Today I sign LineRate Systems up for Google Apps and I have to admit that so far I like it.
The thing to understand is that I have been a huge fan-boy of do-it-yourself basic services cobbled together with blood-sweat-and-tears from different open source packages. I have also been a big, keep your information in house. This stance has lead to multiple arguments with my co-founder Manish and other folks over the years.
What tipped my hand?
First, I've realized that I am not superman and that I simply do not have the resources to devote to building and maintaining my own IT setup.
Second, and more importantly Google has added various features to their offering that make it compelling:
1) They added CalDAV support to their calendar solution. This is awesome as it lets me continue to use apple's iCal application or whatever calendaring solution I care to use.
2) Group calendaring - not sure when this went public, but I was using when I interned at Google and it makes scheduling so much easier
3) Resource reservation - nice.
4) Postini - ability to archive mail for regulatory compliance. Translation, I don't need to lose sleepy worrying whether the email backups are actually working.
5) Ability to embed Google Doc's presentation directly in web pages.
The only reason I'll continue to maintain a basic webserver? Google Sites is hella lame and primitive.
But I'm sure it'll catch up.
And now that my automated email import is finishing up, I concede that Google is a reasonable place to outsource one's basic IT services.
(heck I may migrate my personal domain as well in the near future)
2008/12/16
2008/12/07
Kimchi or channeling my inner korean housewife ;)
In the past few months I've developed this horrible addiction to kimchi jjigae (aka kimchi soup).
(I blame Korea House for this problem).
Next thing I knew I was craving the kimchi soup... Especially on sundays. This is a problem. Korea House is closed on sundays - lame.
ok ok... so I also have thing this for the mung bean side dish (kongnamool). But I figured that one without a recipe :)
I kept imagining Kimchi soup as being complicated, so I looked around online and found the following recipe by Maangchi. She has awesome recipes and videos :)
So I tried it with whatever random americanized brand of kimchi that King Soopers sells and was most disappointed.
If I'd bothered to use my brain I would've realized that I shouldn't have even bothered trying with lame kimchi - but hey I was hungry. ok ok so that isn't really an excuse *sigh*
A couple of weeks ago I decided to follow Maangchi's Kimchi recipe. One problem... ok many problems. I didn't have the Korean Radishes, the fish sauce, or the asian chives. (I omitted the raw oysters because I am a bit squicked out at leaving raw oysters in a jar on the counter for 2 days). So I substituted Dashi for the fish broth and extra green onions for the chives.
It turned out ok...
Yesterday I went to HMart in Aurora Colorado.
I bought everything I needed! well I forgot the chives again but bought two different kinds of fish sauce one that looked like normal fish and one that called out anchovy. Both fish sauces had pictures of kimchi on the labels - Yes!
At the checkout counter the korean lady ringing me up tried to politely warn me that the tub of gochujang that I had was "hot." I politely smiled and nodded :) During this time every ingredient I needed for the kimchi, including the 4.4 pound bag of red pepper flakes, was rung up. Then she hit the 4 medium sized napa cabbages and she paused. As she looked at it you could tell that gears were spinning in her head and then she asked if I was going to make it. I said yes and that I was addicted all while smiling. Then she asked if I had a korean wife. To which I smiled and politely said no. She was very very confused. One thing to note is that I may not have a korean wife but my caucasian fiance loves kimchi even more than I do (I'm a late bloomer to the kimchi).
So anyway..
Today before lunch I opened the fish sauce bottles and sniffed each. @.@ They smell like fermented ass. I got some on my finger and could still smell it hours later even though I washed my hands twice. ugh.
The moment of truth came. I made the kimchi paste and used 1/4 cup of anchovy fish sauce and 3/4 cup of the "normal" fish sauce. I thought I was going to hurl when I mixed it in. Then I added all the other ingredients and the fish sauce almost vanished... I guess 4 cups of chili flakes will mask just about anything ;)
But you know what. The paste definitely tastes more like kimchi this time around :)
and now the end results of my work!
Almost 8 quarts of kimchi! :)
2 quarts of radish kimchi
and 5.8 quarts of cabbage kimchi!
Jars I've decided are mission critical to making kimchi. The last batch was stored in a ziplock baggie and now my fridge and freezer smell of kimchi every time I open them *g*
I'll report back in a few days on how the new kimchi tastes after fermentation :)
(I blame Korea House for this problem).
Next thing I knew I was craving the kimchi soup... Especially on sundays. This is a problem. Korea House is closed on sundays - lame.
ok ok... so I also have thing this for the mung bean side dish (kongnamool). But I figured that one without a recipe :)
I kept imagining Kimchi soup as being complicated, so I looked around online and found the following recipe by Maangchi. She has awesome recipes and videos :)
So I tried it with whatever random americanized brand of kimchi that King Soopers sells and was most disappointed.
If I'd bothered to use my brain I would've realized that I shouldn't have even bothered trying with lame kimchi - but hey I was hungry. ok ok so that isn't really an excuse *sigh*
A couple of weeks ago I decided to follow Maangchi's Kimchi recipe. One problem... ok many problems. I didn't have the Korean Radishes, the fish sauce, or the asian chives. (I omitted the raw oysters because I am a bit squicked out at leaving raw oysters in a jar on the counter for 2 days). So I substituted Dashi for the fish broth and extra green onions for the chives.
It turned out ok...
Yesterday I went to HMart in Aurora Colorado.
I bought everything I needed! well I forgot the chives again but bought two different kinds of fish sauce one that looked like normal fish and one that called out anchovy. Both fish sauces had pictures of kimchi on the labels - Yes!
At the checkout counter the korean lady ringing me up tried to politely warn me that the tub of gochujang that I had was "hot." I politely smiled and nodded :) During this time every ingredient I needed for the kimchi, including the 4.4 pound bag of red pepper flakes, was rung up. Then she hit the 4 medium sized napa cabbages and she paused. As she looked at it you could tell that gears were spinning in her head and then she asked if I was going to make it. I said yes and that I was addicted all while smiling. Then she asked if I had a korean wife. To which I smiled and politely said no. She was very very confused. One thing to note is that I may not have a korean wife but my caucasian fiance loves kimchi even more than I do (I'm a late bloomer to the kimchi).
So anyway..
Today before lunch I opened the fish sauce bottles and sniffed each. @.@ They smell like fermented ass. I got some on my finger and could still smell it hours later even though I washed my hands twice. ugh.
The moment of truth came. I made the kimchi paste and used 1/4 cup of anchovy fish sauce and 3/4 cup of the "normal" fish sauce. I thought I was going to hurl when I mixed it in. Then I added all the other ingredients and the fish sauce almost vanished... I guess 4 cups of chili flakes will mask just about anything ;)
But you know what. The paste definitely tastes more like kimchi this time around :)
and now the end results of my work!
Almost 8 quarts of kimchi! :)
2 quarts of radish kimchi
and 5.8 quarts of cabbage kimchi!
Jars I've decided are mission critical to making kimchi. The last batch was stored in a ziplock baggie and now my fridge and freezer smell of kimchi every time I open them *g*
I'll report back in a few days on how the new kimchi tastes after fermentation :)
Auto Insurance and Cost of Repairs
So last monday (12/1) I got rear ended by a Ford Ranger and pushed into a Jeep Cherokee.
The driver of the ford was on his phone.
I drive a 2001 Subaru Outback Sport and she's been a very nice car to me.
What drives me nuts is that the Blue Book value of the car is around $4,800 which is reasonable for a car of this age.
The problem, and what I find offensive, is the cost of repairs and how insurance companies handle these claims. If the cost of repairs exceeds 70% of the book value of the vehicle they are allowed to "total" it. Based on my prior experiences I'm expecting the cost of repairs to exceed $3400. So this means that even though I have a perfectly good vehicle, the cost of repairing it means it will get totaled and sold for parts.
So I have to wonder one of two things:
1) are vehicles devalued too quickly with respect to their lifespan?
2) are cost of repairs (labor) to high?
Now before you get all grumpy on me, understand that I accept that there are some parts that just are not worth repairing (i.e., compex items such as circuit boards). But repairing the body work on a car is something that primarily requires time not parts or extremely high precision equipment.
I also understand that the parts will be stripped and resold generating additional value and therefore there is a positive economic benefit.
I just get grumpy at the proposition that because someone was not paying attention I may be expected to give up the car that I've taken care of over the years even though I was expecting to keep her for another 5 or more years.
It seems that an individual's correct economic behavior is to either buy nothing but used cars or do the minimum amount of maintenance possible on their cars and drive them into the ground quickly rather than planning on keeping them in good shape. This latter approach seems to be an environmental mistake. and the first approach requires me to have faith that the original owner(s) took reasonable care of their vehicles. *sigh*
The driver of the ford was on his phone.
I drive a 2001 Subaru Outback Sport and she's been a very nice car to me.
What drives me nuts is that the Blue Book value of the car is around $4,800 which is reasonable for a car of this age.
The problem, and what I find offensive, is the cost of repairs and how insurance companies handle these claims. If the cost of repairs exceeds 70% of the book value of the vehicle they are allowed to "total" it. Based on my prior experiences I'm expecting the cost of repairs to exceed $3400. So this means that even though I have a perfectly good vehicle, the cost of repairing it means it will get totaled and sold for parts.
So I have to wonder one of two things:
1) are vehicles devalued too quickly with respect to their lifespan?
2) are cost of repairs (labor) to high?
Now before you get all grumpy on me, understand that I accept that there are some parts that just are not worth repairing (i.e., compex items such as circuit boards). But repairing the body work on a car is something that primarily requires time not parts or extremely high precision equipment.
I also understand that the parts will be stripped and resold generating additional value and therefore there is a positive economic benefit.
I just get grumpy at the proposition that because someone was not paying attention I may be expected to give up the car that I've taken care of over the years even though I was expecting to keep her for another 5 or more years.
It seems that an individual's correct economic behavior is to either buy nothing but used cars or do the minimum amount of maintenance possible on their cars and drive them into the ground quickly rather than planning on keeping them in good shape. This latter approach seems to be an environmental mistake. and the first approach requires me to have faith that the original owner(s) took reasonable care of their vehicles. *sigh*
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