Medically fit!

I had my BUPA Wellness full medical checkup this morning and it turns out that I'm in excellent health. Always a bonus considering my 30th birthday is just around the corner. Highlights include:

• 9.6% body fat
• Low bad cholesterol
• High good cholesterol
• 110% lung efficiency

Hearing and vision also 100% - which is weird considering I spend most of my day in front of the computer screen.

PlusNet suck

Well, PlusNet still haven't been able to provide me with a MAC Key.

They finally replied to my repeated queries for an update stating it takes 7 days to provide a MAC Key. Considering the request went in on the 24th of July, I'd say it has been long enough.

Demon patiently await my MAC Key so I can move to their cheaper, non-capped service. The icing on the cake, of course, is that PlusNet were down again yesterday for most of the day due to a power outage in London's Telehouse in the Docklands.

Puh-lease. Have these people not heard of DR? Geographically disperse DNS, RADIUS servers, etc?

If we tried to run a nation-wide ISP without DR and something like this happened, heads would roll.

Corn Fritters

• 2 cups plain flour
• 1 tspn baking powder
• 2 tbsp sugar
• 3 eggs
• 1 cup milk
• ½ tspn salt
• ½ tspn paprika
• 2 cups sweetcorn

Mix everything together, except the corn, into a mixing bowl and whisk to a batter.

Add the corn and mix.

Heat a frying pan with a little oil and fry tablespoons of the batter mix.

Ouch

Whilst cycling into work this morning, I swerved to avoid a van changing lanes when my backpack got caught on the back of a stationary truck.

The bike kept going, but I stayed where I was.

My ankles somehow dragged over the gears on the bike and I've got a few cuts. :(

F-Spot + Gallery2 = Photos!

I've installed f-spot on FC5 and installed Gallery2 on the site.

G2 integrates nicely with Drupal and f-spot has a plugin which allows seamless uploads and album management. Good combo.

Previously, I tried Digikam with the Kipi plugin pack which worked but wasn't nice as f-spot.

Bulk image uploader

I've added a bulk image uploader (Drupal's image_import module).

So expect to see the photos from the original site to slowly make their way onto the Drupal version.

Update: This didn't really work too well with Digikam as it wouldn't allow nested albums.

UTS

This basic program simply prints out the current UTS (Universal Time Stamp).

If given an argument, it is assumed that is is a valid UTS value. It will convert that value into a human readable format.

#include <stdio.h>
#include <time.h>

int main(int argc, char **argv)
{
   time_t uts;
   if (argc < 1) {
     /* Arugument supplied.  Convert it to a human-readable time and date */
     uts = atol(argv[1]);
     printf("%s", ctime(&uts));
   } else {
     /* No arugument supplied.  Print the number of seconds since Epoch. */
     time(&uts);
     printf("%d", uts);
   }

   return 0;
}

Multiseek

MultiSeek was my first (and only) multi-threaded program.

It stemmed from a competition set by a close friend of mine.

I was living away from home back in '97 and was trying to understand multi-threaded applications. He bet me that I couldn't write something by the end of week. I couldn't and failed. But I did eventually get something out.

The hardest part was having something to write.

[Additional note: this is before markup progressed to the likes of XML and web-APIs were only in their infancy.]

Eventually this mess that looks kinda like code, below, will be commented and cleaned up. It's mainly here because I wrote it ages ago and seems like such a waste to throw away.

Update: This code has been taken, cleaned-up and been made real pretty. See it on: http://multiseek.sourceforge.net/.

Ricotta pancakes with warm sugared strawberries

Sugared strawberries

• 500g strawberries, halved
• 75g sugar

Pancakes

• 250g ricotta
• 15g sugar
• nutmeg
• 3 eggs, separated
• 50g plain flour
• pinch of salt
• 30g butter

Heat the strawberries and sugar together in a saucepan over a low heat. Stir occassionally. The strawberries should release their juice. Let cool whilst preparing the rest.

Whisk ricotta, nutmeg, egg yolks, and 15g sugar in a large bowl. Then whisk in the flour with the pinch of salt.

Whisk the egg whites in a separate bowl until they form stiff peaks. Fold into the ricotta mixture using a cutting motion with a metal spoon.

Heat 10g of butter in a frying pan over a medium-low heat (30-40%). Drop three large spoonfuls of the mixture in the frying pan. Cook for about 2 mins per side. (or until golden brown). Repeat for the remaining mixture.

Quickly reheat the strawberries and serve warm over the pancakes.

Szilvas Gomboc / Hungarian Plum Dumplings

• 2½ dozen Italian plums split & pitted
• 4 or 5 medium potatoes
• 1 egg beaten
• 4 cups flour
• 1 tsp salt
• buttered breadcrumbs
• sugar
• cinnamon

Peel potatoes and cook in salted water till soft. Drain.

Mash potatoes and add warm to sifted flour and salt on a kneading surface.

Make a well and add egg and knead gently till all is blended.

On a clean floured surface, roll dough out to ½ inch thick. Cut dough into 4 inch squares and put a plum into center of each square. Place ½ tsp. sugar and a sprinkle of cinnamon in the hole of the plum.

Fold corners to the middle and roll the dumpling in your hands till round.

Cook a few dumplings at a time in salted water for about 10 minutes. Remove with a slotted spoon.

Place in a pan in which bread crumbs have been toasted in butter (one cup crumbs to ¼ cup butter) and mixed with ½ cup of sugar and 2 tsp. cinnamon.

Keep warm. When all the dumplings have been cooked and are in the pan, gently spoon the breadcrumbs, butter, sugar and cinnamon mix over all.

Serve warm with bread crumb topping and a dollop of sour cream if desired.

Chocolate Pudding

Pudding

• ¾ cup self raising flour (3oz/85g)
• 2 tbsp cocoa
• 1½ tspn instant coffee
• pinch of salt
• 4oz butter/marg (115g)
• ⅔ cup caster sugar (4oz/115g)
• 2 eggs (slightly beaten)
• 1 tspn vanilla essence
• 1-2 tbsp milk

Sift the flour, cocoa, coffee and salt together into a large mixing bowl.

Cream the butter and sugar and gradually add eggs and vanilla along with a little of the dry mixture.

Fold in the rest of the dry mixture and milk and stir until it is at a fairly soft consistancy.

Pour into an oven dish.

Sauce:

• ⅔ cup brown sugar (firmly packed)
• 1 tbsp cocoa
• 1 cup hot water

Mix the cocoa and brown sugar into a bowl and stir in the hot water and mix until smooth.

Pour onto the sponge mix over the back of a spoon (so as not to create a hole in the middle of the sponge mixture).

Bake for 40 minutes at 190°C.

Pasta a la Kata

• Spaghetti/Fettucini - al dente
• Avacado & Yoghurt - blended
• Sunblush tomatoes
• Lemon juice
• Roast courgettes - sliced
• Roast garlic - whole cloves (not bulbs!)

Bookclub Salad

• Mixed salad/lettuce
• Cous-cous - pre-cooked
• Sunblushed tomatoes
• Feta cheese - cubed
• Avacado - sliced
• Lemon juice
• Balsamic vinegar - a light drizzle
• Red wine vinegar - a light drizzle
• Olive Oil
• Sesame seeds

Drupal

So I've decided to try and get Drupal up and running and into live.

Just read the Drupal basics to familiarise myself with it all and, well, here it is.

I'll add some more modules and things to try and re-create what I already have in the existing site.

Once done, I'll be making it fully live.