Swingtown USA

Fun with HTTP Response Codes

2011-02-24T13:14:00.001-08:00

I’ve been looking at REST and hypermedia for a current project and wanted to get to know the response codes that are possible. I also wanted to see how conversational they really are so I used a semi-fictitious conversation I had with my wife about private school where she was making requests and I was responding in HTTP Response codes.

A: Steve? What do you think of sending Ayda to private school at 650/month

Me: 102 Processing

Me: 409 Conflict

Me: 400 Bad Request - No

A: Listen to me! If she doesn’t go to a good school her potential could be lost. Look at these scores of the current school?

Me: 202 Accepted – They look pretty Bad

Me: 307 Temporary Redirect I’m watching football can we talk about this later

A: No Look at the curriculum of the private school

Me: 202 Accepted – This looks pretty good. Science taught in the 1^st grade.

Me 204 No Content

A: I was talking to the teacher at the private school and she said blah blah blah blah

Me: 414 Request-URI Too Long

A: Can we afford it?

Me: 507 Insufficient Storage and 509 Bandwidth Limit Exceeded

A: We could pay for it by getting credit cards

Me: 403 Forbidden or 406 Not Acceptable

A: Do you think we could ask for help from a you Mom to pay for this.

Me: 407 Proxy Authentication Required

A: Well, You don’t have a choice

Me: 402 Payment Required

Making NC BBQ

2010-04-16T05:31:00.000-07:00

Detailed instructions on making NC BBQ

When buying the meat look for Boston Butt, Pork Shoulder or Picnic Roast. You may have to ask the butcher. In NC, these are in the meat case in every store.

The Night Before

1) Soak your wood chips. I usually soak about 2 lbs or 1/2 a bag
2) Make the rub
a. This is Neely's rub and is very simple. Modify as you see fit.
1 1/2 cups paprika
3/4 cup sugar
3 3/4 tablespoons onion powder
b. Mix Neely's rub 50/50 with Brown Sugar. I like the brown sugar because it adds sweetness and crust to the BBQ.
3) Rinse the Pork shoulder and pat dry
4) Apply the rub to all sides, Cover and put in the fridge.

The Day of cooking
1) Preheat the Grill to 250. Get a 5 dollar
2) If on gas make 4-5 smoking pouches using tin foil. Poke holes in the top to release smoke.
3) When grill is preheated put Pork on side opposite the heat source for indirect grilling
4) Replace chips/smoking pouches every 45 minutes. for 4 hours
5) After 4 hours the pork has taken as much smoke as it's going to. If your on gas and your temp is steady 250 then you can keep cooking for 4 more hours. You can also wrap the pork with a double wide sheet of foil very loosely. This will hold in moisture and insure tenderness
I like to bring mine in and put in a dutch oven. This is only because I cannot maintain a consistent temperature and I have kids.

After 8-9 hours of cooking you should be done. The meat should pull back from the bone and the bone should be easy to pull out.
Put the meat on a plate cover with foil and let cool about 1 hours.

Now you can pull or chop the meat. I like to put a cutting board on a towel to catch the juices. I use 2 forks to pull it and leave longs strands.
Be sure to remove any fat you see.
Then I put it in a crock pot on low and add the BBQ sauce. Add to taste (about 1 cup) BBQ sauce can be added at serving time.

Here is a standard NC BBQ Sauce.
http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Eastern-North-Carolina-BBQ-Sauce/Detail.aspx

Ingredients
1 cup white vinegar
1 cup cider vinegar
1 tablespoon brown sugar
1 tablespoon cayenne pepper
1 tablespoon hot pepper sauce (e.g. Tabasco™), or to taste
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon ground black pepper
Directions
1.Combine the white vinegar, cider vinegar, brown sugar, cayenne pepper, hot pepper sauce, salt and pepper in a jar or bottle with a tight-fitting lid.
Refrigerate for 1 to 2 days before using so that the flavors will blend.
Shake occasionally, and store for up to 2 months in the refrigerator.

New China Cabinet

2009-11-25T14:27:00.000-08:00

Built this this weekend to hold all the nice china we've been accumulating.

Designed the whole thing in SketchUp.
Made the doors as well.
Need to work on my finishing techniques.

Kids Playing

2009-01-23T17:43:00.000-08:00

Emma Walking. She is 16.5 months old here

Ayda Sledding

Ayda at Karate

Ayda Singing

My Car

2008-08-26T04:56:00.001-07:00

Here is a pic of the first new car I ever owned. I
The first day I brought it home is snowed 7 inches, and I had a blast getting to work
traded in my Harley to get it. I had been in 2 accidents on the bike and didn't want to take a chance with a third. But I did buy a fun fast car.

Deck Project

2008-07-15T18:38:00.001-07:00

Silverlight Examples

2007-10-31T12:27:00.000-07:00

I have a couple silverlight examples here. I created these prior to having a blog and like the full control I get from my own website

One is a Bezier curve and the other is a filmstrip written in Silverlight

Hot Wings BBQ Style

2007-10-24T09:59:00.000-07:00

I love a good hot wing, but good ones are hard to find. When I lived in Columbus Roosters had the best. BW3 had good ones, but they were too small. When I moved to DC, I couldn't find good ones, and now in Raleigh the same thing happened.

I've made them before at home with good success, but it always invoved tons of oil and the mess was incredible. I stopped making them because of this.

That is until now. I've discoverd and equally if not better way to make wings.

Prep the wings

Get a bag of wings, They usually come frozen in 4 pound bags
Defrost the wings
Wash and semi dry them
Put them in a bowl and mix with salt, pepper and olive oil.

Prep the Grill

Fill a chimney starter to the top with charcoal and light
Wait until most of the coals are burning
Empty into one side of the grill for indirect grilling
Pre heat the grill to 350

The goal is to have the grill get very hot anywhere from 350 - 500 is good. We are not slow cooking these, The grill should be hot enough to start crisping up the wings

Put the chicken wings on the other side of the grill and cook for 1 hours. Don't worry about over cooking.

Get another chimney read and dump in the grill. Direct grill the wings until crispy.

Shake in your favorite sause and service

Blue Cheese and Ranch Dressing make a perfect dipping sause for Buffalo style wings.

Bookself Theater

2007-10-24T07:25:00.000-07:00

We had a basically useless room in our house that we used for a playroom. It had no lighting, storage, or any entertainment value. The goal was to provide all three by installing a small simple theater that had high WAF (wife acceptance factor). storage for the toy collection, and simple lighting. The new houses in Raleigh are missing overhead lighting because the builders charge $1000 to put them in.

Here are the plans.

The first step was to build the base. This leveled everything. All the 5.1 wiring and electrical was run prior to starting. This made finishing the project simple

The then built the cabinets in the garage and started to assemble them. I got the wood from Lowe's and 84 Lumber. I'll never go to 84 Lumber again, there market is mass builders and they sell crap wood. there was a 2x4 there with most of the wood missing. I asked the guy "who would buy this"? He said builders do, and that's probable what the studs in your house look like. No wonder I can't find them sometimes, and my walls are bowed.

This is the first level. It's 18" deep on the sides and 22" in the middle. You can see the wiring patchwork in the upper left of the pic. I had to turn the corner with the wire to hang the overhead light.

Ayda loves to climb on things. The trim is installed
The yellow ball demonstrates how level the shelves are.
Crown molding on the top
Lots of sanding and wood fill. If I did it again I would insist on better tolerance, but this was my first job. 1 coat of primer, and 2 coats of finish. What a pain.
Ceiling, crown, and walls painted. I painted for ~20 in this room.

Here is with the stereo installed. That's a 27" LCD. Just enough sound and screen to meet the WAF

Polk Audio R150 Black Pair Bookshelf Speakers
Polk Audio PSW111 Black 8" 150-watt Powered Subwoofer (I will build my own next time, but this one works pretty good)
Polk Audio RM202 Center Channel Speaker
Dayton CS620W 6-1/2" 2-Way In-Wall Speaker Pair (These went into outside walls and I didn't know what the environment would be like so didn't want to risk ruining good equipment)

Here it is with the doors on. I got them from rockler and they installed perfectly. I did use longer screw to mount them to the frame, as I expect they will be abused by the kids. The sub is hidden in the cabinets. not optimal for sound, but a high WAF

Angie's decorations. This is a kids room

Notice the sub in the top of the pic. To increase the WAF I had to hide the sub. It's a little sub, but it adds just enough for this room. Besides I'm bumpin 900 watts in the main theater.

First Post Ever!!!

2007-10-24T05:46:00.001-07:00

This is my first post on my first blog. My colleague Pete suggested that I start blogging, especially since I just had a baby and can’t get out to user groups.

I live in Raleigh with my wife and two kids. We’ve lived here for one year and love it.

I’ve worked for AIS for 3.5 years as a developer/designer and have been programming for 9 years . Some of the recent technologies that I’ve used include Silverlight, LINQ, MOSS, K2, InfoPath, Visual Studio 2008, Smart Client Software factory. I know VB, C#, t-SQL and a host of other technologies that make me fairly well rounded. (At least in the Microsoft domain)

Some of my interests outside of work include home theater, woodworking, home improvements, exercise, and hanging with the family. I’ve found that when you do something 3 hours a day during the week and all weekend it is a legit hobby, and that’s how much time I spend with my family.

I hope to write technical articles as well as updates on home projects which are never ending.