http://www.salt-the-earth.net/ A daring adventure, or nothing en-us SaltCMS 1.0 Wed, 21 Jan 09 06:30:26 GMT http://www.salt-the-earth.net/archive.php?id=1207 Posted by :: Aaron

So I just sort of stumbled on this today, because I wondered if there were any people in history who had come from Ottawa and made it big in San Francisco. Some Google action brought me to this wiki page. Get this, Isaac Smith Kalloch was from Maine, born in 1832. He was a Baptist minister who preached in Boston, MA and it seems got into some trouble for "sexual improprieties". Of course this the middle 1800's so who knows what that means. Anyway, he moves to New York, and then to Kansas where he is purported to be a signatory of Ottawa's original company charter and perhaps has something to do with Ottawa University, although I can't find anything about that.

After this, he moves to San Francisco and joins the Workingman's Party whose slogan was, "The Chinese must go!". Check out the Chinatown Declared a Nuisance! pamphlet.

Kalloch runs for mayor under this party against a man backed by then Chronicle editor-in-chief Charles De Young. De Young insults Kalloch, Kalloch insults De Young's mother by suggesting that she runs a brothel. De Young, enraged by this, hunts down Kalloch and shoots him in the street...twice. Kalloch actually survives this and becomes the 18th mayor of San Francisco (1879-1881) through a sympathy vote. Kalloch's son then later tracked down DeYoung and killed him.

It seems that Charles De Young was brother to Micheal Henry De Young after whom the De Young museum in Golden Park is named.

Kalloch served his term and moved to Washington state where he died in 1887.

Hmm, there's some more to this I think. Must dig further.]]> Wed, 21 Jan 09 06:30:00 GMT http://www.salt-the-earth.net/archive.php?id=1206 Posted by :: eek!

You can vote once a day so keep voting. Pass it on to family, friends, co-workers and strangers on the street.

I can't imagine what Frenchy has behind him. I have sent this to everyone I know and I am still losing.

Thanks for your support.]]> Wed, 17 Dec 08 11:59:00 GMT http://www.salt-the-earth.net/archive.php?id=1205 Posted by :: eek!

Philly has the cheese steak, Maine has lobster rolls, New York and Chicago have their version of pizza. Minnesota or more specificly South Minneapolis has the Jucy Lucy. A hamburger where the cheese is on the inside of the burger. It creates a molten hot cheesy inside. Awesome.

The Blue Door Pub in St. Paul is currently having a Blucy (their version of a Jucy Lucy) of the Moment (B.O.M.) Contest. Online you can submit your idea for a BOM. I sent in about 30 different ones. They picked the Mexican Blucy. I am currently going against 4 others (that don’t look nearly as good). If I win I get a $25 gift cert. and a t-shirt. I am not going to tell you who to vote for but doesn’t this sound good.

The Mexican Blucy
We’ve loaded this guy up with queso fresco and cilantro in the middle and pico de gallo, creama Mexicana and some spices to top it off! Can you say, “muy bien?”

http://thebluedoorpubmn.com/
http://thebluedoorpubmn.com/2008/12/15/bom-voting-is-officially-open/

Thank you for your support and go vote.

]]> Tue, 16 Dec 08 12:11:00 GMT http://www.salt-the-earth.net/archive.php?id=1204 Posted by :: eek!

Article

I have to admit having Boston Beer as the #1 largest US brewer is a very good thing.

1. They support homebrewers. They have a Longshot competition where homebrewers can win the chance for Sam Adams to brew their beer. They also have an internal one too so that their staff understands the beer making process.
2. They sold back there extra hops twice during the hop crisis to brew pubs and breweries at cost.
3. They care about quality. They actually buy back beer that is past a freshness date.
4. They take some chances. They brewed a triple bock, a beer that tipped the scales at 25% alcohol, chocolate beer, imperial pilsner and others.

Cheers to the new number #1.

]]> Mon, 15 Dec 08 14:35:00 GMT http://www.salt-the-earth.net/archive.php?id=1203 Posted by :: eek!

A sake brewery has opened up in Minnesota. First outside of Japan, from what I have heard. Must go soon. I have heard good things.

Article

They are going to sell 750ml bottles soon but not soon enough to bring down to KS. Bummer. Next time.

Cheers]]> Mon, 15 Dec 08 14:15:00 GMT http://www.salt-the-earth.net/archive.php?id=1202 Posted by :: Aaron

First off, go here and donate your money.

I've got a couple of projects I've been working on lately that are semi-related. I've been trying to redesign this site a bit, to get my Twitter updates on it, since that's what I update most these days. Also, I want to build a RAID storage device so we can centrally store our photos and movies. But I've also had it in my mind to get a triple boot machine working. That being a computer that can boot into Windows XP, Linux, and Mac OSX Leopard.

The last is what is typically seen as the hardest, since Apple has purposefully created a system which makes sure only Apple hardware can be used with OSX. These efforts, it seems to me now, have been largely a waste of time, as I'll show.

There are pretty much three ways that I was thinking of doing this.

1. Build a machine based off of the Linux boot loader.
2. VMware the whole thing.
3. Have separate drives for each OS and boot with the BIOS selector.

I ended up choosing the third option, partly because the motherboard makes it so easy, and partly because I really wanted true installs so I could try out the ext4 filesystem. Here's the hardware I ended up using.

1. Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-X38-DQ6
2. Processor: Intel Core 2 Quad
3. RAM: 4GB DDR2
4. Graphics: Nvidia 8800GTX 786MB
5. XP Drive: 150GB WD Raptor 10,000rpm NTFS format
6. Linux Drive: 150GB Seagate 7,200 rpm ext4
7. OSX Drive: 350GB WD 7,200 rpm HFS+
8. Storage Drive: 750GB WD 7,200 rpm NTFS

All the drives are SATA2, and are all stored in the very quiet and totally awesome Coolermaster Cosmos case.I've also got a Zalman Cooler on the processor which is basically just a massive hunk of copper, and makes processor cooling quiet and efficient.

Windows XP is highly limited in the reading and writing of other file systems. There are drivers for ext2/3 and for HFS+ but they're add-ons to the operating system, and when it comes to something as basic as a file system...do you want to trust add on code for that? I don't. So my storage drive is NTFS. This has my movies, photos, mp3s, and any software that I download on it. It's the central repository for all my backups. Soon it will be backed up in a RAID, but for right now, because all the OS's I've chosen can read/write NTFS it means I can easily have access to all my media on any of the boots.

To be safe, I unplugged any of the other drives when installing an OS. I wanted everything contained on a single drive. Since XP is already installed, I went to Fedora next. I choose Fedora because I wanted to try ext4 (file system) on Linux. ext4 is the newest (still sort of beta) version of the standard Linux ext file system. Unless you're a geek you probably don't care, but if you're not a geek you probably haven't made it this far anyway. Anyway, the Fedora install was as easy as anything. It was definitely faster and easier than installing OSX. I did have a little trouble with the disk format/partitioning, but I sense that was because I was using ext4 which is not yet really the live choice for Fedora. I toyed around with Fedora for a bit, loading all the required stuff, and getting the browser plug-ins working. This site was immensely helpful. You can pretty much walk down that FAQ and run line after line to get yourself on track. Totally simple. I have one problem I haven't fixed yet, but it has to do with the dual monitors I have. I think I just haven't tried hard enough yet.

OS X was the most interesting. First of all, get a goddamn license. I mean if you're going to do this, support the software. Apple is a little more lenient with this action that a Microsoft would be, but don't kid yourself, technically you're breaking the license anyway. The most useful sites for this process are OSx86 and the linked install guide. The boys and girls at iDeneb have done a hell of a job here, because quite frankly I was expecting this to be a nightmare, and it turned out to be easy as cake. You have to bit torrent the install, but once you do that it's really just a matter of burning and installing it. There's one point that tripped me up, and that was the Customization. You MUST customize the install, which the linked guide talks about briefly. There are basically a bunch of hacks for non-Apple hardware that have to be run, and you need to choose the hardware and kernel packages that run them. In my case I had to select the Nvidia stuff, the correct Kernel patch for my motherboard which a quick glance at your mother board docs should reveal (chipset), and then anything else like Audio that might apply. I got to toy around with it last night a bit, and it's smooth as silk. Both it and Fedora that much better advantage of my chip and memory. The machine sings.

Now that this is done, I'm going to get my NAS up and running, do automated backups to Amazon's S3 service, and finish my Twitter daemon which is a work side project. But first I need to update this site...and write a novel...and sand down the basement door...and drink a lot.]]> Sun, 07 Dec 08 19:21:00 GMT http://www.salt-the-earth.net/archive.php?id=1201 Posted by :: eek!

Here are some beers that might work well tomorrow.

Biere de Garde
Fav: Domaine DuPage French Style Country Ale Two Brothers Brewing Company

Dunkel
Fav: Ayinger Dunkel

Dubbel
Fav: St. Bernardus Prior 8

Oktoberfest
Fav: Paulaner Oktoberfest

American Amber Lager
Fav: Old Scratch Amber Lager Flying Dog Brewery

I am going with a growler (half gallon of beer-to-go) of a beer from my local brewpub. Heather Ale, no hops, just bittered and flavored with heather tips.

Cheers

P.S. The Discovery Channel episode of Dirty Jobs in which Host, Mike Rowe, travels to Yakima County, Washington, to visit HopUnion and help ick hops, will air on the following dates and times (EST):

11/25 Tues 9PM
11/26 1AM
11/27 10PM
11/28 2AM
12/2 8PM
12/3 12AM
]]> Thu, 27 Nov 08 06:59:00 GMT http://www.salt-the-earth.net/archive.php?id=1200 Posted by :: Aaron

Yeah, that's us.]]> Mon, 24 Nov 08 18:19:00 GMT http://www.salt-the-earth.net/archive.php?id=1199 Posted by :: eek!

Boston Beer (Sam Adams) is now the largest American owned brewery.

From Probrewer.com

The Eagle takes flight - biggest consolidation in brewing history closes

In the last and final maneuver, InBev closed this morning on the deal to acquire Anheuser-Busch following approval from shareholders of both companies.

It is truly an end of era – and yet another enormous marker in the most comprehensive and radical period of change in the beer industry ever.

The new company, called Anheuser-Busch InBev has a new web site, and tellingly, a new logo. The renowned American icon of the A-B eagle is no longer – it is now an eagle in flight in a multitude of colors.

Incredible how the world – including the beer industry – has seemingly changed overnight. In the almost overwhelming and seemingly endless stream of consolidation and changes in the global beer market, one thing has remained basically intact and stable – the craft brewing industry here in the US. Having so far survived a financial meltdown, recession and now the fall of iconic A-B, craft brewers just keep on truckin’ – remaining independent, viable and relevant."]]> Wed, 19 Nov 08 12:18:00 GMT http://www.salt-the-earth.net/archive.php?id=1198 Posted by :: Aaron

I always try to write something here that's semi-coherent, because everything I write here is for me, and that's what I demand from me. But tonight, I don't care. I hear fireworks outside. I walked home from jury duty passed excited crowds, and people campaigning against prop 8. I walked by the corner stores, with neighbors staring up into the dusty televisions showing the election. Everywhere there was and is a feeling of elation, and I myself feel a new sense of possibility and purpose. The dark night has passed, and now in the dark future ahead of us, there is light.

I could not be more pleased with my country tonight. I could not be more proud to be a part of this most grand experiment.

My faith in the Republic, restored. My faith in humanity, upheld.]]> Wed, 05 Nov 08 04:32:00 GMT