Whenever a goose has the daring to land on the dock, Boris very quickly puffs himself up to scary proportions and chases it away.

This is, as I have just observed, less easy when the dock is frozen and the goose is slightly less inept at running on ice....

Mike's zappy thing went well, although they then had to dope him up again. Hope that the snow doesn't get any worse and stop me from going to see him, but if it stays like it is now I should be fine.

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We got three tubs full of goose meat into the freezer leftover from this year’s festive bird, and decided to stir fry the contents of one tonight.  We had no ginger or chillis in the house, astonishingly, so trudged out in the snow to obtain some, and had a lovely walk around Pearson Park in Hull to boot. The joys of working from home!

We set the goose to marinade in some sesame oil, arrowroot, a splash of lime juice, some rice wine, and a slosh of some really nice Japanese plum vinegar – I have no idea where I got it, except that it was before we moved, so we’ll probably never see its like again here in the East Riding, but never mind.

Whizzed up garlic, ginger and lemon grass, chopped a red chilli, a big flat mushroom, three spring onions and a Romano red pepper, and wokked them until done.  Added goose and its marinade, and then some coconut milk.

Handy tip: get coconut powder; a whole tin of coconut milk can be way too much for a stir fry, and then it’s hard to know what to do with the rest (although it works amazingly well in risotto).  You can get the powder in an Indian/Asian grocer, and just mix up what you need.

Chopped up some of the rather tired coriander and bunged that in at the end.  Worked really well.

Mirrored from Reactive Cooking.

Today's tweets are ( behind the cut )

Well, we couldn’t call it “toad”, as we used some of those teeny tiny cocktail sausages that needed eating up after the holiday.

Put the sausages in the oven at gas 6, in my ancient and beloved white enamel gratin pan which cooks Yorkshire Pudding like a dream, although it is a horror to wash up, especially now we have no dishwasher … I added a dollop of beef dripping, but you could use olive oil.

Made a batter by putting 3oz of plain flour and a pinch of salt – oh, and some ground black pepper –  in a bowl, making a well in the centre, and beating in a whole egg. Then should have added 3oz of milk and 2oz of water, but the scales ran amok, so I’ve no idea what exactly I added – I just did the consistency by eyeball.

Once the sossies looked reasonably on the way to being cooked, about 20 minutes, probably, I ramped up the oven to the dizzy heights of gas 7, then poured the batter into the dish and bunged it back in for another 20 minutes or so.

We had this with the very last of the brussels sprouts I bought on Christmas Eve and HP sauce (in my case) and the last of the red cabbage (in Pete’s).  Fab on a cold snowy night.

Mirrored from Reactive Cooking.

A question for work. We can ssh into our intranet via a particular host (call it foo). I'm using the Lotus Notes webmail (which is 1000% nicer than the software client, and I now use it all the time by preference) and can easily access our internal IRC, source control and intranet websites via ssh tunnelling.

The intranet website access requires foo to be running a proxy. This is of course easy in Apache 2.0:

ProxyRequests On
ProxyVia On
ProxyDomain .internal.example.com

<Proxy *>
Order deny,allow
Deny from all
Allow from 172.26 10.1 localhost
</Proxy>

172.26.*.* and 10.1.*.* are intranet IPs. (Yes, we have multiple RFC-1918 ranges.)

All well and good. However, foo can thus be used as a proxy to access outside websites, in a manner that bypasses our WebSense filter (which is running as a transparent proxy). WebSense is inherently patronising and braindead rubbish that is not fit for purpose, but we don't want to upset the IT department unduly, and outside access is not after all what the proxy is there for. Also, not all intranet sites are in .internal.example.com — I need access control based on IP range.

So — how do I tell the proxy to only allow itself to be used for access to intranet IP ranges? What manual page did I miss?

(I could carefully construct a ProxyBlock entry to block everything except our ranges, but that's more than a little laborious. I could do it server-by-server using ProxyPass, but that's way too much like work and I can't be sure my whitelist would ever be complete — I just want to allow it to proxy to intranet IP ranges but not to other IPs.)

Has anyone done this? How did you do it?

http://www.eveonline.com/news.asp?a=single&nid=3542&tid=6

Annaro - A dangerous rescue operation aimed at recovering 176 Caldari miners trapped in an asteroid proved successful last night . The rescue was performed by an Amarr team from Ducia Foundry experienced on unstable asteroids.

Reports indicate that the miners themselves were not informed of the attempt and spent the evening writing final letters to their loved ones. One miner told reporters, "When I heard they were drilling just a few meters away, my first thought was that we were hallucinating from the lack of oxygen." The surprise rescue operation was executed, though, for reasons that remain unclear, only a select few knew about the operation. Their secrecy has aroused suspicions that Ducia Foundry was allowed to covertly transport and deploy its slave workers to the asteroid mine.

In a brief statement, Ducia Foundry's Steen Greimala said, "The operation went as smoothly as ever. Every member of my team performed admirably, and we were more than helped by the Deep Core Mining experts, who analyzed every aspect of the asteroid. I never had a point where I was seriously concerned."

CBD Corporation released a statement saying, "We welcome the successful rescue of our miners and thank Deep Core Mining and Ducia Foundry for their help." CBD would not comment on the safety procedures they had employed during the mining operation. Police commander Garr Diymir was not available for comment.

Caldari law expert Dimm Margo remarked, "I think it's obvious what's happened. They managed to sneak the slaves in and get the job done, but there will need to be legal accounting sooner or later. Luckily for them, they were successful."

Today's tweets are ( behind the cut )

... has mostly been spent at the hospital. Mike still there, me just back. Kidney stones again. More when I have it / the energy.

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The weather is cold, cold, and the cats are In.  Iggy, in particular, hates the cold weather, and won’t go out unless we put him on the other side of the front door, where he rowls mournfully for several minutes before travelling round to the back door, (hopefully) doing his business en route.  Unfortunately, we missed him this morning, and he left a puddle in our office :(

Here is a picture of Lilith assisting us with a jigsaw, just to keep you going.

Mirrored from the Tribe.

I referred to these in my last post, about our New Year’s Eve dinner.  Here’s the recipe – highly recommended!  It comes from one of the Jamie Oliver books.

serves 6

1.5kg medium-size waxy potatoes, quartered lengthways (I don’t generally bother with peeling potatoes, but feel free)
sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
olive oil
200g butter, cubed
fresh rosemary, leaves picked and chopped
1 whole bulb of garlic, quartered or smashed
5 medium red onions, peeled and quartered
350ml cheap balsamic vinegar

Preheat the oven to 200C/gas mark 6. Parboil the potatoes for about eight minutes, then drain, return to the pan, and rough them up a bit by shaking (this works really well for roasting potatoes too, by the way).

Pour a glug of olive oil into a roasting tray, add the butter, rosemary and garlic, and heat it on the hob – you want to be able to fit the potatoes in one layer. Add the potatoes and toss them in all the flavours. Add the onions and all the balsamic vinegar and season with salt and pepper. Cook for five minutes on the hob to reduce the balsamic vinegar a little. Place the tray on the top shelf and cook for about 50 minutes, until the potatoes and onions are dark, sticky and crispy – removing the tray to toss the onions and potatoes halfway through.

Mirrored from Reactive Cooking.

http://www.eveonline.com/news.asp?a=single&nid=3540&tid=6

Annaro - Aszhar Freimala, an Amarr Holder, has offered to purchase and release 16 elite slaves owned by Ducia Foundry for the task of rescuing trapped asteroid miners in Annaro system. Ducia Foundry has agreed to the proposal, but the corporation will not officially release the slaves until after the rescue, citing the need to maintain a solid command structure during the operation.  

Annaro system police commander Garr Diymir told reporters, "It's a wonderful gesture, but unfortunately doesn't change much from the legal standpoint. [The rescuers] would still be slaves. Until they are officially released, my hands are tied." Since his statement, the police commander has received a barrage of angry letters from Caldari citizens.

Steen Greimala, director of the Ducia Foundry rescue team, told reporters, "I'm excited about this opportunity to help our allies and am thankful that my company is willing to make compromises. We can take this opportunity to show the public how well we can work with our slaves and what can be accomplished under our system. I'll lose some valuable teammates when it's over, but it will be worth it."

Evvlynne Deermin, spokesperson for CBD Corporation, told reporters, "We feel this is an excellent compromise and would like to extend our gratitude to Aszhar Freimala and Ducia Foundry for their continuing efforts in this situation." The 176 trapped miners currently have less than two days of air remaining.

• Rowland S. Howard is dead. Dammit.

• Quite possibly the most bloody stupid email in history.

• Firefox DOMINATES the Web in Antarctica.

• Geeks! Remember the spectacular fail of Samizdat by the Alexis de Tocqueville Institute? Now you can read it. Oh dear me.

• Wikimedia blog: Dear museums, help me to help you. They still haven't answered. V&A FAIL.

• Rocknerd: So how was your haul?; The occult symbolism of the Video Music Awards.

• NewsTechnica 2010! Polanski thanks supporters of drug rape as extradition wait continues; Britain: 5,394 arrested in Internet song crackdown; Twitter users urged to stay calm during Fry drought; Vendors: Netbooks "dying, honest".

Are there any Boston-based overpaid geeks who have a spare laptop or netbook for the poor? I have a friend in need who couldn't even afford $100, but rather $0. They'll use it lovingly and geekily. Please email me.

Geek question: what's a good self-hostable app for a photo/picture blog? Wordpress is not quite there IME. I want something that really does make it all but automatic.

Thank you to all those noting The Register. I suspect this pissed off Rat-Faced Freddy way more than he let on at the time.

I got a pile of nice stuff for Christmas. Survived the day. The following Monday was arkady's birthday and we went to the V&A. That week I had to work, but did the work-from-home thing on Wednesday ... at which point my poor mugged laptop's screen finally cracked under the strain of the bent case and died horribly. (The Toshiba Portégé R600 is shiny, powerful, expensive and STUPIDLY flimsy and fragile.) I had a replacement by Thursday. Must work out a good place to put the Vista sticker.

Tabs peed copiously on the couch a few days ago. What finally worked to clean the smell out: baking soda and peroxide on the couch itself (make paste, scrub in with brush, leave to dry, vacuum off) and washing the feathery cushions with a sizable whack of baking soda.

Posting NewsTechnica at a fantastic rate. Still aiming for one a day, but doing lots of extras.

Liz has decided she's quite definitely staying in Australia, which is a bit poo all round. We remain on good terms, though.

Today's tweets are ( behind the cut )

http://www.eveonline.com/news.asp?a=single&nid=3651&tid=7

Y-2ANO, Fountain - In the early hours of today, multiple titans were lost in a dramatic battle between the combined forces of Pandemic Legions, Goonswarm, Northern Coalition and other allies and capsuleers from IT Alliance.

During the battle, Pandemic Legion state that their fleet was disarrayed by a spatial distortion, reportedly causing the loss of at least 4 titans and several capital ships.

According to sources inside Pandemic Legion, the clash began when IT alliance attempted to seize Y-2ANO following a botched sovereignity transfer between the system's former holder - Sons Of Tangra - and Goonswarm alliance.

Preliminary reports indicate that IT Alliance pilots discretely onlined a Tactical Control Unit yesterday afternoon. After that, they set up several staging points and ammassed a fleet of over 600 ships to defend the unit. The fleet reportedly comprised several titans along with capital and support vessels.

Pandemic Legion and its allies rallied to storm the onlining TCU to prevent the system falling to IT Alliance. Pandemic Legion's fleet reportedly comprised 5 titans, several capital vessels and support, totaling around 700 units.

With so many massive vessels in close proximity, spatial distortion can ensue. Xodius Raldari, a titan pilot who flies under Pandemic Legion's banner, described how the fight was influenced by the distortion. "Most of our capitals [succesfully jumped into the system]... then a spatial distortion happened... there was no fight at all, apart from some few support and bombers we managed to kill."

Viper ShizzIe, CEO of Pandemic Legion corporation The Illuminati, added "Those who managed to jump out... still died... their hulls appearing where the cyno was lit hours later, unpiloted!"

AJ Regard, an IT Alliance pilot, confirmed that there were 3 titan wrecks on the field after the battle. "Locator agents have [searched for the pilots of] all 4 titans, showing their pilots now in stations. So, unless titans can now dock, there are 4 dead titans," he says.

The Y-2ANO battle is framed in the larger-scale conflict between IT Alliance, Pandemic Legion and Goonswarm. "Y-2ANO was rather important as it's close to Goonswarm's territory... We tried, we lost, [we] didn't want that titan anyways," Xodius Raldari ultimately says.

Due to the extremely chaotic situation following the clash, battle reports are still flowing from the region and the presented figures may change in the next hours. Interstellar Correspondents will monitor the situation and report as soon as further details are available.

GalNet References

Pandemic Legion Battle Statistics
IT Alliance Campaign Statistics

---

Are you affected by the events in this article? Do you have information regarding another event in New Eden? If so, please contact us with any information that you may have.

Want to become a news correspondent with IC? We are recruiting.

In 2009, I read 203 books by 90 authors (including 'Various'), of which 78 were re-reads.

(Actually, I think I read 206: I when I wrote up the books I'd read in South Africa, I was short a trilogy. But I can't remember what it was.)

My most read authors were:

Steven Brust - 16 (Vlad!)
Anne McCaffrey - 14 (I've just been re-reading Pern. I'm almost tempted to start on her son's ones, as the last few were new-to-me.)
Brian Stableford - 8 (Not consciously. I suspect I may have just worked my way through the paperbacks. Ah, Mike tells me that six of them are a series)
David Weber - 8 (Honor Harrington, but I'm afraid while I liked the third that was Pern, and the third that was Miles (which I seem not to have read this year: yay! I get to re-read Miles!), I was rather bored by the third that was tedious space battles with the path of every damn missile described.)
Elizabeth Moon - 8 (Serrano Legacy; had little memory of them until I looked online, but now I remember that they had ponies in! Yay ponies!)
Terry Pratchett - 8 (short burst of re-reading)
Enid Blyton - 7 (ah, comfort books!)
Georgette Heyer - 7 (ditto!)
Robert Heinlein - 7 (Rather enjoyed his YA stuff; almost makes up for some of the adult tripe.)
Spider Robinson - 7 (The ones about a bar. Liked those.)

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We've been promising ourselves a trip to Hornsea and Bridlington since we got here, The weather forecast was decidedly ungood, so we loaded the car with blankets, cat litter (in case of getting stuck in snow/ice) and a flask of tea.

While we were scraping the ice off the windscreen, we broke the wiper blade, so the first stop was at a motor factor to buy a new one. £11 from Halfords, £4.50 from this chap - hurray for independent retailers! Then I forgot my camera, so we popped back to pick it up.

We went first to Hornsea, but it was very cold, and we didn't stay long. Then we drove up to Flamborough lighthouse and had a roam along the cliff. There look to be some lovely walks there when the weather is less inclement. The weather was very snowy on the way, and we did wonder whether to come home, but we persisted, and thankfully there was no more,

Next up was Bridlington, which was looking gorgeous - a sunny day and pristine snow., My DSLR was playing up, so had to use the iPhone - pictures up tomorrow. Walk along the front, walk around the harbour, fish 'n' chips for lunch.

We could see huge snow clouds over Flamborough Head, and thought they might catch us up - oh, for a working camera with a decent lens! Drove home in a gorgeous sunset as pictured. Lovely day out.

Supper was scrambled egg on toast, and am about to have some of the remaining christmas pud - oink. Back to sensible eating tomorrow.

http://www.eveonline.com/news.asp?a=single&nid=3538&tid=6

Annaro - Caldari law experts, police, and the families of buried miners continue to debate the possibility of allowing an Amarr team, many of whom are slaves, to attempt a rescue of almost two hundred miners at the collapsed CBD Corporation asteroid mine in the Annaro system.

In an interview today, Steen Greimala, director of the Ducia Foundry team, said, "At this point we've got all the data we're going to get about the situation. The longer we wait, the more difficult the extraction will be."

Amarrian Holder Aszhar Freimala, owner of a manufacturing firm and a customer of both CBD and Ducia Foundry, commented to reporters, "It's a shame that their distaste for one aspect of our culture would cause the Caldari to sacrifice their own people." Freimala is reported by sources at CBD Corporation to have been in private talks with CBD and members of Caldari law enforcement at CBD's Sell Division Retail Center in Annaro.

Several hundred family members of the trapped miners have organized a petition asking police to "look the other way," and are attempting to raise money to offer as payment to Ducia Foundry for the release of the slaves, despite the illegality of doing so. "I oppose slavery as much as any Caldari, but letting our children grow up without their fathers is not going to put an end to it," said a representative for the group. Time continues to run out for the trapped miners, with air supplies now estimated at three days.

Today's tweets are ( behind the cut )

You will not MAKE MONEY FAST from blogging. No, you will not. I strongly suggest the time-honoured MAKE MONEY SLOW scheme where you show up to a place of business and do something of economic value for fortyish hours a week.

( Whiny little bitch rant about why today.com are goat-felching paedophiles. )

It was fine while it was fine, then it wasn't and it wasn't. So, NewsTechnica for the win! If you're on DreamWidth, the syndicated feed is newstechnica_feed. If you're on LiveJournal, the syndicated feed is newstechnica. So you don't have to wait for me to bother posting something to see when there's a new story.

NewsTechnica is currently running about 200-300 UVs (unique views) a day, rather than the 1000 or so the old site was. I expect this will pick up with time. TELL YOUR FRIENDS.

So, I made some resolutions last year. How did I do?

I did ask for help more, though perhaps still not as much as I might have done.

I did tidy the gap between the dresser and the bookshelf in the hall.

I have been better at taking quality time off, just for myself. Still need to be sure to keep doing so though.

I watched the movie "Dark Knight" - because Kevin said I should.

And, though it nearly killed me, I did an extra week of no chocolate for lent.

I have been de-cluttering, but not done one thing a week.

And I still want to get good at singing again, but I failed to find some way to sing regularly again.

As for LJ postings - I didn't post each week, but, I joined twitter and Facebook, and post there regularly. Still trying to decide how best to use all the social media available to me.

I didn't keep a full record of the books I read, and haven't devoted time to reading every day, but I have read more this year than last.

So, not a bad attempt with my resolutions, but not 100% successful.

So, what should my resolutions for 2010 be friends? Any ideas?

All suggestions welcomed.