Recipe for Barbecued chicken strips with sauteed onions

After thawing some chicken for dinner and taking inventory of the 'fridge to weigh my options for how I would have the chicken, I devised the following recipe:

Ingredients:

Two medium sized chicken breasts, cut into 3/4 inch wide strips
4 flour burrito shells
1/3 cup of your favorite barbecue sauce
One medium sized onion
Two tbsp butter

Preheat grill on high
Marinate the chicken strips in barbecue sauce for 15 minutes while preparing onions;

Cut the onion into strips or wedges (cut from top to bottom). Place cut onions into shallow pan with butter and sautee over medium heat until tender and slightly carmelized. Browning them isn't the worst thing to do and gives more flavor.

Put the chicken on the grill and cook until done. (internal temperature is 165 degrees)

Move the chicken off of the grill and place burrito shells on the grill and lightly toast.

Place grilled chicken in burrito shell, folded like a taco and top with onions. Enjoy.

Configuring the gateway under Linux

I recently ran into a situation where I had to change my gateway. First, I wanted to check what my gateway was set to. The normal command 'ifconfig' only showed the following:

eth0 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr 00:13:72:DF:1B:99
inet addr:192.9.200.37 Bcast:192.9.200.255 Mask:255.255.255.0
inet6 addr: fe80::213:72ff:fedf:1b99/64 Scope:Link
UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1
RX packets:10323194 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:5229128 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000
RX bytes:1479472650 (1.3 GiB) TX bytes:2978700320 (2.7 GiB)

lo Link encap:Local Loopback
inet addr:127.0.0.1 Mask:255.0.0.0
inet6 addr: ::1/128 Scope:Host
UP LOOPBACK RUNNING MTU:16436 Metric:1
RX packets:12477530 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:12477530 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:0
RX bytes:3343381852 (3.1 GiB) TX bytes:3343381852 (3.1 GiB)


but not the gateway. Some interweb postings suggested using tracert, but I think you should use the right tool for the right job. The route command is that tool.

Running route alone will report the current gateway on the "default" line:

$ route -n
Kernel IP routing table
Destination Gateway Genmask Flags Metric Ref Use Iface
192.9.200.0 * 255.255.255.0 U 0 0 0 eth0
link-local * 255.255.0.0 U 1000 0 0 eth0
default 192.9.200.38 0.0.0.0 UG 0 0 0 eth0


The 192.9.200.38 is the configured default gateway. To change it, first add the new default gateway with the command

$ route add default gw 192.9.200.40

Next, remove the old gateway

$ route del default gw 192.9.200.38

Verify your results:

$ route -n
Kernel IP routing table
Destination Gateway Genmask Flags Metric Ref Use Iface
192.9.200.0 * 255.255.255.0 U 0 0 0 eth0
link-local * 255.255.0.0 U 1000 0 0 eth0
default 192.9.200.40 0.0.0.0 UG 0 0 0 eth0



I'll need to do some testing to determine the relationship of the route command to the /etc/network/interfaces file, but these settings seem to take priority.

But in case you need to tweak the named file...


sudo vi /etc/network/interfaces
sudo /etc/init.d/networking restart


Windows 64 bit and Kodak printers or docks

After installing Windows XP x64 on my new Athlon dual core rig, I was faced with the problem of a lack of 64-bit drivers for my peripherals. Like my sweet sweet PowerMate or my matching Razor mouse.

But the biggest disappointment was a lack of any mention of 64 bit support for my new Kodak AIO printer or my Kodak Printer Dock. The could mean that I have to downgrade my OS to upload and print my photos.

But after just going for it with the driver installation, I realized that Kodak DOES have 64 bit driver support in the installer, but it just isn't advertised.

So if you're running XP x64 or Vista 64, install away with the appropriate driver from the Kodak software download site and know you'll get the 64 bit drivers that your OS craves.

Windows XP SP2 won't install on selected partition

Building a new box for an upcoming lan party, I ran into a problem where I couldn't get very far into the Windows installation because of a loop in the setup process.

The installer asks me to select or create and select a partition on which to install. I do so, only to be taken to a page that says that the selected partition is not compatible with Windows XP.

Thinking I'm outsmarting the computer, I use a Linux boot disk to create and format a partition with NTFS, then reboot to XP and try to use this partition again... with the same results.

At this point, I should mention that the new box has a 160g 7200 rpm sata drive and a 250g ide drive. And that the 250g ide drive was showing up first in the list of drives.

After stumbling upon the exact Google search term, I learned that Windows XP in a little finicky about the drive to install upon appearing first in the list of drives. Since my 250g drive was appearing first, Microsoft didn't like that.

So I unplugged the 250g ide drive and tried again, but then my CD, which was a slave wasn't recognized since there was no longer a master. After moving the appropriate jumper and rebooting, everything is now working.

Hours wasted on this...

Fridge won't make ice? Kenmore Coldspot

My ice maker in my side-by-side Kenmore Coldspot fridge stopped making ice suddenly, so once the supply in the hopper was exhausted, I started to diagnose it.

Google searches gave me a bunch of nonsense about replacing the icemaker component, but come on... I removed the door to the ice maker and up at the top is the water dispenser that fills the tray where the ice is made. And behold a icicle hanging down blocking the water.

I grabbed wifey's blow dryer and warmed the dispenser and the ice pushed it's way out and then the water tray filled up. Now it's all working.

That's it. Your mileage may vary.

Remote desktop for Kubuntu

There's a build-in remote desktop server but it's either immature or it I don't have it configured properly. Go To Start->Internet->krfb (Desktop Sharing). To configure it for always on (for example, when you want to work from home), press Configure and check the "Allow uninvited connections" and uncheck the "Confirm uninvited connections. Set a password to help prevent unauthorized accesses.

When you get fed up with krfb crashing, install Xrealvnc. Running it with a ":1" parameter sets up a new window running the configured desktop. While you won't have access to currently running applications on the default desktop (:0), you will have access to the panel. From the remote computer, use a VNC viewing program with the URL vnc:/{hostname or ip}:1.

Currently, I use the following steps to work from home:

1. Establish VPN connection to network.
2. SSH into my remote box (acting as the server)
3. Launch "Xrealvnc :1"
4. Launch Kubuntu's Krdc and use the URL: vnc:/192.9.200.37:1

You could also use any old vnc viewer, adjusting the URL as appropriate.

THIS JUST IN:

Alternatively, installing x11vnc and running it as the vnc server will share the running desktop when connected to with a vnc viewer client. It's my new preferred method to work from home.

Now if I could only get my VPN connection configured properly in Kubuntu Gutsy.

Samba configuration on Debian Linux for accessing fileshares from Windows

After much hunting and well written how-to articles, I found that it boils down to this:

1. Either log in as root, or sudo each of these commands.
2. Edit your /etc/samba/smb.conf file to add whatever shares you need to access from a Windows computer. Here's a sample of mine

[docroot]
path=/var/www
writable=yes
invalid users=%S

3. Add a samba user:

smbpasswd -a {username}

4. Restart Samba

/etc/init.d/samba restart

5. Access your new share from Explorer or IE with the IP address of the computer backslash the name of the share. In my case:

\\192.168.1.106\docroot

Windows will prompt for the userid and password. Use the values you supplied to the smbpasswd command. You may have to preceed the userid with the hostname of the server (for example: 192.168.1.106\rick).