How to do guide for a variety of things

Earn money in your spare time

2010-04-01T19:22:00.000-07:00

Writing for some is a hobby, for some it's a way to make a living. Writing can bring in thousands of dollars, such as in the case of best selling authors or nothing, as in the case of those who write just for fun.

If you like to write, you may want to try some sites that would provide you with extra income:

If you are US based, you may want to try this:

http://www.textbroker.com/us/contact.php

DIY airconditioner

2010-03-19T03:50:00.000-07:00

Recently, the oppressive tropical heat made me search for a solution to cool our bedroom without using our commercial airconditioner. I've read some possible projects and decided to make an evaporative cooler or a swamp cooler.

The finished product isn't so good to look at, but it serves its function lowering temperature enabling us to sleep quite comfortably without the chills, stale air (and high electricity cost) associated with a compressor based airconditioner.

A picture of it is shown below:

The cooler is made from materials that were lying around the house.

1. Shoe box
2. Unused PC fans and processor fans (the more the better)
3. 12 V DC power supply (3A)
4. Plastic basket
5. Aquarium filter
6. chicken wire
7. Aluminum screen
8. Small submersible pump
9. Plastic folder
10. Packaging tape

Instruction:

1. I stuffed the plastic basket with the white aquarium filter element and held it in place using the chicken wire.

2. I punched holes for the fans on top of the shoebox and held it in place using packaging tape. I wired them appropriately and fixed it on the cover. During this time, do not seal the shoebox cover shut.

3. I punched a hole on the side for the submersible pump hose. The hose runs inside the length of the shoebox. I punched several small holes on the hose, six in my setup, intended to pass water through the aluminum screens.

Note the visible screens below the fans, also visible is

the blue plastic folder which serves as water channel

to disperse the water across a wider area.

4. I added a fan sucking air inward to aid in air circulation and increase evaporation. This greatly improved cooling.

Note the inlet fan sticking out at the side of the shoebox.

The air is redirected through more cooling pads, and screens.

5. Seal the box using the packaging tape. I am sure you can do a better job that what I did! :)

6. The submersible pump is placed in a water container. I used bottles to serve as legs for the cooler unit. I filled the water container with water and turned on the fans.

Enjoy the cool air. I use a regular electric fan with the cooler in front, see the first picture. Cool air is blown upwards, the fan directs the cool air towards whatever direction you point the fan.

A different paper airplane

2010-03-05T22:58:00.000-08:00

Recently, my son wanted to make a paper airplane to play with and I thought should I make the same old paper airplanes or should I make something different, at the same time teaching my son with the basic concepts of what makes an airplane fly.

I ended up making a paper airplane that looked like the real thing and was around 1.5 feet in length and had a wingspan of around 1.2 feet. More than that, it flew beautifully! It can glide to a distance of about 20 feet, flew very steadily and seldom crashed.

You can see it flying here:

To start you'll need the following:

1. A4 paper (used or unused around 10 pcs)
2. Scissors
3. Glue

Steps:

Work at home sites

2009-11-03T20:46:00.000-08:00

For some, many work out home sites turn out to be scams where long hours are spent while getting nothing in return. There are two sites that I have some experience with and have proven to be legitimate. These are:

http://www.odesk.com
and
www.getacoder.com

Odesk deals with a variety of outsourced jobs from different employers, from article writers, virtual assistant, etc. Get a coder on the other hand, caters to programmers and web developers.

Connecting 2 wired LANs wirelessly

2009-10-25T20:55:00.000-07:00

Recently, I have a project that needed to connect 2 networks as one whole network. One was located in the head office, the other was at the warehouse. The distance was about 70 meters. The requirement was that each PC and device in the network should be able to see each other and access services as if it was in the same physical network. What I needed exactly was a wireless bridge. Locally, I've tried to buy two wireless bridges but was unable to buy one so I did some research and came up with a DIY solution that after several trial and errors worked!

WARNING: This tutorial involves flashing your routers firmware, proceed with extreme caution. We will not be responsible for any damage incurred from following this tutorial.

In my case I have a Linksys router and a Dlink router. I followed the instructions in the link below to create my wireless bridge.

Wireless Bridging is used to connect two LAN segments via a wireless link. The two segments will be in the same subnet and look like two Ethernet switches connected by a cable to all computers on the subnet. Since the computers are on the same subnet, broadcasts will reach all machines, allowing DHCP clients in one segment to get their addresses from a DHCP server in a different segment. You could use a Wireless Bridge to transparently connect computer(s) in one room to computer(s) in a different room when you could not, or did not want to run an Ethernet cable between the rooms. Contrast this with Client Mode Wireless, where the local wireless device running DD-WRT connects to the remote router as a client, creating two separate subnets. Since the computers within the different subnets cannot see each other directly, this requires the enabling of NAT between the wireless and the wired ports, and setting up port forwarding for the computers behind the local wireless device. Segments connected via Client Mode Wireless cannot share a DHCP server.

pictoral

In the case in which we are interested, a wireless device running DD-WRT such as a WRT54G is configured as a Wireless Bridge between a remote wireless router (of any make/brand) and the Ethernet ports on the WRT54G.

1. Download the appropriate router firmware from http://www.dd-wrt.com to enable wireless bridge mode in you router.

2. Follow the instructions in your router on how to update the firmware or see this link:
http://www.dd-wrt.com/wiki/index.php/Installation

3. Check if successfully installed by accessing the web admin page of the router.

4. Configure the network by following the instructions below:

http://www.dd-wrt.com/wiki/index.php/Wireless_Bridge

5. Currently, I am using this setup successfully streaming audio and video packets.

Setting up an online store

2009-10-25T19:45:00.000-07:00

There are several ways to setup an online store. This basic guide will discuss an easy way to setup your online store for your business. Depending on your budget, this option will set you back around Php 10,000.00 (around $ 200.00) and will need around 2 days to setup your store. Of course you will need your PC, an internet connection and Internet Explorer to do most of the things listed below. You would also need some degree of tech savvy as undertaking this is not for the faint hearted.

You have an existing store or is just beginning and would like to setup an online store. Here are the basic steps to follow.

1. Secure your domain name. Your domain name will be your website URL (e.g. www.tomstore.com, www.freshgoods.net, etc.) A good domain name, would be one that would be easy to remember, catchy and would describe your products and services. Having a good domain name can be a real challenge since there are already millions of websites out there, but again, there are many ways to be unique and you do not have to limit yourself to the traditional .com or .net address. You can register your domain name several ways, a quick web search will yield several domain registration companies but I would strongly suggest that you register your domain together with step # 2.

2. Find a webhosting company. Of course you can setup your own web server, get your own dedicated high speed bandwidth and setup your own data center but that would be too expensive especially for small starting companies. If you would want to save on cost, have a minimum setup time, less maintenance headaches, looking for a webhosting company would be your best bet. Nowadays, many web hosting providers bundle domain name registration, web hosting and email as one service for less than $ 10.00 a month.

Personally, I use the following providers for my setup:

   www.powweb.com
   www.globat.com

Register for an account. I normally choose the basic package which normally includes the bundle I mentioned above plus unlimited disk space and bandwidth. Make sure you also register your domain name with your webhosting provider under the package (or you'll pay extra for the registration). Registration with these companies take only minutes, you will need to have your credit card information with you to successfully complete the transaction.

3. Log in to your account, once you have successfully registered an account and you now have admin access to your hosting space. You can go to their administration tool to take a look at the services available to you. Normally, this would be grouped into website tools, email tools, domain tools, add ons and your account information. Using the file manager, note the htdocs folder.

4. Selecting your E-commerce engine. Your webhosting company may recommend paid or free e-commerce applications for your store. I would personally recommend any of the following:

   OS Commerce www.oscommerce.com
   Zen cart www.zen-cart.com

   Download their main application. For me I downloaded os rc2.2.tar.gz (For Windows users, the file format is Unix based, but don't worry, you do not have to do anything to it in your computer, you can still download it).

5. Upload the ecommerce engine to your webhosting space. Refer to step 3, to login to your hosting company. Upload the oscommerce engine to your root directory (main or "/").

   a. Look for the dearchiver or unzip utility in your file manager or web tools (depends on your hosting company) and unzip or decompress the recently uploaded file.

   b. Look for the installation instructions from the decompressed files. In my installation, the dearchiver decompressed it in the catalog folder (the dearchiver created it) and I referred to install.txt for instructions.

   If you chose OS commerce, you can refer to the following link to complete your installation:

   http://forums.oscommerce.com/topic/162231-quick-install-guide/

   If you have Zen cart you can refer to the following link:

   http://tutorials.zen-cart.com/index.php?article=107

Many might get stuck in this stage, but don't worry, it took me some time to figure this out during my first time. To summarize, you'll need to run configure, setup your SQL database and configure the site links to point to your folder. If you have any problems, you can write me an email, maybe I can give you some assist on my spare time.

6. Once your site is accessible via the web, go to the e-commerce engine administration page to configure your site, upload your products and set other variables (store details, tax rates, invoice layout, shipping rates, etc). For OS commerce users that will be www.yourdomain.com/admin. Just follow the instructions on how to remove warnings

I would advise the configuration of the following initially.
   i. Product category and products (remove sample products and replace with yours)
   ii. Payment modes (I would suggest include paypal and wire transfer)
   iii. Shipping modes
   iv. Information pages
   v. Store logo and welcome page

7. By this time, your site should be up running. Of course, you need to promote your site to drive traffic to your site. You can do this in many ways such as regular advertisements, online advertisements, forums, etc.

Building a DVR

2009-10-23T18:01:00.000-07:00

With the availability of relatively cheap PCs (Intel Atom based) or an abundance of old Pentium IIIs and IVs, a home digital video recorder is a good project to do, to utilize old hardware. At home, I am using a PC monitor and TV box combination tied to a decent home theater system as my bedroom TV. I recently bought a low powered Atom based PC to serve as my home NAS. The NAS was there, always on, so I figured that I might as well use it as a DVR as well. I've found this article on the net on how to use an old PC as a DVR and used it as a basis for my project. I've included my notes in blue, as to how I was able to convert my NAS into a DVR, to supplement.

Thanks to: http://makezine.com/extras/4.html

Digital Video Recorders (DVRs) have become a necessary luxury over the last several years. Millions of people rely on these devices to pause and rewind live television, and to keep track of broadcast schedules and record programs for them. Many consider them just as essential to their daily lives as their cell phones.

Several months ago, I finally became sufficiently jealous of the millions of DVR owners to motivate me to put a DVR in my own living room. But I wanted something more versatile than a normal TiVo, ReplayTV, or Ultimate TV system. I envisioned an all-purpose media server that would function as a full DVR, but would also work as a music server and play console games. It would have an easy remote-control interface, just like a commercial DVR, and a way to program it through the internet. Finally, I wanted to avoid the monthly fees that many DVR owners pay to keep their machines' schedules up-to-date.

I earn a living as a computer engineer, so I understand how long it can take to write custom software. So, in order to build my dream machine as quickly and easily as possible, I wanted to use only off-the-shelf software and components. I knew this was all possible, and after a month of research and a few late nights of construction, I had my custom DVR box. It works just as I'd hoped and does even more. For instance, it streams music over the internet, so I can listen to my music collection from work (or anywhere else).

The final installation of my DVR PC: Note the PC on the left, which is concealable behind a cabinet door, the Playstation controllers on the top shelf, and the keyboard, which is barely visible under the cabinet.

Here's how I did it.

SET UP:

You'll need:

Windows machine with at least 256MB of RAM (512MB is better), plenty of hard drive space, and a good video card.
TV and receiver presumably from your existing home theater system).
TV card I used a Hauppauge WinTV-PVR-250 card, $149 at hauppauge.com.
PC DVR software I used BeyondTV, which was bundled with the Hauppauge card, but is available from SnapStream separately for $70 at snapstream.com.
WinDVD I already had an old copy of this from my video card, but it's $50 from intervideo.com.
Winamp The standard Windows MP3 player, free at winamp.com.
VNC Remote PC access software, free at realvnc.com
SlimServer Lets your server stream music remotely through the internet, free at slimdevices.com.
Various game emulators Run console game ROMs, many free ones listed at zophar.net.
Playstation or Nintendo game controllers These work much better than PC gamepads for the price, and are available lots of places for $15 and up.
PSX/N64 to USB converter Lets you use console gamepads on the PC, $13 each at lik-sang.com.
Girder Automation software, $20 at promixis.com
Cygwin and server software Linux-like operating system, free at cygwin.com.
Dynamic DNS service Lets you connect to your home server using a fixed domain name if your broadband account allocates your IP address dynamically. I got this from dyndns.org.

MAKE IT:

The basic sequence of steps is:

Build the PC
Install the TV and receiver
Install the Hauppauge WinTV-PVR-250 card and BeyondTV
Install video, music, and game utilities
Install PSX/N64 to USB converters
Install and configure Girder
Install Cygwin and server software
Set up firewall and dynamic DNS service

1. Build the PC

I started with an old PC (a Dell Dimension 4500) that had unfortunately been destroyed by lightning. After some experimentation, I figured out that the only bad portions of the PC were the motherboard and the modem (which I didn't need anyway). I decided to replace the motherboard and keep the same case and other hardware because I really liked Dell's clamshell case design. I did some research at my local Fry's electronics store and got a motherboard that would allow me to use the same memory, processor, and case. After getting the PC back up and running with this hardware, I had a pretty decent machine with a 1.8 GHz P4 processor, 256MB DDR2100 RAM, and a 20GB HD. Not bad for a resurrected PC.

I then formatted the hard drive and put Windows 2000 on as the OS. I did this mostly because I had an extra license for Win2K lying around that I wasn't using. I may eventually upgrade to XP, but right now, everything is working well with 2000.

After I had the machine up and running, I decided to add some extra hardware. I added 512MB of RAM, since this would be a server machine and could probably use a little extra RAM. I also added a lot of hard drive space and ended up buying two 120GB hard drives. I figured that I would need quite a bit of space for use with the DVR software, and I would also need quite a bit of space to act as a general file server (for MP3s, movie files, etc.). So I assigned one of the 120GB drives for DVR duty and the other for general file storage. This ended up giving me plenty of room for file storage and about 50 hours of good quality video with the DVR software.

Any modern Windows PC can be used for DVR duty. When choosing an appropriate PC, keep several key features in mind: 1) make sure to have enough memory. If you want to run several applications (for instance, watching a DVD while recording a TV show), then you will want more RAM. You can probably get by with 256MB of RAM, but 512MB of RAM is better. 2) You'll want plenty of hard drive space for your DVR to record TV shows. The more hard drive space, the better. 3) Make sure your power supply is rated high enough to allow you to power the devices in your system. If you add multiple hard drives, a DVD drive, and a hefty 3D graphics video card, then you'll probably want to have a 350 - 400W power supply in your PC.

2. Install the TV and Receiver

Next I needed to hook up the PC to a TV and a receiver. Luckily, I already had a 32-inch TV and a receiver. I also had a working Gainward GeForce3 video card, inherited from the old lightning-struck PC. The card had an S-Video out, and it came with an S-Video to RCA conversion cable, which I used to connect it to the RCA input of the TV. This way, to switch to the the PC, I just hit the TV/Video button on the remote, like I'd do with a Playstation or DVD player. Then I connected the line-out from the PC's sound card to one of the receiver's inputs. I checked out both the video and sound quality by playing a DVD on the PC, and it looked pretty good.

3. Install Hauppauge WinTV-PVR-250 Card and BeyondTV

Next, I wanted to get the DVR functionality up and running. I wanted to create a TiVo-like experience, so I researched what PC DVR software was available. After a bit of searching, I narrowed the prospects down to BeyondTV and SageTV. After toying with the trial versions of each of these, I decided I liked BeyondTV better. There weren't any good technical reasons for this, as they both seem like excellent products, but I just liked the look and feel of BeyondTV a little better. One of the advantages of BeyondTV is that it has a free program guide service to keep your TV listings up to date. It also has a free service through snapstream.net which allows you to remotely set a show to record via the internet. This is really nice if you've gone on vacation or on a business trip and you suddenly see something that you want to record.

Snapstream, the makers of BeyondTV, offer some very well-priced bundles that include a TV card and a copy of BeyondTV. I did a little more research and found that I couldn't get both the TV card and BeyondTV software any cheaper elsewhere. I ended up getting BeyondTV bundled with a Hauppauge WinTV-PVR-250 TV card. This card is pretty cool because it includes an IR remote, which is natively compatible with Beyond TV. It also has a hardware MPEG encoder, which offloads demand on the CPU when recording MPEG files. I thought this was important since I knew that the PC would have other things running (HTTP server, WinDVD, etc.) while it was recording shows.

Installation of the TV card and BeyondTV was pretty simple. I won't put a detailed blow-by-blow of it here, because I just followed the included instructions and that worked fine.

One thing to note with the most recent version of BeyondTV is that it can now record TV from multiple tuner cards. This means you can simultaneously record multiple shows on different TV channels.

Main menu of BeyondTV

4. Install Video, Music, and Game Utilities

At this point, I needed to install the rest of the software I would need:

WinDVD (www.intervideo.com): I had a copy of WinDVD 3 that came with the aforementioned Gainward GeForce3 card. This is a pretty old version of WinDVD, but it plays DVDs, VCDs, and SVCDs perfectly, so I didn't see the need to shell out any more cash for a new version.
Winamp (www.winamp.com): This de facto standard MP3 player is simple and works great. Why change what works? I did increase the font size and the front panel dimensions to look better on the TV screen, though.
VNC (www.realvnc.com): I don't know if you've ever seen a PC's output on a TV, but it pretty much sucks. TVs just can't handle a resolution that high. BeyondTV and WinDVD are made to look good on lower resolutions, but regular Windows programs are a bit hard to read. VNC is a free program that can be used very similarly to the Remote Desktop feature in Windows XP (basically, it allows a graphical remote desktop view). I use VNC on the PC so that I can login and manipulate the desktop from my laptop at full PC resolution, rather than having to do it from the TV screen.
SlimServer (www.slimdevices.com): This is a free, open source program that allows you to remotely stream your MP3 collection through the internet. The beauty of it is that you only need an internet connection, a web browser, and a media player on the client side (Winamp and Windows Media Player both work fine) in order to listen to your entire MP3 collection from anywhere in the world. I use this to listen to my music collection at work, so I don't have to lug around a stack of burned CDs. This is one of the coolest free programs I've seen.

Web interface of SlimServer. You choose songs from the left frame, and the player interface is shown on the right.

Various game emulators: At this point, I also installed a slew of emulators. Emulators allow you to play games from various consoles and arcade machines. All you need is the appropriate emulator for a given system and ROM files, which are binary dumps of game cartridges. Some of my favorite emulators are ZSNES (Super Nintendo), Visualboy Advance (Nintendo Gameboy Advance), 1964 (Nintendo 64), and MAME (Multiple Arcade Games). There are many other emulators available; the best place to find them iswww.zophar.net. If you don't already know where to get game ROMs, you should do some searching on the internet for sources of ROMs. Note that it is illegal to have a ROM for a game unless you own the original game cartridge.

5. Install PSX/N64 to USB Converters

In order to play emulators well, you usually need a good gamepad. For some reason, most of the gamepads for PC aren't very good, and if a PC gamepad is good, then it's usually really expensive. So a while back, I found a cool product that converts a PlayStation or Nintendo 64 controller to a USB interface. This allows a PC to see it as a regular PC gamepad. I bought two of these from www.lik-sang.com, and they work really well. I took two slightly used PlayStation controllers, plugged them in, and now I can use the controllers in any emulator which supports Windows gamepads (which is nearly all of them). This really enhances the gameplay experience, and the USB converters aren't that expensive.

These converters are also easy to install. Just plug them in, and Windows will automatically recognize them as Human Interface Devices.

The Playstation/N64 controller to USB converter (shown with a Playstation controller plugged in).

6. Install and Configure Girder

Girder is a very handy program that allows you to automate Windows. Basically, it acts as the "glue" between different programs. In my case, it acts as the glue between pressing buttons on my Hauppauge IR remote and taking actions in WinDVD and in all of the other programs on my system. This completes the home-theater-style experience. For example, Girder lets me set up commands so that pressing a button on the remote simulates pressing the "Play" button in WinDVD.

Girder also has a flexible plug-in architecture that lets third-party developers create plugins to enhance Girder's capabilities. Girder doesn't natively support my Hauppauge IR remote, so I installed a plug-in that allows Girder to receive button events from the remote.

One important thing I discovered is that it is a good idea to disable the standard IR remote application that installs by default with the Hauppauge TV card drivers, because this application makes the Girder plug-in respond less quickly. You can disable this application by going to the Startup folder in the Windows Start menu and deleting the "Autostart IR" shortcut.

I installed another plug-in for Girder called OSD Menu, which allows me to easily create my own On Screen Menus. Using this, I created a custom menu that allows me to open and close all of my players and game emulators. This menu corresponds to a Girder configuration file (GML) I created, which talks to all of the programs: WinDVD, BeyondTV, Winamp, 1964 (Nintendo 64 emulator), Snes9x (Super Nintendo/SNES emulator), FCE Ultra (NES emulator), Visualboy Advance (Gameboy and Gameboy Advance emaultor), Kega Fusion (Sega Genesis, Master System, and Game Gear emulator) and MAME (multiple arcade machine emulator). This way, I can launch, play, and close everything from my Hauppauge remote. Note that the best SNES emulator is ZSNES, but it uses a very nonstandard Windows interface which Girder has trouble connecting to. As a result, I use the Snes9x emulator instead, which is almost as good.

I'm going to leave out the part where I explain how I set up all of the functions for these different programs, because it's essentially the same process anyone would have to go through to automate a program with Girder (and because it would take me forever to type it all out). Check out the GML file to see how I did it, if you're interested. I created separate GML files for all of the different programs and then imported them into a top-level GML file, which implements a nice OSD menu and enables or disables the different programs' commands based on which program you're currently running. I've included the individual GML files (named appropriately for each program) and the top-level GML file (named toplevel.gml; clever name, eh?). And if you still want more info, check out Girder's homepage at www.promixis.com; they have an excellent user forum where you can get pretty much any question answered by true Girder gurus.

The OSD menu I designed through Girder to allow me to open and close my DVR PC's applications.

7. Install Cygwin and Server Software

To finish up my TV PC, I wanted to add in the functionality of an HTTP server, FTP server, and an SSH server. I chose to do this in Cygwin, which is an environment for Windows that simulates the *NIX operating system interface. Many of the free software packages that are available for Linux are also available in Cygwin versions. I chose to use Cygwin for much of my server software because I like the Linux command-line interface, it's free, and I wasn't able to locate a SSH server available for Windows. Another side effect of using Cygwin is that I can install many of my favorite development tools, such as GCC, Perl, Flex, bison, and Python, and have those tools available if I need them for another project.

I chose to use the Apache webserver (httpd), ProFTP (proftpd), and OpenSSH (sshd) for my server installations. All of this software is available for download via Cygwin's standard installer (I didn't have to build any of them from source code). To set up these three programs, I used the instructions which install to the /usr/share/doc/Cygwin directory. The documents in this directory show you how to install these three programs as Windows services (they need to be services to run properly in Windows).

The only addition I had to make to these instructions was with HTTPd. To get this service to start without error, I had to go into the Windows service manager and set the service to logon as Administrator (instead of the default Local System). This can be done by right-clicking on My Computer and choosing Manage. From here, go to Services and Applications -> Services, and right-click and choose Properties on the "CYGWIN httpd (apache)" service. In the dialog that comes up, change the Log On from Local System account to the computer's Administrator account. Now the HTTPd service should start up correctly.

I also changed some of the default configuration for ProFTPd. The first thing I did was to remove Anonymous user access. Usually the authorized users for an FTP server are the same as the authorized users for the computer. But I didn't want everyone to have access to the entire system, so I used a configuration directive called AuthUserFile to set a passwd file for the FTP server only. I used a Perl script called ftpasswd to create this alternate passwd file and add users to it (the script is available at www.castaglia.org). I also set up a feature called a root jail that allows you to restrict user access to a subset of the PC's hard drive(s). Next up, I set permissions on my directories such that FTP users could only write to their home directories and to an incoming folder. Note that the entire ProFTP configuration is controlled by editing the /etc/proftpd.conf file. For more info on modifying the proftpd.conf file, refer to the documentation at www.proftpd.org.

8. Set up Firewall and Dynamic DNS Service

For remote access, I needed to configure the firewall on my D-Link router to allow connections to the FTP, HTTP, SlimServer, and SSH servers. After these ports were open, I added port forwarding, so that requests coming over these ports would be forwarded my TV PC.

Finally, I wanted to make it easier to access my servers from the outside world. As with many broadband users, I am at the mercy of my ISP's DHCP server. What this means is that the IP address of my network is dynamically assigned by my ISP and can change at any moment (in reality, it usually only changes every couple of months). I also have no DNS access, so I have to remember an easily-forgotten 12-digit number to get to my computer.

I found a free solution to this problem by using a Dynamic DNS service. Basically, a service like this allows you to configure a Domain Name for your IP address, so instead of typing "192.168.42.13" you can type something like "ken.isageek.org". These types of accounts also allow you to automatically update your IP address by using a small utility which checks your IP at set time intervals and updates your account automatically if anything changes. I chose to use www.dyndns.org for my service provider and a small utility called DirectUpdate, which runs on my TV PC to automatically update my IP address if it changes.

USE IT:

This project came together very well, and I now have a DVR PC that far exceeded my original expectations. The real beauty of this project is its versatility. If you have some additional programs or features you'd like to add, it's very simple to install the software and integrate it into the system using Girder.

Sweetened condensed coco milk

2009-10-23T03:46:00.000-07:00

Ingredients

   Coco skim milk
   Coco cream (gata)
   Refined sugar
   Agar-agar

Utensils:

   Double boiler
   Wooden spatula
   Glass jars

Procedure

  Dissolve sugar in the skim milk. Add 1 tbsp coco cream to every cup of coco skim milk. Cook at medium heat in double boiler and stir until thick. Small amount of agar-agar may be added to give body to the product.

How to make coconut vinegar

2009-10-20T17:15:00.001-07:00

I. Ingredients

Coconut water 8 cups
Sugar 1 cup
Fleichman's yeast 1/2 tsp
Ordinary vinegar from 1 1/2 cups
nipa or coconut sap

II. Procedure

Strain coconut water thru muslin cloth. Add 1 cup of refined sugar to eight cups of strained coconut water. Boil for 5 minutes. Cool in sterile glass containers and cover with paper to avoid contamination. Add 1/2 tsp of Fleicman's yeast and allow to ferment (around 1 week).

Siphon the clear solution into wide-mouthed sterilized glass jars. Inoculate with 1 1/2 cups of ordinary vinegar from nipa or coconut sap which is available in the market. A thin film will grow on the surface which should be a good sign. Allow to ferment at room temperature. Vinegar fermentation takes 2 to 3 months.

Siphon the vinegar and pasteurize at 60 deg C for 10 minutes. Age in barrels.

How to make salted eggs

2009-10-19T18:19:00.000-07:00

Ingredients:

Fresh Eggs

1/2 cup canning salt

water

The eggs should be submerged for weeks in a supersaturated salt solution. Fit in as much eggs as I could in a wide-mouthed quart jar. Then I fill it with water and pour it off to a small saucepan to approximate the amount needed to boil (of course add a bit more water for allowance).

Boil the water and continuously add canning salt (I used Morton) by 1-2 tbsp increments to fully dissolve it up to a point when it could no longer dissolve (which is called the supersaturated salt solution). Let it cool down. Since heat increases solubility, it was expected that some salt re-crystallized as the solution cooled.

Pour the solution into the jar with the eggs, making sure that the eggs are fully submerged. (If eggs tend to float as the saltiness increases buoyancy, you should add some weight to it). Cover with a cheesecloth like so and used the screw band to secure it in place (you may use rubber band for the purpose). Notice that a label containing the date of start is placed. Wait waited until the 25th day, when my friend Ana was here and we shared pinangatthat she cooked.

Boil the eggs in the brine itself for 10 minutes then submerg them in cold water, and cube them, then mix with diced fresh red ripe tomatoes.

From: http://manangkusinera.blogspot.com/2004/11/itlog-na-maalat-salted-egg-in-brine.html

An alternative way to salt eggs in clay

1. Mix 12 cups of clay and 12 cups of salt, adding water until well blended

2. Apply a generous portion of this mixture at the base of an earthenware pot

3. Coat each of the eggs with the mixture

4. Arrange in layers and allow 1-2 inches in between to prevent breakage

5. Cover with extra mixture and store

6. Try eggs after 15 days. If not salty enough, extend storing period

7. When ready, boil eggs for 5 minutes, and let stand 10 more minutes.

8. Color eggs, if desired.

How to make rice wine

2009-10-19T07:06:00.000-07:00

Ingredients:

2 Gallons of Water, boiled and cooled
3 small cakes (pouches) Fleishman's yeast
4 lbs. of Rice
6 lbs. of Sugar
4 boxes of raisins
2 oranges cut up

Step 1. After the water has cooled combine all the ingredients in a container. cover with a cloth
Step 2. Stir every morning for 21 days.
Step 3. Strain the wine through a colander lined with filter paper. Let filter through several days.

How to make Soy Sauce

2009-10-18T15:29:00.000-07:00

Home made soy sauce for home use or for business.

Materials and Ingredients

Raw materials

Soybean 12 kilos
Wheat 12 kilos
Salt 10 kilos
Water 33 kilos

2. Additional materials

Brown sugar 375 grams
Caramel 70-190 grams
Amino acid 0.18 liters
Salt 50 grams
Rice wine or cherry 20 cc
Acetic acid solution 2 cc
Monosodium glutamate 3 grams

3. Antiseptic materials

P. butylester of benzoic acid 1.0 gram
5% Sodium hydroxide 4.4 cc

Raw materials processing

A. Soybean

Filter and remove the bad seeds then wash thoroughly.
Change the water 5 to 6 times during washing
Soak the beans in water for 8 hours (The volume will increase around 2 times)
Peel the beans
Steam the beans in a pressure cooker, 15 lbs for 1 to 2 hours
If no pressure cooker, steam for 5 to 6 hours in regular steamer
After steaming, the beans will be very soft, it contains around 60% water

B. Wheat

Clean the grains
Roast in a rotary roaster until the wheat turns golden in color
Break the peel to expose the white grain
The grains will float in water when done
Keep the roasted grains in a wooden box overnight
After leaving the grains overnight crush the wheat grains.
Separate the coarse from the fine particles using strainer
The ratio of crushed wheat is 25 percent fine and 75 percent coarse

Multiplying the Microorganism

1. Mix the fine wheat powder and the starter powder in a bowl. Spread the cooked soybean on a mat. Mix the coarse wheat with the cooked soybean. Sprinkle the mixed powders and mix them thoroughly. Heap the mixtures 15 to 18 cm thick.

2. Put the mixture in small wooden boxes.

3. Keep the small wooden boxes inside a big wooden box under the following temperature:

Room temperature...... 27 deg C

Mixture temperature...35 deg C

Room humidity ........90 %

Stage 1 - after 24 hours, stir the mixture very well

Room temperature ...26 deg C

Stage 2 - after 6 to 7 hours from stage 1, the temperature of the mixture will go to about 29 deg C. Stire the mixture again. Shuffle the placements of the small boxes - the middle boxes on

top. This will permit the development of the color of the microorganism in every box.

Stage 3- After 15 hours from stage 2, the yellow spores will appear in the mixture. Take the

boxes ouf of the Koji room and cool them.

Control of the Fermenting Mixture

A. Preparation of the wooden barrel:

Overhaul the barrel. Remove the bad smell of the barrel by pouring in hot water and ash overnight or wash the same with 2% NAOH solution followed with H2SO4 solution and then with water.

B. Preparation of the brine. Pour water in the barrel. Add the proper amount of salt to make a brine concentration of 19.5Be. Wrap the salt to be dissolved in cheesecloth.

C. Mixing

After adjusting the salt concentration, add te final Koji (mixture of soybean and wheat). Mix very well.

D. For about a month, stir the mixture twice every day until he mixture is dissolved in brine. After, stire the mixture once every 3 days for 6 to 8 months.

Pressing

After 6 to 8 months, fermentation is completed, press the mix using a presser.

1st day - put the mixture in a sack cloth (25 cm X 6m). Heap them in a wooden box which has a hole where the soy sauce can flow into the container. Do not press on the 1st day.

2nd day - press gradually

3rd day - change the heaping and press more.

4th day - change the heaping and press

During the pressing, the volume of the raw soy sauce that can be obtained is 60 to 70 percent. Keep the raw soy sauce in a jar for 3 to 5 days, then remove the sediments by decanting or siphoning. Remove the soybean oil by skimming.

Pasteurizing

Pasteurize raw soy sauce in a double boiler at 70 deg to 80 deg C for 30 to 60 minutes. At this point, add caramel, brown sugar, amino acid and cherry to raw soy sauce.

Keep the soy sauce in a jar for 7 days. Remove the sediments. Soy sauce is ready to be served.

How to make Catsup

2009-10-18T05:13:00.000-07:00

Catsup or ketchup is one of the most widely used food condiment around the world. It is based from tomatoes or bananas and can be used with a variety of food products. This is a how-to-guide for a sweet and spicy tomato ketchup.

Ingredients:

1/2 cup of sugar

3 kilos of ripe tomatoes (fully ripe recommended)

1/2 cup vinegar

1/2 onion

t tbsp salet

1 tbsp (spices)

1/4 tsp chili sauce

Crushed chili pepper in small amount of water

Scald and peel the tomatoes
Cut into halves the tomatoes and remove the seeds
Strain the seeds and juice he add to pulp
Add onions ad boil until soft
Remove from the fire and strain
Add salt, sugar, vinegar and the spices wrapped in a piece of cloth
Cook to consistency of ketchup
Pour while hot in sterile bottle
Seal cool and label

You can add or reduce the quantity of flavorings according to your taste. Process for a banana ketchup is the same. Just replace the tomato with banana. Enjoy your ketchup!

An introduction to a how to do guide

2009-10-18T04:57:00.000-07:00

This is a how to do guide covering various topics. From food, to computers to business. I hope you'll find the content interesting and helpful. Some of the stuff mentioned here are contributions by readers, we cannot be held liable for inaccuracies or damage incurred from following the articles. I hope you'll enjoy the content