Entropic Words from Neilathotep
I am going to Seattle tomorrow to visit my college friend Steve, his wife Jum, and their 15 month old daughter Holly. I’ve been to Seattle twice before, once with my family in 1993, right after I graduated High School, and once for a Job Interview in 1999. I basically only remember Pike’s Place, but there has to be more to the city than that! I’ll report back with more after the weekend, and hopefully have some pictures too.
Remember, politicians, you will most likely being on film saying whatever you said in the past. Therefor, only say what you mean, and don’t change your mind later:
There is a particularly nasty iPhone bug going around. Judging by the scuttlebut on the internet (and from the guy I talked to at the apple store) it is no rare occurrence, yet it doesn’t seem to be all that well known. The bug is that all downloaded applications stop working – they load up until the splash screen and then crash. Given that the iTunes applications were a major selling point of the 2.0 software, this is sort of a big deal!
From what I’ve gathered, this is a problem in the DRM signatures of the applications. They aren’t matching with the information with the phone, so they just silently fail. Evidently the information in the phone and computer you sync to can come out of sync. The silent failure is a big problem in and of itself – it sure would be nice if there was a crashlog built in where you would see “Facebook – unable to load, invalid DRM signature” or such. The other big problem is that the solution to this bug is incredibly heinous. You have to erase your phone (a 90 plus minute process on the 16GB phone, maybe it’s faster on the 8GB – but this appears to be a byte-by-byte reset of the NVRAM). Then you have to restore it as a NEW iPhone via iTunes (my roommate, stega, claims you can restore it to your backup, but I had no success with that, but the new phone image worked on the first try). Most everything you had on the phone of value – photos, contacts, music, is easily backed up to your computer such that they survive the process. But there are two things that are ONLY backed up as part of the old image – SMS conversations and Notes, and as such these are completely lost.
Furthermore, the way to avoid this bug is to not download any itunes applications via the phone, and only to do it on your computer. This is an inconvenience to say the least. The next software update is suppose to cure this but I am not holding my breath!
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees
1lb zucchini or other summer squash. Cut off the end ends and slice into discs about 1/4″ thick
3/4 lb potatoes cut in to 1 inch cubes
1 small to medium onion cut in half then cut in to 1/4″ thick semi circles
Grease a roasting pan or baking sheet with olive oil. You can also use a large (12″+) cast iron skillet. Spread the veg on the pan, sprinkle with salt, and drizzle with more olive oil. You can use any olive oil, no reason to use your fanciest extra virgin.
Put a few sprigs of herbs across the top. I’ve used both tarragon and rosemary, seperately. Feel free to experiment.
Roast for 1 hour. About halfway through stir the vegetable some.
When it is done, sprinkle with freshly ground black pepper to taste. You can also sprinkle it with some ground chipotle chili for extra kick. Serves about 4 as a side dish, or one hungry person for a vegetarian meal.
I mentioned this in a comment, but the landlord called my roommate back and said he is working on “modifying the terms of the loan.” In other words, he is trying to keep the house. I wonder why it took until foreclosure started to do that. We’re basically in a wait-and-see state. We have the URL for the auction, so we can keep on eye on that. So far there is no first bid from the bank, which is a better than bad sign.
If the house does get sold, the worst case, near as I can reckon, is we get 60 days to move out. But it could be more complicated than that, since Foreclosures Do Not Affect Rent Control Rights. My current belief is that this house is covered by rent control, but I do not have proof of that. Basically it would mean that we are safe through the end of the lease (not that much longer than the 60 days past the sale) and that they couldn’t arbitrarily evict us, or raise the rent arbitrarily. San Francisco is a weird city. There are other possibilities of what might happen as well, but the worst case is livable, I suppose – save this would make it three years in a year that I’d move, and four out of the last five.
On a brighter note, here is a cute picture of a kitten:
A notice that the house is in default and due to be auctioned on 9/29. I sort of wish this came a few days ago, so I wouldn’t have paid rent to the landlord who evidently isn’t using it to pay his mortgage. Well, we left him voicemail and email, so we’ll see what he has to say on the matter. But I am not a happy campter.
Oh yes, I have a cold too.
The CSA gave me 3 Roma tomatoes this week. What to do with them? Oh yeah, make a sauce. So I made a sauce, completely from scratch, with no real recipe, just riffing.
Neil’s Ersatz Roasted Tomato Sauce
Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Cut the tomatoes in half crosswise, and scoop out the seeds and juice (not so much in Romas, yay). You could probably strain this and use it later, but I didn’t think of it. Chop about 2 of the halfmoons of onion into dice. Put the tomatoes cut side up on an baking sheet (spray it with Pam first). Sprinkle with the chopped onion, and salt. Put the half moons down. Drizzle olive oil over all of this. Bake for about 1 hour or until the tomatoes are nice and soft, and the onions are carmelized.
Put the broth and wine in a medium sized pot (and the strain juices that were pulled out above, if you have it), and add the tomatoes and onion. Blend with an immersion blender (or in a regular blender). Add red pepper flakes and pepper to taste. Heat on medium heat until just simmering, then lower heat to maintain the simmer and reduce by about 25%. Meanwhile quarter the cherry tomatoes and slice the basil. Add to the pot and serve over pasta.
NOTE: To peel tomatoes, heat water to boiling in a pot, and put ice water in a seperate bowl. Cut a small x as lightly as possible through the skin on the bottom of the tomatoes. Place in boiling water for at most 30 seconds, or until the skin starts to peel away. Move immediately to the iced water. After a minute in the ice water, peel the skin from the tomatoes, which should be quite easy at this point. It will stick a bit to the stem, but you’re going to have to core them anyhow.
I added a bit more red pepper than I should have last night, but it was pretty good. Here is a picture of it served over penne:
John McCain was born.
Happy Birthday, McCain!
(I have to wonder if he picked his VP today to overshadow his 72nd birthday. Or is that too cynical?)
4 years ago, before he was running for President, Barack Obama was running for Senate in Illinois. Here is a little song I found on his website back then. Enjoy.
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