Great Muffin/Bread Recipe (french)

Ingredients: 

1. 3/4 t – son de ble (entier)
2. 3/4 t – farine de ble entier
3. 3/4 t – sucre brun (
4. 1 1/2 c. the – cannelle (cinnamon)
5. 1 c. the – poudre a pate (Baking Powder)
6. 1/2 c the – ptite vache (Baking Soda)
7. 1 t – raisins secs
8. 1/2 c. the – sel
9. 1 t – puree de fruit (canneberge, pomme, etc)
10. 2 oeufs
11. 1/2 t huile vegetale
12. 1 moule a pain

Instructions:

1. Melanger le tout dans un bol.
2. Mettre le four a 400 deg F.
3. Enduire le moule d’anti collant (huile, pam, etc).
4. Verser le melange dans le moule.
5. Cuire 25 – 35 minutes.
6. Laisser refroidir jusqu’a ce que tiede.

 

cellunlocker.net excellent for unlocking samsung corby (t566) from rogers

Mobile service contract with Rogers.ca expired recently but want to continue use of my Samsung Corby Touch (SGH-T566). This phone is exclusive to Rogers and was locked to Rogers.ca network.

Got unlock code from cellunlocker.net and it worked. They provide excellent and speedy service, both in terms of providing code and answer to questions, and surprisingly they are the cheapest I could find ($8, compared to $10 and even $20 for other reliable mobile unlock service providers).

I confirmed via #&74# that there are no locks left. The phone still bears the Rogers brand and I will find out when I go to KoodoMobile whether a new and activated simcard will support phone’s full capabilities (minus anything specific to Rogers of course like “Rogers Email”).

Some sites that were instrumental in helping me figure out if it would be possible, and identify what kind of unlocking service I needed:

• Site http://samsungsecretcodes.info/ has lots of good info. If you use some of the code commands listed there, just be careful those that say “reset”: I used one (like 2767*3855 mentioned in one of the videos on that site!) that completely reset my phone, thereby erasing all my contacts etc, not fun (at the time I was new to unlocking so I thought I was doing a reset of the lock system!).
• Wikipedia SIM_lock page (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SIM_lock) has great overview of the whole locking/unlocking business
• cellunlocker.net has a few great tutorials
• ReviewCentre.com has good info on the company, http://www.reviewcentre.com/reviews189675.html

Cost of Heating a Pool: update

So in another post, I compared early estimates with real data, for early September. The conclusion was that basically the actual heating rate was less than 1/2 the nominal rate (so heat 1-2 degs per hour instead of 3-4), and twice as much gaz required, ie cost approx. 1$/deg F.

A week after this experiment, we decided to just leave the heater on. As of Oct 1, we had spent just under 200 cu. m. of gas, ie $50, over a period of 2 weeks. This includes a small amount for stove, oven and fireplace. So this is really not bad at all! For instance Oct 2nd the ambient temperature was 45F whereas the pool was at 79F. Once in, you don’t want to get out, it feels so comfortable in there!

We’re closing the pool Oct 27. I’ll see then the gas volume used. The reading will be a slight overestimate as the house gas furnace has been on a few times since Oct 2nd.

WPF ItemsControl

Love WPF!  Now need to create a UserControl that shows a horizontal sequence of other UserControl.

Turns out you have to use ItemsControl for this:

• Laurent Bugnion post at http://www.galasoft.ch/mydotnet/articles/article-2007041201.aspx got me started, but in that examples his ItemsSource is ”{Binding ElementName=mainWindow, Path=DataItems}” with DataItems being an ObservableCollection<MyData> with MyData deriving from DependencyObject. This part is not what I needed.
• Surf4Fun post filled in the gap: MyData can just be any UserControl that I have created previously. On that post, Surf4Fun uses a static resource for the binding, “{Binding Source={StaticResource dataList}}”, with dataList the key to a static resource of type MyData, and MyData is ObservableCollection<MyUserControl>.

The end solution is to combine the two; this allows to make MyData an ObservableCollection<UserControl> property of my UserControl, so no need for static resources.

Cost of heating a gas pool: real data

In another post, I calculated how much it would cost to heat our pool based on various assumptions and estimates.

Turns out I was off by a factor of about two. I looked at the gas meter while having the heater on from beginning to start, for one weekend, with the set point being 80°F. Here is the data for early September 2011 (average outdoor temperature of 70 – 75 °F):

Day	Time	Water T (°F)	Meter Reading (cu. m.)
Fri	6pm	72	7281
	11pm	80	7313
Sat	9am	80	7328
	6pm	82	7328
	10pm	80	7329
Sun	11pm	80	7340

This means that heating the pool by the first 8°F required 32 cu. m. Assuming my price calculation was correct, namely that it costs us $0.25 per cu. m. of natural gas, this means it costs us $1 per °F. to heat our size pool, approx 10,000 gallons.

Also, it required 5 hours to increase the temperature by 8°F, whereas my calculation based on BTU rating of the heater was 2.5 hours for 8°F, so it took double the time that I calculated.

To leave the heater “on” required about a dozen cu.m. of gas during the night, when the outdoor temperature went down to the low 60′s. Note that our heater only turns on when the water temperator goes below the set point (80°F, in this experiment). So it cost, at this time of year (September, in Eastern Ontario) about $3 per night. This indicates the heat loss from the water to the air was about 3°F, which makes sense: this is the drop observed when heater not on the previosu weekend, but solar blanket on. Without the solar blanket, the heat loss can be 6 to 8°F, at least double.

According to TheWeatherNetwork.com temperature statistics for this region, the average daily temperature in September has been 60°F, October 45°F, and November 35°F. This means approximately 15°F of extra heating required, plus more heat loss once the set point is reached, such that one can expect an extra $30 per weekend in October, or triple the cost of September.

Conclusions:

• Time required to heat our pool by 1°F: about 40 minutes
• Cost to heat our pool by 1°F (10,000 gallons): $1
• Total cost for the weekend to maintain our pool at 80°F, when average outdoor T is around 70°F: about $15.
• Given the cost of the pool and that of the pool heater, it is well worth the heating cost to be heating it to 80′ish °F whenever we want even till the end of September.
• Cost for October may be triple that of Semptember, but still bearable. It is possible that we can even justify the cost to end of October, if we can put up with the rather cool outdoor air (which just makes the water feel like a hot bath!)

The costs are based on last Natural Gas bill, indicating $0.25 per cu.m.

I will repeat the experiment early October to verify cost increase due to colder outdoor temperatures.

Is the concept of a glass ceiling relevant in 2011?

My wife asked me the question a few days ago, a survey she is conducting for one of her courses:

Do you think the concept of a glass ceiling is relevant in 2011?

I ended up writing a much longer answer than what she was looking for so I moved it here. Plus maybe others will comment on this.

According to surveys I hear about on radio, glass ceiling is still relevant nowadays. CBC indicates that women are still paid less than their male counterpart for the same work, and that there are fewer women in management positions than men. It seems like part of this is still old-fashioned stereotypes. Those glass ceilings can be raised and even removed, with the right cultural changes, ie education, and work by those who care about the problem.

But there is no doubt that promotion into senior management role requires not only knowing the right people and and flair for opportunity (which both men and women have), but sacrificing some family life in favor of dedication to work during a period of one’s life where family time will impact the family for one or two generations into the future (25 – 35 years of age). Whereas men can wait till they are “established” before having a family, or a second family, women can’t, the biological clock is ticking.

I believe the natural instinct of women to be nurturing and caring, whereas that of men appears to be conquest (in the broadest sense of the term). The sacrifices needed to get into senior positions are not compatible with the nurture/care priority. But this is probably fortunate, otherwise birth rate would be even lower than what it is now.

Interestingly, I think many men would welcome the opportunity to have the “nurture/care” gene. I really doubt it is a learnt or environmental affinity; rather it is biological, such that willing it produces only temporary or limited motivation in comparison to the strong, innate motivation that stems from the “nurture/care” gene that women carry. Women have no choice but to feel that the potential gain and satisfaction is not worth the sacrifice, it is part of their DNA; men have not choice but to feel that it is worth the sacrifice, and in fact feel that it is necessary to the wellness of the Species. For women wellness is about family and a community of support. For men wellness is about providing for comfort and displaying power.

Finally, even if these factors could be mitigated, it is hard to imagine a work system that would support either men or women in their many family duties, and still allow them to progress into very senior positions. Experts estimate that to become expert at a task or activity requires 5000 hrs of  execution. There are simply not enough hours in a day (not for another couple billions years, anyhow — the time it will take for the Earth to slow down and days to get significantly longer) to support developing high performance in both family and work. This may sound funny, but in a hermaphrodite species, at least both “sides” would have identical levels of acceptance or comfort with the required sacrifices; the ceiling would still be there, but at least it would be on both “sides” (though there wouldn’t be any “sides” in such species).

Cost of heating your pool with gaz heater

Our pool has approx 10,000 gallons of water in it. Since there are approx 8.35 pounds of water in a gallon, this means our pool contains 83,000 pounds of water.

How much energy is required to increase the pool water by 1 degree F? Turns out that 1 BTU is the energy required to increase 1 pound of water by 1 degree F. Therefore, we need 83k approx, to increase our pool temperature by 1 deg F.

The amount of energy that can be produced by burning natural gaz varies by about 10%, but it seems like an average output is 35,000 BTU / cubic meter. This means that to increase our 10k gallon pool temperature by 1 deg F, will require 2.5 cubic meters of natural gaz, approx.

The net cost of natural gaz on my bill is about $0.25 / cubic meter. This is almost double the “nominal” cost, ie the “gaz supply charge”, once the other volume-dependent charges (transportation to provider, delivery charges, etc) are added.

Therefore it will cost us 65 cents for every degree F of temperature increase that we wish for our pool. Since we will typically be wanting at least 5 deg F increase, but will accept to max out at 10 deg increase, we can probably say that on average, it will cost us about $5 each day of that we want to use the pool heater.

We can probably cut that down a bit by using our solar blanket, as the amount of energy required the next day will be a few degrees less. Also, by activating the heater only a couple hours before we are going to swim, so that the heater isn’t wasting energy during the night.

Final answer: approx $4 for every day of the “cold” season, ie starting in mid-September.

Note that our pool heater (a Hayward H250) is rated at 250,000 BTU/hour. This is how much heat it can transfer from the gaz it receives to the water going through it. So to increase our pool temperature by 1 deg F requires 20 minutes with this heater. Alternately, it will take an hour to increase it by 3 degrees, or about 3 hours to increase it by 10 degrees F.

System Performance Tools for Windows

I’m always amazed at the poor quality of reviews of free software on the net. Turns out NovaBench only measures write speed. In the end, CrystalDiskMark wins hands down: nice, simple interface, 4 tests on HD (read, write, seek, random read), can control size of data, pattern used, etc.  So I’m revising the list:

Benchmarking:

• Hard disk: Crystal DiskMark
• SiSoftware’s Sandra Lite: potentially for many benchmark measurements (in fact, too many for simple use)

Cleanup:

• Glary Utilities: defrag registry, find duplicate files, cleanup disk (tmp files etc), …
• CCCleaner: similar to glary
• Iobit’s Advanced System Care (“)

Ways to access web sites blocked by LAN

Sometimes you are at wifi hotspot or office and site is blocked most often wrongly (if it is rightfully blocked then that’s a good reason to stay away from it). In such case, look at Databytez’s list of 10 ways to access the website contents (sometimes static, so will have anything javascript only partly functional). Couple of them I know of but many I didn’t, useful to add to bag of tricks!

Debunking the Bible

Great stuff on http://www.truth-saves.com/; though some of the claims about what Bible intends to mean by some passages is open to interpretation; ie gut feeling that neither Christians nor some of those statements on the website are correct. Hope to have more time to read the rest of the site.