andersonfam.org

So we discovered today that one of our sales reps mistakenly left as his voicemail greeting an entire serires of failed recording attempts before finally getting it right. I’ve censored the rep’s last name as well as the company name out of the file.

Hearing this first thing this morning just made my day. Enjoy!

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I received a few requests for pics/explanation of the automatic temp control system I have for my smoker. So here we go.

At the heart of the system is a Stoker from Rock’s BBQ. This guy lives in my basement, near the rest of my network equipment. It has several ports for sensors/fans and an ethernet port, through which you can gain access to the data and control the unit via a simple API. The Stoker uses 1-wire type sensors which means that several devices can be on the same bus and be queried and controlled individually by the controller. Because of this, I only need to run one cable (the Stoker uses standard stereo .25″ phone plugs for all of its connections – so I just got a few ends from Radio Shack and some three-conductor wire from Home Depot and made myself a nice long cable) from the Stoker itself outside to my smoker.

Moving outside, here’s what the smoker itself looks like. It’s a Weber Smokey Mountain, and it’s 100% pure awesome. It’s a charcoal smoker (the only way to go), so it takes a bit more tending than a propane/electric smoker would. The product is *much* better, though. The thing is built really tight and as such, a load of charcoal can last 12 hours or more, depending on how hot I’m running the smoker.

The shiny thing on the bottom of the smoker is the blower (which is one of the three devices connected to the Stoker). I have it covered with foil to try and guard it from snow or moisture. I believe this is a 5 cfm model. Here’s a closeup of the blower:

In one of the above pics, you can also see the two thermometer leads entering the smoker. One of those is for the “pit” temperature and one is for a probe thermometer that gets put into whatever beast you’re cooking. Here you can see the business end of each of the thermometers.

Here are all the connections outside. I try to keep them in a ziploc as much as possible to minimize shorts caused by moisture.

For a minimalist, that’s all you’d need to get automatic temp control. One can use the Stoker’s web interface (very spartan, but functional) to set your target temperatures and monitor the temp progress of your meat. I like to take it a bit further, though, so I use a program called StokerLog. StokerLog is, more or less, just a nice “skin” on top of the Stoker’s core functionality. It allows one to remotely control the temp set points of the Stoker and it also queries the Stoker periodically. With the temp data, it can do cool things like generate graphs, send email alerts, Twitter progress updates, etc.

And that’s about it! Though I use the smoker fairly frequently, I really only pull out the Stoker system when I’m going to be doing a really long cook. This weekend, I fired up the smoker at around noon on Saturday and it’ll be running for about 27 hours straight. Needless to say, it’s very nice to have the auto temp control when I’m doing an overnight smoke. It’s also very nice to be able to check on the status of things (via Tweetie on the iTouch) without leaving my bed in the middle of the night.

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Here’s what I’m currently listening to:

• Speaking of Faith
• Lullabot
• The Moth
• NPR: Car Talk
• NPR: Intelligence Squared
• NPR: Wait, Wait, Don’t Tell Me!
• This American Life
• Radio Lab
• Woodland Hills Sermon podcast

I posted this list back in 2008 as well…looks like not much has changed! :)

Any suggestions to what else I should check out?

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Well friends, many of you have already heard this through the grapevine, but I wanted to make an “official” announcement for those that hadn’t heard.

In a little less than two weeks, my tenure at Logic will come to a close. After a couple of weeks off, I’ll be starting a new position in Linux administration at my Alma mater, Bethel University.

This is a very bittersweet change for me – Logic has been an absolutely incredible blessing to both me and my family. I have had the chance to learn and grow in ways I could not have ever imagined. I have had the chance to work with (and for) so many incredibly talented people. Like all good things, though, it became clear to Meghan and I that it was time for my tenure at Logic to come to an end.

Since graduating from Bethel eight years ago, I’ve always thought it would be greatly enjoyable to return as an employee. I am very excited for the challenges and opportunities that are waiting for me at Bethel. It will no doubt be a dramatic culture change going from the corporate world to academia, but I am excited for that.

Thank you all for your prayers and support through this transition.

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I’ve griped about this many times to friends, but I finally got around to documenting it this evening. I own a 2001 Honda CR-V. It’s a great car. In fact, other than this to-be-described issue with the oil filter, there’s not much to complain about.

When car engines are going through the design phase, most engineers, knowing that an oil filter needs to get replaced frequently, will try very hard to put it in an easily-accessible place. The Honda engineers must have been having an off-day when they placed the ‘01 CR-V oil filter, cause it’s a *pain*. Here are the things they did wrong:

1. The filter is tucked away halfway up the rear-facing side of the engine.
2. The filter is horizontally-oriented.
3. The filter is placed directly above the exhaust manifold.

If #1 would have been the only mis-step with this filter placement, it wouldn’t be all the big of a deal. However, when combined with the other two issues, it gets quite annoying. Because the filter is crammed into this tiny space, the only good way to get the filter off is to reach your hand up in there. That can be somewhat, umm, interesting if the engine has been running recently due to the fact that you have to reach past the (now very warm) exhaust system. Once your arm is up there, you have to start loosening the filter. This is where the #2 point becomes a problem. As soon as you start loosening the filter, the residual oil pours out and proceeds to drip down not only your whole hand and forearm (thank goodness for Gojo), but also it drips directly onto the exhaust system. Try as I may to wipe the spilled oil off the exhaust, rest assured, I’ll be leaving a smokescreen behind me for a mile or two on my drive to work the next day.

That’s the end of my rant for today. I’ll leave you with a few pictures (click for higher-resolution versions) to better illustrate my frustrations.

Here, you’re looking at the filter as if you’d slid headfirst under the front end of the car. The thing you see on the right is the exhaust. For the non-gearheads, the filter is the black, cylindrical, domed device in the top-center of the photo.

Here, you’re looking front-to-back under the car. This is after I removed the old filter, and you can see the oil dripping all over the exhaust.

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