Testing My Solar Oven.

Posted on 2011/05/22 by Brandon

I have recently purchased a solar oven from Amazon.com. The oven is made in the good ol’ USA by Sun Ovens. The manual recommended that I heat a pot of soap and water before cooking anything in the oven so I thought that would be a great chance to test the oven out. It was an overcast day with the sun peaking out every 10 to 15 minutes and the outside temperature was 80 degrees Fahrenheit.

Soap, water and sun check!

As soon as I set the oven up the temperature jumped to 150 degrees Fahrenheit. Awesome! The time was 4:00 p.m.

4:15 p.m. 230 degrees Fahrenheit.

4:30 p.m. 240 degrees Fahrenheit.

Getting very steamy in there!

I had to open the oven to clean off the condensation in order to read the gauge which dropped the temperature back down to 200 degrees Fahrenheit. 5:00 p.m.

The sun was setting so I decided to follow it by tilting the oven towards the sun using the included stand.

Great feature of this oven is the built in adjustable stand.

Had to open it up to snap the picture due the condensation. 250 degrees Fahrenheit at 5:30 p.m.

The sun was setting behind some trees by 6:00 p.m. 220 degrees Fahrenheit.

I am guessing the reason the manual says to heat up a pan of soap and water is to disinfect the oven and it did get rid of the new car smell. My findings are thus: On an 80 degree day with overcast skies the oven will hold a temp close to 250 degrees Fahrenheit if you don’t open the door very often. What I have here is a free energy slow cooker in these conditions. Which is great because meat and chicken cooked all day slow is really tender and juicy! I also suspect the statements about the moist bake goods that come out of these ovens are true. The manual does recommend that you cover what you are cooking unless it is bake goods. It states you cook those just like you would in a conventional oven. The oven heated up to 150 degrees Fahrenheit very quickly so making noodle dishes or hot tea would be a snap in this little gem.

I am not sure if I could have built one myself for the price ($289). The time and the materials may have been more expensive with the cost of the metal used. I think I am going to enjoy using the oven and since my stove is an electric I hope to save on electricity bills this summer while I am running my A/C unit.

Linux Turns 20 Years Old!

Posted on 2011/04/07 by Brandon

This year the Linux Operating System turned 20. Here is a video with the details.

Quora asks and Asa Dotzler Answers

Posted on 2011/01/20 by Brandon

Below is Asa’s answer to a question posted at Quora about WebM and H.264 media codecs.

Why are Opera & Mozilla/Firefox against implementing the H.264 codec in their browsers? If it’s a question of licensing H.264 or losing the HTML5 tag, you would think they’d choose to save HTML5. What am I missing?

Since the beginning of the Web, individuals and companies, commercial and non-commercial, have been able to produce and distribute content in HTML, CSS, JavaScript, images, and text on the Web without paying licensing fees for the use of any of those amazing technologies.

Since the beginning of the Web, individuals and companies, commercial and non-commercial, have been able to create tools that helped content producers make and distribute HTML, CSS, JavaScript, images, and text on the Web without paying licensing fees for the use of those amazing technologies.

Since the beginning of the Web, individuals and companies, commercial and non-commercial, have been able to make clients (like Web browsers) that display HTML, CSS, JavaScript, images, and text on the Web without paying licensing fees for the use of those amazing technologies.

This is the critical feature of the Web that makes it different from all other media and communication tools that have come before it. This is what makes it possible for tiny little start-ups to become a Facebook or a Google or a Mozilla.

Simply put, this freedom from licensing requirements is what makes the Web great. We, the community of people who make the Web what it is, should not be so quick to toss that all important foundation aside just because some hardware or OS vendors think it’s the easy or most profitable path.

Asa’s blog post can be found here.

Julian Assange Interrupts SNL

Posted on 2010/12/19 by Brandon

I fully understand how serious the situation is regarding freedom and Wikileaks. However, I can not help myself laughing at this SNL skit! The satire made some points about privacy and sharing information.

I love the muahahas between sentences.
Read the whole article at MEDIAite

I am worried.

Posted on 2010/12/11 by Brandon

I am worried about the future of the Internet. I would like to think that the Internet is an indestructible force. We the people are the power behind the Internet and our power comes from the ability to connect freely. I know the tech community understands my concerns but, what about those non-techies that do not understand how vital the open web is to democracy? I hope that they do not out number the tech community because I want us to have as loud of a voice as possible. I am also concerned that the United States Government will use Wikileaks as an excuse to establish control over the Internet. I also wonder if the politicians that have spoken out against Wikileaks fear what may be revealed about them.

Social Media

The Internet has enjoyed the benefits of Social Media like Facebook and Twitter. There are accusations that Twitter is blocking free speech. Facebook stated that they will not block the Wikileaks page for now. These examples are why if you want a presence on the web you should get your own domain and set up a website that YOU control.
I think Richard Stallman made a great point in the article “Who Does That Server Really Serve?”
I also think this comic from xkcd illustrates the point further.