Lego Brokeback Mountain.

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Beer Therapy is up and running at Realbeer.com.

Is it really a blog? Well, you can leave comments and/or trackbacks, so survey says Yes. Into the blogroll with ye.

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Ever had a hangover? Surprisingly, I've never had the pleasure, despite deserving one many times in the past. However, for those of you who occassionally suffer from one, here is some advice for you:

Hangovers happen

Hangovers are easy to avoid. Don't drink. Or at least don't drink too much. Because physicians do not absolutely know what causes a "hangover" there are many suggestions for a) avoiding them and b) for recovering quickly when a) fails.

What causes hangovers?

- Drinking alcohol. But you probably knew that.

- Dehydration. Alcohol is a diuretic; it makes you urinate and flushes fluids from the body. Drinking coffee only makes matters worse, because coffee also is a diuretic. The dehydration caused by alcohol and coffee can be minimized by drinking plenty of water. A headache is a symptom of dehydration and may be eased with pain relievers and water.

- Some alcohol is worse than others. Brandy, red wine, rum, whisky, beer, white wine, gin and vodka are worst to least in descending order of likelihood to cause a hangover. The British Medical Journal did tests that showed drinking bourbon is twice as likely to cause a hangover than the same amount of vodka.

- Different drinks for different folks. If you are allergic to yeast, for instance, unfiltered microbrewed beer might leave you with a terrible headache. Certain people are senstive to sulphur dioxide, an inti-oxidizing agent added to many wines to keep them fresh; others get headaches from chemical substance found in dark grape skins. The latter will drink white wine with no effects, and suffer with red wines.

- Mixing drinks can cause hangovers. Be careful with what youÂ’re drinking and when youÂ’re drinking it. Remember this rhyme: "Beer before liquor, never sicker. Liquor before beer, never fear." Beer or any other carbonated alcoholic beverage is absorbed much more quickly into your body. Drinking it before other alcoholic beverages will cause them to be absorbed more quickly as well.

- The rate at which one absorbs alcohol can depend on mood — increased adrenaline pushes alcohol through the system much faster. Therefore, feeling deeply depressed or ecstacially happy makes you drunk faster.

Taking preventitive steps

- Begin by considering your height, weight and personal tolerance for alcohol when drinking.

- Drink a glass of milk to start the evening. It will retard the absorption of alcohol, and protect your stomach against irritations.

- Never drink on an empty stomach. Food helps to absorb some of the alcohol and aids the body in digesting it faster. Consider eating starchy foods to slow the alcohol absorption.

- Limit yourself to less than one drink per hour.

- Drink a glass of water between each beer you order.

- Back in the '60s, a navy subcontractor provided "hangover shots," vitamin B injections, in the infirmaries of its many large U.S. centers. The shots were massive replacements of the water-soluble vitamins the previous night's massive consumption of alcohol had dehydrated right out of people. A good dose of water mixed with brewer's yeast (which is full of Vitamin B) before going to bed is a poor man's option.

- Even if you pass on the Vitamin B, drink lots of water before going to bed.

You're hung over - some cures?

- Sleep. It gives your body time to recover. A tired or unfit drinker is especially vulnerable to hangovers.

- Keep drinking water.

- Eat. Complex carbohydrates such as bread and pasta will raise your blood sugar level. Bananas are excellent because they contain complex carbohydrates, potassium and Vitamin C. And if your stomach can't face food? Chamomile tea is best, and make the first cup really strong. The chamomile will help your stomach, and if you take in quantities of water with the tea, it will ease the pain.

- Exercise. This will help you sweat the alcohol out of your system.

- Sex. See exercise.

There are doctors who claim hangovers are mostly mental. In that case you may feel the need to punish yourself with a more exotic cures. If so, try the Middle Ages mixture of bitter almonds and raw eel. Or mix together vinegar and raw eggs, and swig them down with a giant gulp.

You might decide you were better off stopping at cure No. 5 above.

Reprinted from Realbeer.com.

Posted by: Physics Geek at 08:58 AM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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Good: Someone won Beerdrinker of the Year for 2006.

Bad: It wasn't me. Bastards.

Posted by: Physics Geek at 08:54 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Kirby Puckett passed away today at the age of 44.

So long, Kirby. Rest in peace.

Update: Powerline remembers Kirby.

Posted by: Physics Geek at 08:37 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Or in this case, Windows and Linux. If you plan to install Linux on at least one machine on your local network and you plan to share printers or directories, then you will need to configure Samba on your Linux machine. Details can be found here. Excerpt:

Samba can be used to allow connectivity between Linux and Windows(95,98,NT,2000). Samba can be used to share printers, share directories, connect to an NT domain, and many other useful features. However, this tutorial explains the steps involved in basic configuring Samba for file and print sharing. For more complex topics, visit the Samba website or type the command man smb.conf on a Linux machine with Samba installed. Configuring Samba is done by editing the configuration file /etc/smb.conf that is usually located under the /etc directory. Everytime you modify this file, Samba must be restarted for the changes to take effect.
...

Samba Log Files

All Samba actions such as login attempts and file transfers can be logged in the /var/log/samba directory. Under this directory the actions are logged by machine name. For example, all actions from the machine named "Morpheus" are logged in the file /var/log/samba/log.morpheus. User actions can also be logged under two files named /var/log/log.smb and /var/log/log.nmb. This is configured in the smb.conf file using the option log file. For example, to log actions by machine name use the following line:

log file = /var/log/samba/log.%m
...

Print Sharing from Linux to Windows

The following section is usually included in the sample smb.conf that allows printers defined in the /etc/printcap file to be shared. If not add/uncomment the following lines in smb.conf:
[printers]
comment = All Printers
path = /var/spool/samba
browseable = no

Then, just restart Samba and add the Linux printer to a Windows machine as you would any other Window's shared printer. The printer name will be the same name specified in the /etc/printcap file such as lp.

For the record, I've been working through these details using the Live CD versions of Puppy Linux and Damn Small Linux. My success has been mixed so far, but that's due to in part to my inexperience with Samba and the security running on my home wireless network. Despite my current issues, I've had pretty good success running both Linux distros on my old over-amped 486 machine. In fact, once I work out the bugs, I'll probably install the miniature Linux directly onto the hard drive.

Notes: DSL already has Samba available, which isn't surprising since it's really a stripped down version of Knoppix. Puppy has it available as a download, although it wasn't intuitively obvious how to find the download request. It was one of those right-click/button-select options/*.info lists that allowed you to select the desired software. Again, not intuitive, but I'm not an RHCE. Yet.

If I wanted to take the simplest approach and create an actual print server, rather than installing a shared printer, I'm opt for FREESCO. It boots from a !floppy! and
plenty of documentation/bug fixes can be found at the FREESCO Faq. More up-to-date documentation may be found at the FREESCO DokuWiki.

Update: Read some more of the DokuWiki and found this information: Quick Win2000 + FREESCO Printserver how-to. Excerpt:

IÂ’ve read alot of different methods for setting up printing from freesco with windows. Most include installing 3rd party software and other(imho) unnecessary things. I found setting up the freesco printserver to work with win2k is very easy:

1. enable printserver (lp1) with port 515 in advanced options on your freesco box.
   
2. goto your printer setup in win2k and Add Printer.
   
3. Choose Local Printer (not network printer) and disable auto-detect
   
4. Select “create a new port” and choose “standard TCP/IP port”
   
5. In add port, Printer name should be your FreescoÂ’s IP address (in my case 192.168.0.1) your port name will will itself in.
   
6. In Port Configurations you will want to set your protocol to “LPR”, your “raw settings, port number” to “515”(your freesco printer port), “LPT Settings, Queue Name” should be “lpr” and “SNMP Status Enabled” should be checked “community name”. “Public” and “SNMP Device Index” should be “1”
   

My guess is that this'll take about 10 minutes. Knock yourself out.

Posted by: Physics Geek at 12:30 PM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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The whole Crunchy Con debate strikes me as somewhat, umm, retarded. I've long felt, since reading Dreher's views that there was whiff of self-evident superiority in the attitudes of the people calling themselves "crunchy cons". Turns out that I'm not alone. First up, TKS. Excerpt:

I expected to be done with Crunchy Cons until the book arrived, but there was a bit more positive response to my two cents on the Crunchy debate than I expected, so... here's another thought or two.

A long time ago, a graybeard who had worked at the Washington Post was addressing a group of young journalists, including me, and he said, “It’s not just important to know who you are; it’s important to know who you aren’t. You are not necessarily the common man. Your experiences are not universal. You cannot and should not assume that your readers have had your experiences, and that your worldview is ‘normal.’”

ItÂ’s a good lesson. He pointed out that he had heard colleagues saying that the difficulty in finding a good nanny was the biggest single problem facing America today (this conversation was back in the mid-90s).

Haven’t gotten my copy of Crunchy Cons yet, but throughout his career – the New York Post, NR and NRO, Dallas Morning News - Rod writes with clarity and passion about his experiences – spiritual, career, social. In fact, his fearlessness, honesty, and “writing from the heart” are probably what I admire most about him.

Having said that, Rod seems to have presumed that his experiences, tastes, and worldview are much more common than they are; that he’s not just a guy who likes organic food and traditional values, he’s the voice of a Long-Ignored, Rising Movement (or Sensibility). It would be nice to get a better sense of how many Crunchies are out there –Thousands? Tens of thousands? Hundreds of thousands? Millions or more?

Anecdotal evidence, even from “ literally hundreds of NRO readers”, does not a social trend make. I’ve heard from probably more than 100 NRO readers sharing their positive experiences with Turkey; this does not necessarily signify the rise of the Turkophilic Cons.

The Crunchblog began with a manifesto that declared, in its very first point, “We are conservatives who stand outside the conservative mainstream; therefore, we can see things that matter more clearly.”

I’m trying to come up with a statement that more directly and arrogantly claims, “I’m just plain better than you,” and it’s just not coming to me.

Russell Wardlow appears to be on the same page here and here. Excerpt:

I agree it's serious, in as much as all of this is another example of soft-headed, emotional types trying to reintroduce sophistry, ignorance and welfare statist impulses in the guise of an atrocious brand name with the letters "con" appended to it. A brand name whose purpose is also to feed its adherents' egos by convincing them they're Hip! and With It!, all the while protecting them from the unpleasantness of having to reason through any of their positions.

Couldn't have said it better myself. No really, I couldnt't. Or hadn't you noticed the Sitemeter numbers for this blog?

Posted by: Physics Geek at 09:06 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Looks like Gerard is on to something here. Fatwaland has some really cool attractions, including my personal favorite, Splode Mountain.

Posted by: Physics Geek at 12:55 PM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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If, like me, you have an old PC lying around the house gathering dust, but you can't quite bring yourself to junk it yet, I have a suggestion that can extend the life of the PC: use Linux. Joe Brockmeier put a Pentium II 233 MHz machine with 64 Mb RAM through the paces using several Linux variants. Excerpt:

Microsoft lately has been challenging Linux's suitability for older hardware, so it seems like a good time to look at Linux distributions that can run on older machines. I took six distributions for a test run on an old machine, and also tried software that turns old hardware into a thin client. The bottom line: Linux is still quite suitable for older hardware. It might not turn your aging PC into a powerhouse, but it will extend its lifespan considerably.

For these tests, I dug out Igor, an old PC that had been collecting dust in my closet. Igor is a Pentium II 233MHz machine with 64MB of RAM, an 8x CD-ROM drive, a 3GB hard drive, and an integrated ATI 3D Rage Pro video card with 4MB of video RAM. You can run Linux on older and slower machines, but this is the most under-powered machine I had available.

Next, I selected a handful of lightweight Linux distributions that looked promising, and started downloading. The distributions ranged from popular "mainstream" distros such as Slackware and Debian to distros that are specifically developed for lightweight machines, such as Damn Small Linux (DSL). I apologize in advance if your favorite lightweight distro is not represented here.
...
While Linux is good for bringing new life to old hardware, users may need to make some concessions for really old machines. Most applications aren't written with older machines in mind. If you want to use a desktop environment on a machine that's nearly 10 years old, it will probably require some patience on your part. If you don't mind waiting 20 or 30 seconds for an application to start up, older machines will probably suit you just fine.

You may also run into limitations in terms of what devices you can use with the hardware. For instance, my test machine doesn't have USB ports. Sometimes older hardware can be advantageous, though -- finding drivers for cutting-edge hardware is sometimes difficult, but that four-year old video card should be well-supported by now.

If you want or need to keep using hardware past its expected life span, it should be obvious that it isn't going to keep up with today's hardware. Whether you're using Linux, Windows, Mac OS X, BSD, or something else, most of the applications being written for these platforms require additional resources with each release.

That said, many lightweight open source application alternatives exist for users who want to use older hardware. KDE and GNOME may not be suitable for older hardware, but Fluxbox, Xfce, FVWM, IceWM, and other window managers are just fine. Lightweight GUI applications and console apps also shine on older hardware. OpenOffice.org may be sluggish on older machines, but AbiWord runs well on less robust hardware, as does Siag Office -- and it's hard to notice a difference at all when you're using Vim or Mutt. Older machines also make excellent file servers, firewalls, and routers.

I have an old 400 MHz machine sitting in a corner of my office at home which, I believe, is dying to be used again. And I don't think that it will mind too much when I remove Windows from the hard drive.

Posted by: Physics Geek at 09:24 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Actually, it isn't, but I just got around to noticing it: our good old Suburban mistress is expecting a new playmate for Spiderman.

I'll offer the following as an excuse: when a favorite blogger stops posting for a while, I'll stop by the site weekly for a while, then I'll simply forget to check in, assuming that life happens and that hey, I'll check in again. Of course, I then forget to check in again. It seems that I've missed a couple of months of posts. Whoops. Anyway, go and wish her well, especially with her newfound food cravings. I vividly remember my wife's second pregnancy, so I can empathize with two words: ice cream. All you men out there with pregnant wives would be well advised to remember those words.

Posted by: Physics Geek at 12:56 PM | Comments (4) | Add Comment
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1 Aw, thanks PG! No need to check in *too* often; I now blog about twice a week or so. On good weeks. Thanks for remembering me. Also: sound advice you give. Ice cream cures many ills.

Posted by: kelley at February 27, 2006 05:47 PM (VULt7)

2 I would have typed "Haagen Das", but that particular phrase escaped my mind right then.

Posted by: physics geek at February 27, 2006 06:10 PM (auFn9)

3 Ice cream cravings? Oh my God! I'm pregnant! :-)

Posted by: Harvey at February 28, 2006 11:19 AM (ubhj8)

4 Color me NOT surprised, Harvey. :-P

Posted by: physics geek at February 28, 2006 12:19 PM (Xvrs7)

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It turns out that the city of my birth held a pro-Denmark rally today.

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Yeah, I'm a Duke fan, but this is pretty darned funny:

Greensboro, NC: Atlantic Coast Conference Commissioner John Swofford announced today that a foul is tentatively scheduled to be called against Duke sometime in the first half of their game with UNC in Chapel Hill, next Tuesday, February 7th.

In a joint press conference with Duke head coach Mike Krzyzewski, and ACC Director of Officials John Clougherty, Swofford said an agreement had been reached for a touch foul to be whistled on as-yet-to-be-determined Blue Devil player around the 7:00 minute mark during the first half of the game at the Smith Center.

"We are very excited to arrange something that hasn't been seen in our
conference since 1998," said Swofford. "I want to personally commend Mike {Krzyzewski} for agreeing to this uncoventional deal. We all know how reluctant he has been to allow any calls to go against his team."

Krzyzewski insisted that this move was purely a gesture of generosity aimed at rehabilitating his public image in light of recent lip-synching fiascos during several nationally televised games. "The camera did not catch me really uttering the BS-word during my argument with the official the other night. Those really were my lips moving but I wasn't really yelling the word. I'm sure our fans will understand."

"Mike is being a really good sport about this," noted UNC coach Roy Williams. "This is a once in a lifetime opportunity to play them with a
foul being called against their squad, and to have it happen here in front of the home crowd will be especially enjoyable for our fans."

Clougherty says that unless unforeseen intimidation happens during the game, that the scheduled foul should occur without a hitch. "It all depends on whether Coach K holds up his end of the bargain and promises not to harrass our crew that evening."

Clougherty also said not to expect any more fouls to be called against Duke this season, but did not rule out the possibility of another one being called in an exhibition game in November 2006. "The Duke AD told me that they are trying to schedule Marathon Oil for a pre-season game next year and we are in discussions about perhaps calling another foul against Duke in that match-up if everyone can come to terms."

The officiating crew for the Duke vs. UNC game will not be announced publicly prior to the game in order to protect their privacy. Swofford said he anticipated a media barrage and did not want the referees to be distracted from their big task at hand. "This is a big deal and a momentous occasion for the league. We need our employees to remain focused so that they can complete their jobs in what could end up being a very difficult situation."

Game Notes: If the foul occurs on February 7th, it will be the 27th foul called against the Blue Devils in their basketball history...........

Posted by: Physics Geek at 09:15 AM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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Police are warning all men who frequent clubs, parties and local pubs to be alert and stay cautious when offered a drink from any woman. Many females use a date rape drug on the market called "Beer."

The drug is found in liquid form and is available anywhere. It comes in bottles, cans, or from taps and in large "kegs". Beer is used by female sexual predators at parties and bars to persuade their male victims to go home and sleep with them. A woman needs only to get a guy to consume a few units of Beer and then simply ask him home for no strings attached sex.

Men are rendered helpless against this approach. After several beers, men will often succumb to the desires to sleep with horrific looking women whom they would never normally be attracted. After drinking beer, men often awaken with only hazy memories of exactly what happened to them the night before, often with just a vague feeling that "something bad" occurred.

At other times these unfortunate men are swindled out of their lifeÂ’s savings, in a familiar scam known as "a relationship." In extreme cases, the female may even be shrewd enough to entrap the unsuspecting male into a longer term form of servitude and punishment referred to as "marriage." Men are much more susceptible to this scam after beer is administered and sex is offered by the predatory females.

Please! Forward this warning to every male you know. If you fall victim to this "Beer" scam and the women administering it, there are male support groups where you can discuss the details of your shocking encounter with similarly victimized men. For the support group nearest you, just look up "Golf Courses" in the phone book.

Check out this video to see how beer works.

Posted by: Physics Geek at 09:08 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Annie, via Jennifer and Cassandra, posted her answer to this question: "What was the #1 song in the U.S.A. the day you were born?" It turns out that my song is "Walk Like a Man". I'm justnot certain whether the title was prescient(I've been upright for years) or merely suggestive. After all, many women have accused me of dragging my knuckles, so it's not too off base.

What was your #1 song?

Posted by: Physics Geek at 10:10 PM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
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If you're in the market for a ridiculously small Linux distro, I'd like to recommend Puppy Linux v.1.08. I mentioned the first release back here.

Puppy's claim to fame is that it has a small footprint yet is full-featured, including all sorts of configuration and application installation wizards. Puppy boots into a 64MB ramdisk and the whole OS is small enough to run directly from system RAM. The result is that all applications start quickly and respond to user input instantly. Another advantage is that Puppy can often be a great choice for old, under-powered hardware.

Posted by: Physics Geek at 10:03 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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One of the reasons that people hesitate when switching from Windows to some other OS is that they don't want to lose their favorite applications. Well, here are some alternatives that you might not have heard of:

By a good margin, Adobe Photoshop is the one application that most people want ported to Linux, Morris said. Free and open-source software (FOSS) already available for Linux that have similar feature sets to Photoshop include:

* Pixel Image Editor
* The GIMP
* Krita (Part of Koffice)
* Photoshop also works with WINE

"So, if you're looking to get Photoshop ported to Linux, you might give these suggestions a try [in the meantime]," Morris said.

Many suggestions were listed as replacements for Autodesk AutoCAD, including:

* VariCAD, which has a version specifically designed for SUSE Linux
* LinuxCAD
* arcad
* Cycas
* Synergy

"After checking these applications out a little, some of them look pretty slick. If you need a CAD app, check these out," Morris said.

Posted by: Physics Geek at 11:10 AM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
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I posted a soup recipe last week and it seems like a good theme what with snow coming down right now. Here is a recipe that I used to make back my kitchen days:

Ingredients/directions
--------------------------
Navy beans 1 lb.
kidney beans 1 lb.
lentils 12 oz.

1) Wash beans and lentils. Soak overnight in cold water. Drain.

bacon fat 8 oz.(or vegetable oil, if you prefer)
garlic 1 clove
onions, chopped 8 oz.
celery diced, 1/4 inch 8 oz.
carrots, diced, 1/4 inch 8 oz.

2) Melt fat. Cook vegetables in fat until transparent.

flour 4 oz.

3) Add flour and blend well.

chicken stock 2 1/2 gal.(canned or from boullion)
bacon rind 3 lb.

4) Add water. Mix well. Add beans, lentils and bacon rind. Cover. Simmer 2 to 2 1/2 hours or until beans are tender.

raw potatoes, diced 1/4 inch 1 lb. 8 oz.
pepper 1/2 tsp.

5) Add potatoes and pepper. Simmer another 1/2 hour or until potatoes are done.

***Note: You can speed up this step by using diced pre-cooked potatoes

Posted by: Physics Geek at 10:38 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Harvey started something with this post, wherein he asks people to tell him the very first word in his or her first blog post. My first post pretty much sucked; things went downhill from there. Be that as it may, here is the first blog body word from my very first post: "Well"

What was your's?

FYI: Read quickly, as you will be auto-forwarded back to this blog in about 30 seconds.

Posted by: Physics Geek at 11:41 PM | Comments (3) | Add Comment
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Or something like that. Lucy Lawless becomes a full-time cast member on BSG when season 3 kicks off. Cool.

Posted by: Physics Geek at 09:00 AM | Comments (3) | Add Comment
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Dear old mom sent me the following images for the ginormous Top Thrill Dragster at Cedar Point in Ohio:
more...

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