Smoof Blog

pwexport

Sat, 30 Jan 2010 05:22:48 GMT

I made a command line password exporter for firefox.

Everglades

Wed, 02 Dec 2009 19:32:04 GMT

The Thing That Should Not Be

Tue, 17 Feb 2009 23:55:20 GMT

This may be the most abominable and utterly insane function I have ever had the misfortune to write.

function oct = octify (n) 
    oct = sscanf (sprintf ('%o', n), '%d');
end

Thanks Matlab!

(Nearly) Perfect Lemon Chess Pie

Mon, 09 Feb 2009 03:06:07 GMT

I've been homing in on the perfect recipe for lemon chess pie. I think I've made about six of them. Here's the best one I've made so far:

For the crust:

6 ounces by weight of all purpose flour
one stick of very cold butter
1/2 teaspoon table salt
very cold water. (I use a bar shaker to chill the water).

For the filling:

4 eggs
1.5 cups sugar
5 tablesppons melted butter
3 tablespoons cornmeal. (I may use only 2 next time)
juice and zest of two lemons
a pinch of salt

Preparation:

Preheat the oven to 425. Combine the flour and salt. Cut the butter into the flour mixture with a pastry cutter. Do not use a food processor. The butter chunks should be roughly pea sized. Put the ice cold water into a spritz bottle. Spray it on the flour mixture, toss the mixture, and spray again. Continue spraying and tossing until the mixture comes together as a dough when you squeeze it in your hand. It should still be somewhat crumbly. Wrap it up in tin foil and press it flat. Leave it in the fridge for at least half an hour. When you take it out it should be a good deal more dough-like. Form the dough into a ball, trying to work it as little as possible. You may have to knead it a few times to work in the crumbly bits, but the less kneading, the better. Roll it out into a crust. You'll need to frequently apply four and flip the dough to avoid stickage. Put the crust in your pie pan, and dock it with a fork. Cover it with parchment paper and cover the parchment paper with pie weights, or dry beans, or rice. Bake it for ten minutes. Take off the weights and parchment and bake it until it's just starting to brown, about another 10. Take the crust out and let it cool completely.

Lower the oven temperature to 350. Once the crust is cool, beat the eggs and whisk in the rest of the filling ingredients. Fill up the pie. You probably don't need the whole batch of filling. It's very lemony and rich so you really only want a thin layer. I think I used about 2/3 of it. Bake it until the top is slightly browned and a knife comes out clean, about 30-35 minutes. Let the pie cool completly before eating.

Bay Leaves

Sun, 18 Jan 2009 06:12:21 GMT

I smelled bay leaves for the first time in my life today. I've been putting them in my food for years out of nothing more than habit. Before today they smelled like nothing. The bay I smelled today smelled amazing. I bought it at a spice store called Penzy's. I think I'm going to start throwing all my spices out and replacing them with fresh ones from there.

Sweet Limes

Tue, 25 Nov 2008 03:26:19 GMT

I found an odd fruit at the grocery store today labeled a "sweet lime". They look like lemons, and the juice has a sweet, mild lemon flavor without any tartness. I tried cutting them into wedges and eating them like an orange, but I wouldn't recommend that. The pulp is fibrous and bitter. It's best to just use the juice.

Customizing Firefox (without sputtering with rage)

Wed, 13 Aug 2008 21:45:49 GMT

If you have ever tried to figure out how to add a custom keybind to Firefox, you know it is a frustrating, infuriating, and futile task. There is no reasonable way to do it. There's a way that seems to have worked six years ago, and requires you to edit the firefox installation instead of your profile. There's extensions that might add the keybinds you want, but they all suck in one way or another. There's an extension that lets you add keybinds with the GUI, but it stores them in your user prefs so there's no way to sync them between machines. You could make your own extension, but then you have to figure out all the stupid boilerplate that extensions require and reinstall it every time you make a change.

All I really want is a text file somewhere I can edit. When I add a binding to emacs, I add a single line to a single text file. The file is in a git repository, so syncing changes is easy. This blissful state of affairs actually can be achieved in firefox; and here's how you do it:

Firefox can load an extension from a path outside the profile directory. So you just create an extension with your personal customizations, and just edit it directly. After you make a change you just restart firefox. There's no need to make a XPI and install it. I keep mine in ~/config/dot-firefox. Aside from the boilerplate, there's just two files.

overlay.js for your javascript:

// from mozless
function tabRelativeSelect(delta)
{
  var oldTab = gBrowser.selectedTab;
  var newTab = null;
  var length = gBrowser.tabContainer.childNodes.length;
  var index;
  for (index=0; index<length; index++) {
    if (gBrowser.tabContainer.childNodes[index] == oldTab) {
      var new_index = index + delta;
      if (new_index < 0) new_index += length;
      else if (new_index >= length) new_index -= length;
      newTab = gBrowser.tabContainer.childNodes[new_index];
      break;
    }
  }
  if (newTab && newTab != oldTab)
    gBrowser.selectedTab = newTab;
}

and overlay.xul for your XUL:

<?xml version="1.0"?>

<overlay xmlns="http://www.mozilla.org/keymaster/gatekeeper/there.is.only.xul">
  <script src="overlay.js"/>
  <keyset id="mainKeyset">
    <key key="k" oncommand="goDoCommand('cmd_scrollLineUp')" />
    <key key="h" oncommand="goDoCommand('cmd_scrollLeft')" />
    <key key="j" oncommand="goDoCommand('cmd_scrollLineDown')" />
    <key key="l" oncommand="goDoCommand('cmd_scrollRight')" />
    <key key="d" oncommand="goDoCommand('cmd_scrollPageDown')" />
    <key key="u" oncommand="goDoCommand('cmd_scrollPageUp')" />
    <key modifiers="shift" key="B" oncommand="BrowserBack()" />
    <key modifiers="shift" key="F" oncommand="BrowserForward()" />
    <key key="." oncommand="tabRelativeSelect(1)" />
    <key key="," oncommand="tabRelativeSelect(-1)" />
  </keyset>
</overlay>

To get firefox to load it:

$ echo ~/config/dot-firefox > $firefox_profile_dir/extensions/dot-firefox@elder-gods.org

If you wanna see/copy the boilerplate, it's all in this git repo.

feedshow.com

Wed, 26 Mar 2008 05:51:52 GMT

If you know anything about this website please send me an email and tell me about it. Thanks.

Tuber Indicum

Mon, 17 Mar 2008 02:40:03 GMT

I gave some canned Chinese truffles the same treatment as the Oregon blacks. Don't bother with these. They have almost no smell and no taste at all.

Kototbuki again

Sun, 16 Mar 2008 17:08:40 GMT

Kotobuki is tiny. It's a converted townhouse that maybe seats 25 people. There's a stairway from the entrance up to the restaurant. This stairway is filled with people waiting to get in. If you don't want to wait, or if you have a big group, don't go here; but believe me the food there is worth waiting for. Once you get in the service is quick. There were four sushi chefs behind the counter and they were constantly busy, because there's also a constant stream of people picking up takeout orders. Except for a few appetizers (which are great), all kotobuki serves is sushi and sashimi. You can order a combo plate with some pre-chosen selection of sushi, but I really suggest you just get everything a la carte. They give you a little menu and you just mark down what you want on that. Most nigiri here are only one dollar. The uni and toro are $2.50. It's all super-fresh and delicious. The only thing I really didn't like was the crab, which was "krab". My favorites were the eel, the toro, the scallop and the monkfish liver. But really it was all great (except the krab). Like I said, the best sushi I've had. Also the cheapest; which is kinda strange.

Truffles

Sun, 16 Mar 2008 05:27:40 GMT

I went to Whole Foods and bought an ounce of Oregon black truffles

I sliced 'em as thin as I could and tossed them with some linguine, butter, olive oil and Parmesan.

The were, ..., nice. I wouldn't say they knocked my socks off with truffleiciousness. They had a very strong smell when you held the whole ones up to your nose. Once they were in the pasta they had a very subtle effect. Mostly in smell and not taste. It was hard to describe, and nothing at all like truffle oil. It was kind of musky, maybe mushroomy, i can't really describe it. Truffly i guess. Meghan thinks they smell like bad button mushrooms. All in all, I can't say I was really impressed. I've had more delicious things in my time. For something that costs $30 an ounce, and whose exalted cousins cost ten times as much or more, I can't say I see the point. Perhaps it wasn't truffles in general, but these truffles. I don't imagine the best truffles in Oregon wind up in the mushroom case at whole foods next to the criminis. Perhaps next winter I'll mail order some and try them again.

kotobuki

Sat, 15 Mar 2008 03:41:59 GMT

There may be better sushi places than kotobuki, but I wouldn't know because I've never been to one. Seriously. This place is awesome. Go there. It rocks.

Great Moments in Trolling Presents:

Tue, 11 Mar 2008 20:14:45 GMT

where can obtain I fresh white truffle?

It's the username that made me laugh out loud.

Redneck Extension Cord

Tue, 04 Mar 2008 00:22:43 GMT

leg of lamb

Wed, 06 Feb 2008 16:35:37 GMT

awesome

Bread

Tue, 05 Feb 2008 20:34:50 GMT

This is a great book. It tells you how to make bread.

Awesome Couscous

Thu, 13 Dec 2007 03:55:14 GMT

Couscous

1 cup couscous
1 cup broth
salt
1 t grains of paradise, ground
1/2 t cassia buds, ground

Zereshk

1 cup currants
1 t saffron
1 T lemon juice
1 T sugar
a touch of turmeric
olive oil

Steep the saffron in a little boiling water. Saute the Zereshk ingredients for a few minutes. (stolen from here) Bring the broth to a boil, combine all couscous ingredients and cover for 5 minutes or so. Fluff up the couscous with a fork and top with the Zereshk (probably not all of it) . Perhaps it's better to add the spice to the couscous after it is fluffed. I'm not sure yet which approach is optimal. Some butter in the couscous is also nice.

Almost Vegetarian Thai coconut soup

Sat, 08 Dec 2007 23:42:01 GMT

some button mushrooms
olive oil
eggplant, cut into pieces
green onions, chopped
2 12 oz cans of coconut mil
2.5 cups of chicken broth
2 stalks lemongrass, crushed
20 thin slices of galangal
two crushed handfuls of kefir lime leaves
2 T fish sauce
zest and juice of one lime
some pepper corns
some tiny Thai peppers. some crushed, some thinly sliced.
cilantro.
salt, to taste

Salt the eggplant heavily and leave it sit for a while. Squeeze it dry and rinse the salt off. Fry the mushrooms in the olive oil. Put everything in the pot (except cilantro) and simmer for 20 minutes or so. Garnish with the cilantro when you serve it. Don't eat the leaves, galangal or lemongrass.

"Afghan" stew

Sat, 08 Dec 2007 01:27:34 GMT

the stew

lamb shank, de-boned, trimmed, cut into pieces
half an onion
mushrooms
half a cup of lentils
stock
olive oil
garlic, chopped
turmeric
cinnamon (ceylon), ground
chilis de arbol, ground
cardamom, ground

yogurt topping

thick Greek style yogurt
dried shallot, ground
olive oil
salt

Brown the bone under the broiler. Fry the onions and garlic with the spices. Fry the lamb pieces. Throw it all in a dutch oven and put it in the oven at 350 for an hour and a half.

It turned out pretty good. Maybe use leg meat next time though.

Great Little Programs

Tue, 03 Jul 2007 02:45:12 GMT

I often discover some opensource utility that solves a problem I've had for years, and I just say to myself "wow. why didn't i know about this already?" there's so much stuff out there it's easy to overlook great programs even when they're exactly what you need. Here are a few that come to mind

xargs: move strings from it's standard input to the argument list of a command
filelight: visualize disk usage
apt-file: search for .deb packages that contain certain file names
Mercurial Queues: manage and version control a set of patches against an upstream codebase
k3b: burn a cd without having to think about it
amarok: manage your music collection