Category: Life

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Too many eggs in Google’s basket? – My question answered on Security Now #326

On my drive home from work today I was very surprised–when listening to Security Now episode #326 Steve and Leo answered the question I submitted to the show! Let me backup a little and explain things. Security Now is a weekly podcast on the TWIT network that discusses hot topics from the past week on all things security related, as well as fundamentals of computers, the internet, and security. In addition to security news, they also touch on Sci-Fi books and a few health concerns—recently the all important Vitamin D3. I have promised myself to write a big blog post about Vitamin D3 at some point this winter. If you are not a listener, I strongly recommend you listen to an episode or two (At least listen to the Portable Dog Killer episode, it’s not what you think it is at all) .

Question Setup
I am a big fan of Lastpass Password storage system after learning about it on Security Now and hearing why it was safe to use (Episode 256). I am also using the Google Authenticator on my Android phone(Also available for all other major mobile phone OS) for a second form of authentication when logging into my Google account because of how much additional security it provides, especially as this account grows more important. The question I asked below was simplified slightly (Probably due to me not thinking things out fully to get the answer I wanted) but the results were good and answered about 80% of my question.

My question was as read by Leo

“Leo: No. Question 7, Jon in Lincoln, Nebraska – another cornfield flyover – worries about giving Google too many eggs: Steve and Leo, I love the podcast. I’m a long-time listener, LastPass and Vitamin D advocate. I have the entire family well educated and believing now. Yay. Over the weekend I saw that now LastPass – as we mentioned in the news – supports Google Authenticator. This is great news because I currently use the app on my Android phone to get into my Gmail account. I also know how much more secure two-factor authentication is, thanks to previous Security Now! episodes. But it makes me wonder if tying so many of my services to Google is a good idea or a potential security problem. What happens if Google were to go down for a few hours? Any thoughts or opinions on this would be appreciated. Am I putting too many eggs in Google’s basket?”

Watch the video on Youtube of Steve and Leo answering my question below. Start at 1:30:00 goo.gl/kaJD5

Or read the answer http://www.grc.com/sn/sn-326.htm (About 5/6 down the page)

After hearing this answer I am feel reassured about my concerns and I am very glad it is independent and closed loop. My biggest concern was if my Google account was suddenly compromised/deleted/suspended etc that I would be locked out of my Lastpass too, but since it is independent and I have a backup of codes generated I know I won’t lose my Lastpass. Just in case I always have my local Lastpass Pocket standalone as a measure of last resort (No cloud).

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Summer Thunderstorms in Lincoln

Last night on 8/6/11 Lincoln experienced a damaging thunderstorm. The air has been full of humidity and there was lots of heat in the atmosphere so energy was abundant. The storm had tons of lighting, it knocked out power all over town and made it pretty unstable for the rest of town. One of the local TV stations took a direct hit (During the weather cast) and was offline for a little while. After the storm there were reports of lots of down trees, fences, etc. Nature repeated itself later that night with a second round.

The pictures below were all taken after the storm except the first one. The storm rolled through when the sun was starting to set so this created some great colors on the clouds. The bubble clouds are mammatus clouds. These were some of the most defined mammantus clouds I have seen recently.

I am always a little slow posting things to the blog but am much better about posting to the new G+ which I love. Follow me at http://Liquidretro.net/+

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DIY Studio Results (Whitney)

In February I decided to start building a studio in my basement.  At the time the weather was cold and I was out of things to work on in my house while it was still cold.  This was always something I had wanted, so I built a Backdrop stand out of PVC, bought some fabric to use as a backdrop and found a good deal on some great studio lights through a contact at Awesome Camp 2011.  About the time this was finished the weather got warmer and I started work on remodeling my garage.  A couple of weekends ago a good friend came over and we played around in the studio for a couple of hours.  She brought lots of clothes and we had fun mixing and matching. I am looking forward to future studio time to learn. I still have a ton to learn about studio lighting but i think the results below turned out pretty good.

I ended up firing the Alienbee B800’s I have wirelessly with my Canon 7D with the built in wireless flash firing trigger built in.  This is a great feature, it was guess and check to get it set right but so far it seems to work great, and quite reliable.  I shot tethered via USB to my old laptop using Lightroom to see the shots as I took them.  This was cool and my model really liked being able to see every shot as they were taken.  I think for the next shoot I will bring one of my external monitors so the images are larger.  Other things I learned was I need a bit more width to the room to move lights further away from the source.  For big shoots I might have to push furniture to the sides of the room and setup there.  I will have to think on this. The backdrop holder worked well. I need to re-engineer one side of it a bit but for the most part it did its job well.  I did learn the carpet under the model while nice for her to stand on causes the backdrop to have rinkles.  This is distracting in the photography and next time I will remove it.  I also learned that I need to iron my backdrops.  Not looking forward to this task as it will take forever.  Does anyone have a steamer?

I do plan on doing a blog post sometime on the construction of my DIY PVC backdrop holder, and my garage remodel, but I make no guarantee when that may be.  In the mean time enjoy the small sample of pictures below and the link to the set on Flickr.

 

 

 

 

See the rest of this set on Flickr http://www.flickr.com/photos/eos_liquidretro/sets/72157626682837239/

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How to make Tinto De Verano

Tinto De Verano is a traditional Spanish summer drink. Its name translates to “Red Wine of Summer”.  The drink is similar to sangria but much simpler to make.  Everyone I have made the drink for love it. I was first introduced to the drink on a trip to Spain in high school by the local kids I was with.  They explained that in Spain only tourists order sangria, local order Tinto De Verano.  The drink is very easy to make and it only really as 2 ingredients. I will explain more below.  On my return visit to Spain in 2010 I noticed that they even sell this in the grocery store now, premixed in large liter bottles.  I did not end up trying this as the real thing is so easy to make and I would guess tastes better too.The list of ingredients to make a Tinto de Verano  is very short and simple.  The main ingredients are red wine and a carbonated lemon soda.

The Wine:
While in Spain I asked about learning to make this and it was explained to me that any red wine will work to make the drink. They also said the cheaper the wine, the better usually.  In Spain we bought Liter boxes of wine for just a few Euro that worked great. This is a great way to get rid of red wine that you don’t care for is just cheap. Shiraz, Malbec, and blends containing Merlo and Cabernet Sauvignon also work well. The wine variety is really unimportant. I have found the Trader Joes famous Two Buck Chuck works pretty well.

The Soda:
In Spain two of the most popular sodas are La Casera Gaseosa which is low sugar lightly carbonated lemonade type drink. The other popular choice is Lemon Fanta.  The problem with these is that they are not widely available in the United States.  For example Lemon Fanta in the USA is not made with real cane sugar.  Anyone who has had a Mexican or European Coke will tell you there is a huge difference, the same is true with Lemon Fanta.   I will explain what I use to make the drink in the US below.

What I use to make Tinto De Veranos myself are Trader Joe’s wines.  The store recently opened in my area and they sell a couple varieties of house red wines under the label  Charles Shaw.  It sells in my area for $2.99 a bottle so it sure fits the cheap criteria.  For the soda I have found that Sunkist Lemon soda works really well.  They also have a diet variety that tastes good too.  I have read that a lemon lime soda like Sprite or 7-up also works but since these are sweeter and have lime with them it changes the flavor a bit.  I have not tried these as much.

If you want to make the drink a bit stronger you can easily add a shot of white rum. Be careful as this drink does a good job of masking alcohol so things can get out of hand pretty easily.

So now that you know about the drink here is how you make it.

Instructions:
Using a high ball glass fill the glass with several large ice cubes.
Fill the glass about 1/3 of the way full with red wine,  add optional rum.
Fill the remaining glass with the Sunkist lemon soda that has been chilled.
Stir and enjoy.

The drink should be light, refreshing and bring the fruit flavors out of the wine.  Depending on the wine being used it is acceptable to use a little bit of simple syrup or sugar to make the drink a bit sweeter if desired.  Optional garnishments include a slice of Lemon or Orange.

Below is a photo of a Tinto De Verano I made last year.

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Solstice Lunar Eclipse

On December 21st 2010 a Solstice Lunar Eclipse occurred at 1:40am that was visible to the USA.  This was a quite rare event.  According to NASA a lunar eclipse occurred on the same date as the winter solstice only once before, in 1638.  Thankfully we will not have to wait another 372 years to see the next winter solstice lunar eclipse which will occur on December 21, 2094.

I have tried before to photograph various eclipses without much success.  Being at night in the winter in Nebraska it can frequently be cloudy or just too cold to go out at 2am to take a few photographs.  This morning was different.  It was reliantly warm,  28F with no wind and clear.  Before going to bed I set my alarm to get up and snap a few photos.  I am lucky because my street has very few street lamps and my neighbor’s Christmas lights were off by the time the eclipse was occurring, because of this I sat right out side my front door to take the photographs below.

To capture these photos I used my Canon 7D in manual mode, Sigma 70-200 F 2.8, Manfrotto tripod, 3rd party remote. I turned off automatic focus because I was trying to focus on such a small area of the sky.  I used Live view to frame the shot because it was easier to see at this angle and I was able to magnify the image 10x to get the focus tack sharp.  This really worked well with a combination of apertures, shutter speeds and low ISO settings.  Enjoy my photos below.

Visit my Flickr Stream for more of my photos: http://www.flickr.com/photos/eos_liquidretro/

If you want to know more about this eclipse NASA has a great webpage about it: http://science.nasa.gov/science-news/science-at-nasa/2010/17dec_solsticeeclipse/

Other photos from around the world can be found here: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/12/21/lunar-eclipse-2010-photos_n_799618.html#212892

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Rick’s Steak Out Review – Lincoln NE

Driving by Ricks Steak Out on 70th & Ost (right beside Taco Inn) twice on my way to work each day I knew I had to stop and try it out. I recently read the Lincoln Journal Star review and decided I had to try one of the Philly Steak sandwiches. Today, the weather was great so I decided to go take a visit. I arrived at 12:35PM thinking I would miss some of the lunch crowd and was wrong. There were 8 people in line in front of me. At a normal lunch place this would not be a problem but because Rick’s Steak Out is a mobile operation his grill is small and he was only able to make 3 to 4 sandwiches at a time, so there was a considerable wait for a sandwich place. It took about 25 minutes for me to wait in line and then get my food. The wait allowed me to socialize with the other Linconites, who like me had been driving by the place every day to and from work, heard about it from coworkers (including the Prairie Life Trainer), or had saw it in the news paper and wanted to try it out.

The menu options were brief but because each sandwich is made fresh to order it was able to be customized. Diners had 2 basic options mild (bell peppers) or spicy (jalapeno peppers). Each sandwich came standard with finely chopped breakaway steaks, sausage, onions, green peppers, mushrooms, Swiss cheese, and secret seasoning on a large hoagie bun. I ordered a mild 12” with everything on it.
The 12 inch sandwich I ordered was pretty big. It came wrapped in aluminum foil and I had it cut in ½ so I could save some for a future meal. That was a good idea because with the included chips 6 inches was all I needed.

So how did it taste? The taste was good. Lincoln does not have a good Philly steak sandwich, from a local place that I know of. The super finely chopped steak was perfect. It did not have the fat or gristle that cheaper cuts of meat had. It was also cooked so the edges were slightly crispy and this was perfect. I was not expecting sausage in the mix but it was really good. It was similar a chopped up bratwurst type of meat. The smoky meat added to the flavor complexity of the sandwich. The peppers were good, I think next time I would try the hotter sandwich because the mild was mild. It was a messy thing to eat and I wish I would of saw some napkins to use, but you have to expect this with a large Philly steak sandwich.

Price:
7” Phillies are $6.50
12” Phillies are $10.50
Buffalo Wings are 15 for $8.50 ( I did not try these but according to the newspaper review they are worth your time and money)

The Philly sandwiches include a small bag of chips as well.
Cans of pop or bottles of water are $0.50 each

I would rate the value as above fair. The sandwiches were pretty big and very fresh.

Atmosphere: Rick’s has some things going for it right now. The weather is beautiful this fall so far and a 100% outdoor place works well, but being at the edge of a parking lot that borders one of the busiest streets in the city it can get a bit noisy. Add to this the generator running, and this is not the place I would take a girl on a romantic first date. Rick does have a table setup so you can sit and eat if you want to. I did today so I could sit out in the great weather and that made everything else irrelevant.

Overall Impression: Rick’s Steak Out makes a really good Philly steak sandwich. I can’t think of a better one in town. The biggest complaint I have is how long it took to get my food. Some of the people in line behind me had to leave because they could not wait so long. If Rick’s Steak Out wants to capture the work lunch crowd his speed has to improve. Another thing that will be interesting to watch is what happens when winter gets here. Waiting in line is not something that the cook or customers will want to do. I hope Rick’s figures out a way to make it all work because he has one hell of a Philly sandwich.

Hours of operation are Monday to Saturday 11am to 6pm, closed on Sunday. Delivery is available, just call 402-601-8133

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Washington DC Day 1

I made it to Washington DC last night after both of my flights were delayed. The good thing was we made up almost all of the delayed time over 1.3 hours. Today Ryan and I went to the Bureau of Printing and Engraving where US Paper money is printed. Sadly photos are not allowed inside the building. We then spent the remainder of the day at the Smithsonian Air and Space museum where we saw tons of great aircraft and space craft.


US Capitol Building

German WWII V2 Rocket

Apollo 11 Module

X-15

Washington Memorial at Sunset

Be sure to check back tomorrow for more.

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Manual Lens Portrates on a Canon DSLR

I have gotten very interested (With the help of an influential friend) in some of the older classic manual lenses, so I now have a SMC Pentax 55mm F2 Type K in Pentax mount and a Jupiter 9 85mm F1.8 M42 that I have been mounting on my 7D and I wanted to try them out so I went out with a friend and had some fun around town. The 85mm is hard to focus because it has such a small DOF and its goes through 2 converters to mount on my camera so its no perfectly tight. The lens is also a bit stiff, but optically its good. I need more practice. The Pentax is a great lens & I am getting the fever for more. Its very sharp and extremely mechanical. Great little lens. Thanks to my model Megan for the great job, I could not have done it without you.


Pentax 55mm

Pentax 55mm

Pentax 55mm

Pentax 55mm

Sigma 10-20mm

Jupiter 9 85mm

Jupiter 9 85mm

Jupiter 9 85mm

Canon 50mm F1.8

Canon 50mm F1.8

To see the full gallery Click http://liquidretro.net/photo/gallery3/Megan1/