Andy's Blog

New addition to my beer Fridge

2011-09-15T09:29:00.001-04:00

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Vacation!

2011-07-02T21:56:00.001-04:00

Out camping with the fam! No new brew stuff this weekend! I hope that everyone has a great independence day.

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Location:E Franklin St,Spencer,United States

Great look at Google Datacenter Security

2011-04-25T13:29:00.003-04:00

This is a great video done by Google that shows some of the security measures that are in place protecting their vast datacenter network.

Time to get Blasting

2011-04-12T14:30:00.001-04:00

It's finally happened! The original battery in my Blast has given out. After a full charge it only has enough juice to crank the big single over a couple times. I checked around a few places, and found the best price on an AGM battery that would fit was $109.95. I went ahead and picked it up at the local dealer. I can't wait to get it home and go for the first ride of the season.

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My Kegging Adventure - Part 1

2011-04-06T15:11:00.001-04:00

I have been putting a Kegging system together for the past few weeks. I finally have been able to get all the necessary parts to put my first home brew into this new setup. I am using a 5 gallon soda keg. The keg is of the Pepsi, or ball lock disconnects variation. I have a not so shiny CO2 tank that was used for welding in the past. I think it holds 50 or 75lbs of liquid CO2. It's a beast. Special thanks to my brother-in-law for lugging it up to me, and to my father-in-law for letting me use it. It contains easily enough CO2 to get me through this decade. I am using an old GE TBX18BLB refrigerator. I only have one keg at the moment, so all I have done is pull out the shelving and simply placed the keg on the base of the refrigerator. The bottom is rather grooved, so if I want to get more than 3 kegs in, I will probably need to build some kind of base to help create a flat surface a the base of the fridge. During this expedition, I also needed to put my CO2 tank, due to its size, outside of the fridge. This was accomplished by using a 5ft CO2 line. (It's just ordinary thick walled beverage line. I also had to run to home depot and pick up a new 3/4" hole saw to place a port on the side of the fridge that the line could go through. I didn't have any idea where the coils or any lines may be in the sides, so I had to look them up on the net. Luckily, my model of fridge, from 1990, did have diagrams available on the Sears Parts Direct site. I bought the kegging system as a kit from Adventures in Homebrewing (www.homebrewing.org). It came with some pre-cut bev line, and a picnic tap as well. I am hoping to change out the picnic tap for a perlick front sealing faucet in the coming weeks. However, for now, my first batch of Dunkelweizen is sitting in the keg, and the pressure is sitting at about 12 PSI. Hopefully in the next couple of days, it will be good and carbonated up, and ready for a drink.

Cheers!

How to make your own Buell Blast Rear Sets

2011-03-28T10:28:00.000-04:00

This is a post from the Badweatherbikers.com forums. I have copied and pasted it here to ease in finding this information. I am not the author of this content.

How to roll your own Blast rearsets.
Nothing here is original, I found it all on a lot of old BadWeb posts. I can’t take any credit. This is just my version of it. A lot of what I learned was from here:
http://www.badweatherbikers.com/buell/messages/201 64/222428.html?1149546134

All the pics of the project are here, plus a few other things I did to the bike that weekend.
http://s65.photobucket.com/albums/h224/krjoseph/Va lentines%20Day%20Mods/

GETTING STARTED & MATERIALS

Give yourself at least 8 hours, but it's relatively simple. If you have average mechanical aptitude, and most Blastards seem to, you'll be OK. My wife went away for the weekend with her girlfriends. That was a huge help.

First, collect your materials. You'll need a 12"x18" piece of 1/4" aluminum plate. Some guys say you can do it with a 12" square, but I like giving myself a little extra in case I screw up. Lots of places online to get metal, I used onlinemetalsupply.com and got 6061-T6 aluminum.

Then get the hardware to mount the plates, Grade 8, of course. I got all mine from BoltDepot.Com, but your local hardware store may have it too. I liked Bolt Depot because I could get spacers and odd size bolts, like 3-3/4" (that's 3 and 3/4 Inch, or 3.750 inch, not sure the correct notation, but the first number is the inch, then a dash, then the fraction. clear as mud?)

Mounting hardware - left side plate
2 - 1/4" bolts, 3-1/2" long (20 threads per inch (tpi))
1 - 1/4" bolt, 3-3/4" long (20 tpi)
2 - 1/4 ID (inside diameter) spacers, 1-1/4" long
1 - 1/4 ID spacer, 1-1/2" long

Spaces do not come in these sizes, I bought 1 inch spaces, then 1/4 or 1/2 spacers accordingly.

Mounting hardware - right side plate
3 - 1/4" bolts, 2-1/2" long (20 tpi)
3 - 1/4 ID spacer, 1-1/2" long

This list below will help you with the order, the above list tells you what side gets what bolts.
1/4" 20 TPI Grade 8 bolts
1 @ 3-3/4"
2 @ 3-1/2"
3 @ 2-1/2"

1/4" ID Spacers
6 @ 1"
4 @ 1/2"
2 @ 1/4"

Cut the plates out, bolt them on, your half way done. Of course, it's a bit more complex than that.

HOW TO CUT THE PLATES

I used these as reference for hole drilling, but did not use the shapes. The shape is a personal thing, cut what you want, as long as it works. I found templates here on badweb, not sure who made them, but thank you, your specs were a big help. I didn’t use the shape, but the measurements were handy. I used cardboard to make templates. The right side was pretty much the shape of the sprocket cover. The left was trial and error with the cardboard till I got what I wanted.

The I cut the shapes out of the aluminum plate and painted. That was stupid, should have painted much later in the process. I used a metal cutting blade in my jigsaw, with a bit of 3-1 oil to help cutting.

Drilling holes tip - always use a tiny bit to drill a pilot hole. Everything will be more accurate and make it easier to drill

Drill the holes and bolt them on. Measure everything 3 times, you have to get this right. The right side is easy, you can use the sprocket cover as a template. Mark, drill, check that you can bolt them on. Just threads the bolts a bit for now to make sure they fit.

The left side is harder, but use the diagram above as a reference. 6-1/4" between front holes. The back/middle hole is 2-1/8" back and directly centered between the front holes. The diagonal between the front holes and back hole is 3.779 inches, or at least if Pythagoras's theorem is still right. Mark and drill. I cut a 12-pack box into 6-1/4" by 2-1/8" rectangle to help me find the spot for the 3rd hole.

Put the bolts in the holes and make sure things line up. If they don't, you probably need to fix it. Mine did the first time. Again, measure everything several times.

Decision time. Do you want to mount the plates and then drill the holes for the pegs and controls? Or do you want to drill everything first? I believe the correct way is drill first, then mount stuff up. But I wasn't sure where I wanted everything, so I bolted the plates on, then drilled.

MOUNTING THE PLATES

Bolt stack pattern: bolt, lock washer, flat washer, plate, spacers, flat washer, engine case/primary cover.

Use red locktite. Have you guys tried the locktite gel? Best thing ever. Doesn't run or make a mess. It's in a tube like my wife's lipgloss. Just put a little on the bolt and it stays. Super convenient to use. I forget what brand I used (wasn't official "locktite") but the gel was great.

This is the easy part if your holes are lined up. Stack your bolts, add locktite, bolt on. Done.

Torque specs:
Left side - 8-10 ft lbs
Right side (sprocket) - 6-8 ft lbs

MOUNTING PEGS AND CONTROLS - LEFT SIDE

Shifter - 4 options

1. Buell X1 Accessory shifter (bolts on at bottom of primary cover using primary cover bolts). About $120-$150, depending on the dealer.

2. XB shifter hardware. Tap and drill primary cover. (I think the best option, but didn't feel like opening my primary now. Will go to XB shifter when I tackle some work inside the primary).

3. Old-skool tuber shift linkage - Found my parts on ebay for cheap, I think it was from an S1, but I suspect you could make any work. Used busing from hardware store to mount shifter with the left side peg using a 3/8" bolt.

4. Have no idea if this will work, but saw a HD XR1200 up close. It looks like its shifter/linkage could work.

Pegs - generic bolt on pegs. I got the o-ring pegs, lots of places have them online, may do something better someday, but these were cheap. Lots of places sell pegs like this. Bolts on with a 3/8" 24 TPI bolt. Use one long enough to allow room for the shifter. I think was a 2-1/2" bolt. It depends on how you mount the shifter.

Just a bolt with red locktite -- bolt, lock washer, washer behind the plate. Between the plate and peg is the shifter. The bushing/bearings/ washers were something I came up with by tinkering with different parts at a real hardware store (not Lowes or HomeDepot). You want to have a solid mount, but not have the peg crush the shifter, yet still need the shifter to rotate freely. I had to cut down a brass bushing, but it seems to work. Shifting feels solid.

MOUNTING PEGS AND CONTROLS - RIGHT SIDE

This is a little more complex because you have to figure out where to mount stuff. You want the right peg to be pretty much where the left one is. I did it in this order:
1. Peg.
2. Brake lever
3. Remote reservoir
4. Master cylinder.

1. Mount the peg. Simpler than shifter side peg, just mount the peg to the plate, I used an 1-1/2" 3/8 24 TPI bolt, grade 8

2. Figure out where you want the brake lever. I mounted mine just below and slightly back of the peg. Drill and mount. Used a 1/4" bolt, 1-1/4 inch. Has a spacer/bushing on the stock lever. Just put a washer between the bolt and brake lever big enough to keep the lever on. It should rotate freely. I used nylon-stop lock nuts as well as a bit of locktite.

Brake note... I drained and disconnected everything. You could do it without, but you still need to let off hydraulic pressure on the line, maybe put a hose on the bleed valve and open it.

3. The remote brake fluid reservoir - Just bolt on near the top back corner of the plate. Not critical to line up, really. I used a 1" long 3/16" bolt, a few washers, locktite and a lock nut.

4. Mount the master cylinder. If you did not disconnect the brake lines, GENTLY bend the hard line to position the MC. I choose to work without the lines to find a good mounting position. Needs to be pretty much over the back end of the brake lever. I mounted on the outside using 1/4" bolts, with a few washer to set the MC away from the plate. A 1/4" spacer could have worked too. The linkage up/down is a tad bit adjustable. Drill the holes, mount, then connect up your brake lever. My clevis pin wasn't long enough, I used a 1/4" bolt with red locktite, lock washers and a lock nut.

5. Bend your break line very GENTLY. Mount to the master cylinder. Refill brake fluid and bleed as necessary.

GO FOR A RIDE!

Enjoy your new rear sets. Take it easy for a while, your riding position drastically just changed. Get used to it before you start corner carving.

Great Deal on a stir plate from stirstarters.com

2011-03-09T12:37:00.000-05:00

Check out the blog: www.homebrewfinds.com. Very cool homebrew site.

http://www.homebrewfinds.com/2011/03/stirstarterscom-special-offer-for-hbf_09.html?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=facebook

Requested iPhone 5 features

2011-02-14T12:56:00.000-05:00

My top hoped for features in an iPhone 5:

1.) Dual Core Processor - The new Android powered Motorola Atrix, and Droid Bionic will both be sporting new dual core processors. I think an iPhone with a single core, isn't going to fly.
2.) HDMI out
3.) Full Hardware Encryption
4.) MicroSD Card Slot
5.) Tighter Google Voice integration

RIP - IMPD Officer David Moore

2011-02-01T11:24:00.000-05:00

I'm stuck at home with the ice storm, and am watching the service that is being put on for him at Conseco. I'm amazed at how incredibly quiet it is there with so many people in attendance. What a great showing of support for him and his family. He graduated from high school with many of the folks that my wife knew. I didn't know him directly, but from the record of his life, this is such a huge loss for all of us.

To all of my family and friends that put themselves on the line everyday: Stay safe out there. Here's praying that the Lord keeps you in his protection.

Facebook SSL Rolling Out

2011-01-31T14:23:00.000-05:00

First, I apologize for not posting to this blog in the past year it seams. I have been moving quite a bit of my daily blogging, internet posting, over to Twitter. I have decided to make atleast a monthly entry here covering IT security, virtualization, or some other IT Infrastructure related topic.

Today, I wanted to let folks know that the new HTTPS Security feature in Facebook appears to be rolling out today. At about 2:00pm EST I was able to enable HTTPS browsing for Facebook whenever possible. Why is this important? Well, unless you have been sleeping under a rock you have heard of the released firefox plugin called firesheep. Now, the information gathering that firesheep is now doing, is not new. It is however new that a utility like this can be downloaded and ran by Joe User with very little effort. Through this utility, an average computer user sitting on an unencrypted wifi hotspot, or somewhere upstream of your internet connection can easily sniff and and gain access to your login credentials to various social networking and other non-https sites.

As facebook rolls this option out, it will be available to you under Account - Account Settings - Account Security Settings.

All you have to do is check the box, and click save. This will then force Facebook to use HTTPS where ever possible. Please understand that this may BREAK a few apps that you use within facebook. I would suggest not using those apps going forward, however you can go in and uncheck the box to use those apps, and then simply check the box again to turn it back on. Your information will then be vulnerable once again while the box is unchecked, and you are using these insecure apps.

Good Luck

Lent - Day 1

2010-02-17T10:27:00.000-05:00

It's that time of year again. Time to focus on reconciling with God, and bettering myself through alms giving. This year I am attempting to give up all fried foods. This is a major undertaking for me, but I think one that could be well worth it. I was able to attend the 8:30am school mass. It was pretty neat seeing my son sitting in the pew with his older prayer buddy assisting him through the mass. What do you know, he can behave through an entire time at church :)

Droid Info

2010-01-06T13:18:00.000-05:00

Great Motorola Droid Site

http://www.droidforums.net

Using Exchange 2007 with Android?

If you have IT Security issues with the inability to use remote wipe with the built in ActiveSync client that Android OS ships with, I think I have found the answer. There are a couple of different applications out there that can do the job. First is Good Technology. They have a very solid product, but it is very pricey. I have chosen to go with Touchdown, by Nitrodesk. It rocks. It supports all of the features that IT security required for me to be able to use the device to sync with corporate servers.

Is Android 2.1 coming to the Droid?

I don't know. There haven't been any official notices. My guess is yes, as the new Google Nexus One has 2.1, and several hacked 2.1 ROMS have surfaced that can run on a Droid, or even a G1. Hopefully soon an offical 2.1 image for the Droid will be released.

iPhone vs Droid

2009-11-27T12:54:00.000-05:00

I now have both phones. This isn't a totally fair comparison, as I have a NEW Moto Droid, and a 1st Generation iPhone.

The iPhone is definitely a great phone, that redefined what should be expected from a smartphone over the last couple of years. The apps that are available are excellent. The usability of the device is incredible. The interface is Apple shiny smooth. The call quality is decent, and the media capabilities of the device are unmatched. The exchange integration is mediocre at best, and the first generation's lack of hardware encryption makes it almost useless to any corporate user due to prevalent mobile device security policies of the day. Where this phone fails, is the network. Yes, my phone isn't 3G. It doesn't matter. AT&T 3G coverage in my area is spotty at best. Why would I upgrade to pay $10 more a month, lose my text messages, and get the same data speeds?

The Motorola Droid on the other hand is almost the opposite of the iPhone. The Droid runs Android 2.0. I am very impressed with the Android OS. It does a lot of things extremely well. It also fully supports Google Voice, which I use almost all the time for inbound call screening. The best part of the Droid is it's network. The Verizon 3G network has yet to let me down in the many, many places that I have taken it. The corporate email is still lacking, as it doesn't have a full implementation of ActiveSync. No remote wipe, etc.

To get around the corporate issues, both of these phones are supported by Good Technology.

So, the deciding factor for me on this, is the network. AT&T is totally spotty when it comes to 3G. You can't dual task on the phone in Edge mode. My suggestion, get a droid and an iPod touch.

Erik Buell moving on To EBR

2009-11-25T15:17:00.000-05:00

Erik Buell's last day with Buell Motorcycle company will be November 30th. From then on, he will be founding Erik Buell Racing. This new venture will manufacture, support, and develop race parts for the 1125R based race only bikes under license from Harley Davidson.

What does this mean? Well, hopefully we will still have an American made bike that is a real contender in the AMA DSB and Superbike classes. I know that many of us are happy for Danny Eslick, and Team RMR. However, there decision to move to Suzuki's is troubling. Yes, Danny earned the #1 plate last year, but the Suziki he will be riding this year, sure didn't.

Who is going to be riding a Buell next year? Not too sure at this moment in the previously mentioned classes, however we know that the James Gang, and several other privateer Buell teams will more than likely compete again next year.

Go Buell Racing!

Eslick and RMR receive the #1 Plate for Daytona Sportbike

2009-09-18T14:12:00.001-04:00

Snow Leopard - 30 day Review

2009-09-11T10:59:00.000-04:00

Well, it's been a few weeks since Snow Leopard was released publicly. I purchased my copy in advance, and had it ready to install on the 28th. There is only one problem. Not many vendors were ready to support their software on it. Normally, i would just take the plunge, and give it a try, but not this time. I utilize PGP's WDE product. It isn't supported under Snow Leopard. Sure, I could just decrypt, and run without it, but in my mind the risks are too great. Without a bootup password on Apple products, WDE is my only defense when it comes to protecting my data in the event it is stolen.

I can't wait much longer :) I am an Entourage user, and totally hate it. It's the worst app by far. I am really looking forward to Apple Mail / Calendar integration with Exchange!

Never Forget

2009-09-11T10:55:00.000-04:00

I hear quite a few folks saying, "It's been 8 years, move on."

I don't get it. How do you just move on? Would you say the same thing to those folks who lost loved ones on December 7th, 1941? Sure, not everyone is still feeling the lasting long term effects, but some are, and will forever. I don't see a problem with paying respect for those innocent folks whose lives were taken 8 years ago today.

God Bless America.

Marine Corps Bans Twitter, Facebook

2009-08-05T15:03:00.002-04:00

RIP - Farrah

2009-06-25T15:45:00.002-04:00

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/30072275/?GT1=43001

Very Cool Expense Tracking Tool

2009-06-18T12:15:00.000-04:00

For the past few months, I have tried to get a handle on my daily expenses from a tracking standpoint. I have tried excel spreadsheets, big stacks of receipts, and several different iPhone apps. However, I think that I may have found the ultimate tool to tackle this problem. I am talking about the web app xpenser. (http://www.xpenser.com)

Xpenser tackles the problem at the root. It makes it super simple to record the expense WHEN IT HAPPENS. How does it do this? The incredible number of methods it supports for entering data. Today it supports the following:

1.) Web Interface - You can enter your expenses directly into the web interface.
2.) SMS - You can SMS your expenses to a bot,
3.) IM - You can IM your expenses to a bot.
4.) EMAIL - You can Email your expenses to a bot email address.
5.) VOICE - You can actually call a number, leave a one sentence entry, and it converts it to an entry.
6.) TWITTER - You can have it follow your twitter account, and it can transfer entries.

All of it is pretty cool. You can also track your time along with your expenses. What a great tool for the consultants out there, and those of us trying to track our expenses a bit better.

iPhone 3G S

2009-06-15T13:56:00.001-04:00

Yes!

Its about time! The iPhone 3G S has all of the features that many of us had hoped would be in the original iPhone, and the 3G model that came out last year. I am totally excited, and can't wait to pick one up.

Powerful

2009-05-29T15:03:00.003-04:00

I didn't WEEP. Well, definitely not tears of joy.

It's Time for a Tea Party

2009-03-27T18:57:00.001-04:00

Did you know?

2009-03-26T11:18:00.002-04:00

March Madness - How to counter the bandwidth suck

2009-03-19T10:16:00.000-04:00

Every year us folks responsible for corporate networks have to be the bad cops. This is one of those times, March Madness. Now, thanks to the NCAA, all of the games can be watched online for free. Luckily these folks have also made all of the video play via the same Fully Qualified Domain Name (http://mmod.ncaa.com).

So all you have to do is block that particular host. This can be done several ways.

1.) add mmod.ncaa.com to your block list on OpenDNS
2.) Create a firewall rule at all of your sites to block to mmod.ncaa.com, and its IP addresses.
3.) Create a false DNS record on your internal dns servers to point to nowhere
4.) Create a hosts file and distribute it via GPO or other means to block the lookup.

Option number 1 is much easier, and OpenDNS provides quite a bit of value for being a free service. I would suggest taking a look at it. http://www.opendns.com/