On the web

Or, subtitled, how I fought the Verizon modem and won.

For DSL service, Verizon supplies a model 7500 Versalink modem. This modem is also a router and I have it set up to be our DHCP server as well. It certainly works well and I am fairly content with it. But recently, I was threatened with the loss of my web page. This was enough for me to swing into action and put an ancient Sparcy (Ultra 2) into action. It's interesting to note that the current version of Solaris is incompatible with ancient hardware like this. So, my next choice was something secure, so I went for OpenBSD. I had various adventures with the dead CD-ROM reader, the incompatible external CD-ROM reader, etc. I finally was able to netboot it only to discover that OpenBSD didn't like the onboard SCSI drives. Say what? Well, that meant NetBSD. And you know what? It worked right out of the box. I had to get the package manager up and running so I could get apache. And apache also worked straight up. So, onto the web... And the router.

It seemed simple enough: just enable port 80 (HTTP) and we'll be ready to go. Not so fast! First, there's the issue of host addresses: I wanted the machine (now named "cullen" after the town in Scotland named for skink, a certain stew) to have a static IP address. Well, if I did that then the router had trouble (I went for a different subnet and it didn't like that). I eventually figured out that I could have it both ways! In the deep recesses of my mind was the notion of aliases and this is what I did: One static, one dynamic.

Back to the router. I tried to open up port 80 by creating a new profile called "cullen" (shock). Didn't work. All the external tools said it was closed. After sleeping on it, I decided that maybe this additional port forwarding didn't work... Maybe I should add it to the "default" profile. And lo and behold. The port was open.

One of the interesting tidbits from this is that in spite of registering with dyndns.org, if I try and put the symbolic host address into the brower, I'll get the modem/router home page. But if I am external, I definitely get the right page. At this point I don't care. Originally, I was also going to enable SSH but I am tired of script kiddies, so for the time being it's closed. I might open it when I go away...

The machine also had two ethernet ports --- I might use one for a direct connection to the router and the other for internal net traffic. It should handle that. Famous last words.

White Sauce Pizza

I know, it's an abomination, but I've been working on "white sauce pizza". As I see it currently (subject to change), there are 3 (count 'em) methods of pizza construction: (1) red sauce (2) white sauce (3) no sauce. The typical american pizza is of course #1. Escarole and caper is an example of #3. So, what about #2? Well, it all starts with salsa besciamella (a.k.a. bechamel). So, it follows the following "rule": 2:2:1 --- 2 T butter, 2 T flour and 1 cup of milk. A whisk is a good accessory here. It's also important to keep the heat low so that the butter doesn't brown and the flour doesn't toast (this isn't a cajun roux after all). I add parmesan and romano cheese to the finished product. The last step is to add the vegie (last experiment involved swiss chard and carmelized onions). It was tasty but I thought it had a few faults: (a) the sauce should be thick --- if it's too loose, it will be too wet and so will the pizza. Which leads me to (b) Perhaps a light coating of olive oil would prevent the dough from getting excessively soggy. Other toppings I've done with a white sauce include baby artichokes with pancetta (a power combination if there ever was one).

Pizza

I've been thinking about pizza lately. I believe that a lot of cook shy away from it because they believe that it's complicated. Nothing could be more untrue. I will say, however, that having the right equipment makes it easier. This means (a) a pizza stone and (b) a pizza peel (that's the paddle). The reason for the stone is to get the nice crust on the bottom --- the reason for the peel is to extract the floppy pizza from the oven (and turn it if you are so adventurous).

Let's now discuss the dough itself. It's not complex, even for someone who is not a baker. I use Nick Maglieri's recipe from How to Bake. I have it memorized: 3 cups flour + 1 tsp salt. Then 5/4 moderate temperature water (this is the secret: it should be like baby milk) and 1 pack yeast. I like to goose it up by adding a tiny bit of honey to the warm water. The yeast eats it up and starts to "bloom". Oh, and some olive oil. I mix wet with dry, use the paddle until it looks right (meaning not too wet [sticky] and not too dry [can't stick together]). Then I switch to the dough hook and let it go until it's smooth. Then it's onto the marble for a quick knead and then back in the bowl to rise.

Meanwhile, I make the sauce. Sometimes tomato and sometimes not. Escarole and capers (and olives) is a favorite. The secret here is to saute (anyone have an accent to spare?) the escarole with garlic first ... and put in a colander. Then you can add the rest later if you want. In my experience, I can literally do the whole thing in an hour. The new super fast yeast will do its thing while you make the sauce.

Now, I have to admit, this does not result in a true Neopolitan crust that I remember from my time teaching at the Universita di Napoli... That crust is super thin and cooked in a special conical oven. But in spite of this, it's a worthy consumable.

Finally, a note on flour. I have tried both the Italian 000 pizza flour and the American pizza flour (again obtained from PennMac). Both are good. It is rumored that the American flour has more malt in it. I'd like to experiment with that sometime in the future.

Rewriting Paul Prudhomme

I've been meaning to post about Paul Prudhomme for forever. Tonight I made seafood gumbo again (it's one of my favorites) and I'm reminded how I "rewrite" his recipes. First, let me say it's a lot of fun to cook out of his books. The spicing is interesting and the taste is delicious. But, let's face it, this stuff can be unhealthy! For example, in said gumbo recipe, he calls for 3/4 of a cup of oil for the roux. I cut that to 1/4 (along with the accompanying flour). Sure, that means less stock but who cares?!? Then, he calls for the roux to be added to the boiling stock! Say what? This reminds me of chem lab: it's acid into water and not vice versa --- likewise, it's liquid into roux, not vice versa. Otherwise, you can't control the thickness and you might get lumps! So, what's with that anyway? Of course, I add the stock to the roux and keep going. Also, a missing note from this particular recipe: I use the shrimp shells (I only buy wild gulf shrimp these days) to make a very simple stock. One of his pasta recipes literally calls for a stick of butter. That's just horrific. Might be tasty but I just don't cook like that. A final note: I use andouille sausage from my local sausage provider: Parma Sausage. Sure wish they made tasso!

Why I hate cables

Does anyone else besides me despise them? I started to hate them when I was building hardware. It was so easy to damage them, to get the pins backward and generally fail. Now, that I'm trying to get these machines to work, they are in my way again. For example, to talk to my very nice Sun T3 disk array, I need to have a special cable to connects to an RJ-11. Say what? A telephone jack for a serial cable? Thanks Sun. What about my SPARCy? Now I need a 25 pin to 9 pin converter. And of course, there's the matter of getting the gender correct. Sheesh.

One can never, ever have too many cables and connectors around. Also, FWIW, it holds for RF as well as digital. Is it SMA or 3.5 mm? Is it N or 7 mm? It never ends.

Once more, into the breech

I have been informed that my web page, now more than a decade old, will cease to exist soon. The machine that hosts it (www.caip.rutgers.edu) is "being retired". What's really going on is a typical academic stunt of changing names and seizing control. It's evil, but it's what happens in academia regularly. Life goes on.

So, I am preparing to move my web page to a new web site: but where? After considering all my options, it appears that the best option is to host it meself. Allow me to explain: First, why should I pay someone to host my fiiles? Second, if I ask Verizon for a static IP then I have to be a business (and be prepared to pay for the privilege). So, it would appear the cheapest thing to do is use dynamic DNS and host at home.

OK, so what next? Well, it wouldn't hurt to have an industrial strength router, but that's a story in itself --- next blog. So, besides the router, what else? Who's hosting the web page? No way is it my machine. But that's why I have a vax. Really! So, if I can have openbsd on the vax (which I can, to hell with VMS), then I will host from there. If anyone complains about the speed, then I'll tell them they don't have a sense of history.

So, then how to port openbsd on the vax? Wellllll, the "best" way (according to the web page) is to have it netboot. So, I could port over all the daemons to do that, but then since I need to bring up my Sun machine anyway to talk to my T3 fileserver, then why not have the Sun serve? And, what's more, it appears that Sun does this stuff regularly under the name "jumpstart".

Next step? Putting Solaris 10 on the Sun. I thought about netbsd, but if I want it to the talk to the T3, why not have it stay in the family. And I'm just getting started...

My cooking philosophy

My DSP buddy, Jean Laroche, told me I should have a cooking blog. Since I already started a blog, I thought I would just enlarge this one --- besides, who wants to hear me whine and complain about linux administration all the time?

So, since I lead a food centered life, I thought I would start by writing about my cooking ideas and philosophy. I don't believe in fast food, I believe in slow food. I don't like to buy other people's ideas of how things should taste, so I don't buy prepared food (for the most part). One of my strongest beliefs is in the transformative ability of a great meal. Babette's Feast is my example of what a meal can be. Not every day, but every once in a while.

Most of my cooking is of the Italian/French variety, in part because I am a carbohydrate eater and I like pasta. I have cooked other styles including indian and chinese, but because most of my life I am cooking like a short-order demon, I choose what I can do fast -- with minimum prep work. Most of the time I cook without measuring. And cooking requires all the senses: besides sight, I listen to the timbre of the frying food, I feel the meat to see if it's done and I smell what I am cooking. I taste when I am in doubt, but my sense of smell is often enough.

I am much more of a cook than a baker --- which is a bit strange since I excelled in the chemistry lab in both high school and college. But I am now to the point where I can use yeast very reliably. But to get the crust to have that nice crunch, that requires steam in the oven. I've tried but it just don't compare with what I can get from the nearby bakery. That's a topic for another entry.

There a very important aspect to reading a recipe: imagining what it will look like in the various steps. I can't explain how I know what to expect, but I do. I think this can only be gained by experience. So, when I read a recipe, I have to understand the transformation at every step. Only when I understand the procedure will I start. In complex meals, I will take the time to diagram the "flow" so that I know what I can do in parallel. It's task scheduling and it's NP-complete!

My last comment concerns guests: I look forward to having guests because they are my excuse to experiment and try new and complex recipes. But I don't have many guests for dinner these days, so most of my cooking is of the fast "trattoria style".