of the 2×4 into the Balun on the DB8 on the other side.  I still got the channels I expected from the DB8, so wiring in the Fractal did not hurt reception, plus I did get a weak signal for the two channels that were giving me issues.  I started to play around with the reflectors again and could pull in those stations, but not both at the same time…that is until I placed the reflectors on both sides.  I had to adjust the distance from the wires a bit, but I finally was able to pull in all of the stations!

Finally, I had this antenna that pulled in all of the major stations, and more stations than my store bought HD antenna.  And, it looks…terrible.  A 2×4 with cardboard and tin foil!  This baby wasn’t going in my family room any more, it went straight into the attic above the garage (where I could still experiment w/placement by running a cord down to my garage lab.  I finally ran a cable down the cold air return behind my TV and now I have an attic mounted antenna.

After all of that work I can watch all of the TV I want without any visible antenna.  I get around 20 HD channels, all of the Network channels and PBS, plus ION and a few others, and I don’t have to reposition the antenna anymore.  Now if I could just get ESPN.

Well, I have totally ignored this site for, well it looks like over a year. I’m going to try to start blogging again as I’ve been picking up a couple of new hobbies.

I’ve been living with the hernia now for a week already.  I can’t believe it has been that long.  So far, it hasn’t be too horrible.  I’m not having much pain, only some mild discomfort.  However, I do have quite a bit of anxiety about my guts spilling out.  The real pain is that I can’t do much around the house.  I’m trying to figure out how I can best help with the kids and dinner and the daily chores.  Most of the time I’m just taking it easy, and playing with my new iPad.

So, to cap off a wonderful weak-end of late night ER visits for Jack (with the “croup”), high temps with Isabel (104), and multiple days of little sleep due to sick kids, I got a fucking hernia.  So, since I haven’t been posting on the blog for awhile, I have decided to chronicle my hernia experience.  I noticed a bulge in my lower abdomen on Sunday May 9, 2010 after doing yard work.  I was pretty sure it was a hernia when I first saw it, as did Stacey.  It isn’t gross or anything (so far) just a big lump.  Stacey had a hernia when she was a kid, so she’s had some experience with these things.

After a night of reading about hernias on the Internet and generally freaking out, I made an appointment to see my doctor in the morning.  I got in to see him at 2:00pm on Monday May 10.  He confirmed it was a hernia and gave me a referral to see a surgeon.  Apparently most hernias require surgery because they don’t heal on their own.   So, I called the appointment line and the earliest date they have for a consultation is on May 25!  I have to wait 15 days before I even see the surgeon, and who knows how much longer after that before they fix me up.  In the meantime, I can’t lift anything heavy or do any “vigorous” activities.  I’m not sure which activities count as vigorous, but I have  2 year old and a 4 year old, so I’m thinking this is going to be tough.

So far it sucks.  There is no pain, but the 2 year old is already around 35 pounds, so I can’t lift him up, or chase him around.  He isn’t much for staying in one place or out of trouble.  To make things a bit worse, both kids have been sick all weekend and are grumpy.  Basically it means I can’t help out with the kids nearly as much as is needed, so my wife is going to go crazy.  I think I’m going to try and round up some help for her while I’m gimpy.

Notion Ink is developing a new tablet for release this year called the “Adam” (Adam is famous for eating an apple).  So, this looks really cool and is pretty much what everyone was hoping the iPad would be.  I just hope the UI can compete with the iPad, if so I will most likely be getting the Adam instead.  Also, let’s hope that the actual final product lives up to Notion Ink’s current tech specs and capabilities.

So, what makes this tablet so exciting?  Why could it be the iPad killer?

• Supports Flash
• 3 USB ports (for standard keyboards/mice/external hard drives!)
• Camera that swivels 180%, so you can point it at yourself for video chat, away from you to use as a camera, or any point in between.
• “Pixel Qi transflective display” that can display full LCD, or an ePaper (kindle) like display.
• Google Android OS w/multi tasking
• Open system, not locked like the apple store
• 1080p HD output
• 3G and wifi
• Muli-touch capacitive screen, but also has a backside trackpad

Check out their site:

http://www.notionink.in/adamfeature.php

And here is a video of the prototype:

A strange thing happened to me the other day.  A coworker was showing me a top of the line Dell laptop.  It was very cool, at only about half an inch think, so thin I almost didn’t see it on their desk.  It came bundled with a wireless doc and an inductive charging station, so there is no need for wires at all.  It has solid state drives and boots in less than a minute.  Windows 7 actually looks pretty good on this thing.  It really was very cool.

So what was so strange?  After the initial coolness shock wore off, I was staring at this laptop and thought to myself, wow that is a really cool $2500 web browser.  With all of the bells and whistles this thing had, it was just a newer version of the same computer we’ve all been using for the last 15 years.  I was trying to imagine what I would use it for, and it dawned on me that I would do the exact same thing I’m already doing with my 6 year old Mac and my 7 year old PC, just a tad faster.  I think that is the current state of computing, we are getting really good at making things faster and cheaper, but it is pretty much the same thing we’ve been using for years.

I don’t know if it is the same reason all McDonald’s look the same and have the same menu.  Or every Target or Walmart you walk into is layout out the same way.  We tend to lean towards creating a level of familiarity and comfort and not so much towards innovation and change.  Some of this makes sense, as we don’t want to have to relearn everything every time we buy a new device.  However, I think we do adapt fairy quickly (see iPhones, Nintendo Wii, etc), but then again once one of these new devices proves that it is viable, everyone else tends to copy the design and we stagnate for awhile.

Now, some people are saying that the iPad is just a large iPod touch.  Maybe they’re right, but I don’t think they are.  I think the size of the screen opens this new device up to applications that iPhones and iPods just are not build for.  I know people read on their iPhone, but I also know that they wish the screen was larger.  I also know that they surf the web on their phone, but I’ve seen them pinch and squeeze and work the multi-touch screen to get the pages readable.   I think  the same reason we buy X-box 360s an PS3s instead of upgrading our PCs to play games (although some do) is the same reason we buy the iPad.  For most of us it will be a better experience.

Apple finally came out with their new iPad tablet, which is catching a lot of flack due it its name as well as lack of some features people were hoping for.  At first I thought that apple missed the mark by creating just a large iPod touch and not a Mac OS based tablet.

Now that I’ve been thinking more about it, and after using my brother’s iPhone on a recent road trip, I think that the iPad has a lot that it can offer, and I am even considering purchasing one.  So, why would someone want a giant iPod touch?:

1. Apple makes a great multi-touch interface.  It just works great.  I haven’t used any other multi-touch devices, but many of the displays I saw in CES coverage this year did not impress me.
2. I was already considering purchasing an eReader.  The iPad does not have the cool ePaper display so it may be harder to read in bright light.  However, I do almost all of my reading at home.  Also, there are a ton of people who use their iPhone as an eReader and say it works fine (well except for the screen size).  I would definitely love to have some sort of eReader.
3. I think I would actually subscribe to a newspaper on an eReader or iPad device.  One of the biggest reasons that I don’t subscribe to a newspaper is that the paper piles up very quickly.
4. Similar to point 3, I think I would actually consider a Magazine subscription, especially if the magazines had some video or interactive components.
5. I like to surf the web from the couch.  My kids love watching movies and cartoons.  After seeing Bolt for the 500th time, I would rather surf the web than watch his super bark.  If I could do this easily while sitting in the same room with the kids that would be great.  I could do this with a laptop, but they are kind of bulky and cumbersome to hold in my lap.  Also, any laptop we have ever had needs to be plugged in as the battery only lasts 45 minutes.
6. I would like to try out some of these Apps everyone is using. I don’t have an iPhone.  I don’t want to pay for a monthly service.  I don’t want an iPod touch because I don’t think I would use it (the screen is too small, I already have an old iPod for music).   But, if I had an iPad, I’m sure I would try them out.
7. Finally, most of the time I spend at home on my computers is just surfing the web.  I would say that is 95% of the computer usage in our house.  I still have a couple of aging computers that are good enough to do some development work on if I need to.  So, I think it would be cool to have something that I can just hold in my hands and surf the web, read some books, and relax.  I’d love to sit on the front porch in the summer reading the newspaper on the iPad.

OK, here are some reasons that make me think twice about buying the iPad:

1. For the same price (or less for the more expensive models) I could buy a laptop.  Any old laptop can do everything the iPad can do and more.  But, you lose the multi-touch interface and the convenience of the form factor.  For a couple hundred bucks more than the top model, you can get a 13 inch MacBook pro.
2. No Flash.  It seems half the internet has at least some flash on it.  Some people are saying that HTML 5 may put an end to flash, but I’ll believe that when I see it (and when all of those IE 6 bastards finally upgrade).
3. It’s hard to drop 500 bucks on a device that isn’t a full computer.  I need to upgrade my current machines at some point, so it may be better to just buy a nice laptop, or a cheap laptop plus a Kindle.
4. I also need to get a new cell phone soon.  If I get an iPhone, I don’t think I’d buy an iPad, as they are almost the same thing.

“The Dolphin of America will help me.  He always does.”

-Isabel Swickerath

OK, I just heard a new conspiracy theory, this time about the recent earthquake in Haiti.  Again, I heard this on the NoAgenda podcast.  Also, I’d like to reiterate that I don’t believe all the these theories, I just think they are fun to listen to. Anyway here it is:

1. The US military launched a weapon off of the coast of Haiti that caused the earthquake.  They did this on purpose.
2. The releif effort that is following the earthquake is an attempt at a non-hostile takeover of the country.
3. Why would they do this?  Oil.  The theory is that a large reserve of oil has been found off of the coast of Haiti.  The US wants this oil and engineered the earthquake in order to perform the non-hostile takeover of the country before the oil reserve info goes public so they can keep all of the oil for the United States.