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\\ =o)
(o> of awesome stuff /\\
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// Home Recipes Musings Fun Stuff Links Grizzbook \\
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| | `-`--`--' `--'--'-' | |
| | Who the heck is Grizz? | |
| | | |
| | Hello from IOWA, USA! I love computers and electronics of all kinds | |
| | and have a keen interest in infastructure such as telephone | |
| | networks and Internet Service Providers. This website is maintained | |
| | on my Compaq SLT/286 laptop running MS-DOS. To get online, I use my | |
| | own telephone exchange to connect it to via it's built in 9600 bps | |
| | modem to a dial-up server I built. If that doesn't impress you, | |
| | nothing will. | |
| | | |
| | I watch a lot of TV and movies. Some of my favourite shows are | |
| | Columbo, He-man and Transformers. The Princess Bride is probably my | |
| | favourite movie, but I have recently started watching a lot of | |
| | animation. As an autistic man north of forty, I have finally | |
| | realised that I am allowed to like whatever I want and I shouldn't | |
| | have to hide that part of myself away. | |
| | | |
| | I am also blessed with several different chronic conditions and | |
| | disorders. I am planning to add a spoonie journal at some point in | |
| | the near future. That will really be more for me than you, but you | |
| | are welcome to read it if you like. | |
| | | |
| | I have my own FTP (File Transfer Protocol) site where you can | |
| | download some cool software and even a couple programs I wrote. | |
| | mine are the ones in the GRIZZSOFT folder. Check out the Codename: | |
| | Arcturus BASIC program! There are also some photographs I scanned | |
| | in the Polaroids folders. Here is a link to my FTP. | |
| | | |
| | If you like fun stuff, maybe you like the same fun stuff as me. | |
| | Just in case you better check out the fun stuff page! | |
| | | |
| | Anyway, I hope you will enjoy my little corner of the web. | |
| |_____________________________________________________________________| |
|_________________________________________________________________________|
___ ___
(o o) Sign the (o o)
( V ) the Grizzbook ( V )
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'.|.-._.-._] ///////////////////////////////////////////////////////
,^^^^^^^'-' '-'^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^,
| +-----------------------------------+ |
|=================| Pool, Roku and Pizza |==================|
| +-----------------------------------+ |
| |
| JUL-13-2026 |
| |
| Time has gotten away from me, I thought it would be good to write an |
| update tolet you know what I've been up to. Two projects have been |
| taking up most of my time. The first project saw me convert an 8 foot |
| stock tank to a personal swiming pool. I used to service a pool |
| regularly in my youth, for the motel that my parents ran. |
| |
| To keep my new pool clean I added a 1000 gal/hour pump and filter and |
| plumbed in a skimmer and a couple return jets. The skimmer came with |
| a vacuuum attachment which makes cleaning the debris off the bottom |
| pretty easy. I have been enjoying my time in the water. My limbs are |
| so heavy these days thanks to my various health issues but I am |
| weightless when I am in the water. If nothing else, it makes it |
| easier for me to do range-of-motion exercises. |
| |
| My other project was a bit more in-depth but has certainly been worth |
| the time. I made my own Roku app that streams m3u video content. You |
| see, there are many free internet TV stations and I currated a play- |
| list full of them, but I couldn't find a decent way to play the |
| streams. This left me with no choice but to write my own. SelectaVue |
| is a retro-themed m3u playlist manager and player. Features include |
| favorites, channel-surfing mode, preview video from the channel list |
| and a quick menu overlay for use in full screen. |
| |
| I took a lot of time and care designing the interface to make it easy |
| and intuitive to use. I spent even more time adding compatibility |
| layers, including format detection (Nimble and Flussonic), token |
| handling, header injection, and a manifest-rewritting proxy. I am |
| really happy with how it turned out. I have submitted it to the Roku |
| store but I am unsure if it will be approved since it could |
| technically be used for piracy. Hopefully the pros will outweigh the |
| cons and they will approve it. |
| |
| I have also been into making pizza lately and have been experimenting |
| with cold fermenting the dough and with different types of cheese. |
| Friday night I made an attempt at Detroit style using a dough that |
| fermented for two days. Detroit style has a thick, airy crust that |
| resembles a focacia bread. It is baked in a rectangular pan with |
| slanted sides, and that is where the magic happens. You see, as the |
| crust baked it pulls away from the sides of the pan. This allows for a |
| channel to add extra cheese, which them becomes super-crispy and |
| delicious. |
| |
| I prebaked the crust, then added the cheese and toppings. |
| Traditionally a cheese called "brick" is used, but I couldn't source |
| that locally so I had to adjust. I put a sharp white cheddar around |
| the edge of the crust and filled in the middle with a mix of that and |
| muenster. For the meats I used Canadian bacon, turkey sausage and |
| thick cuts ofCalabrian pepperoni. For veg I went with an orange bell |
| pepper, onion, and pickled banana peppers. |
| |
| I made a sauce using one can of crushed tomoatoes, another of diced |
| fire roasted tomatoes (which I drained and pureed with a stick |
| blender) and a small can of tomato paste. I fried some garlic in olive |
| oil until fragrant and then added all the tomato products, a little |
| salt, sugar, oregano, basil and a pinch of red pepper flakes. The |
| pizza turned out great, with a cripsy crust and that delicious |
| cheesiness at the edges. If you haven't had this style of pizza, I |
| suggest you seek it out. |
| |
| View more of my ramblings |
| |
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: ( (_ | '_| |_ /_ / | / -_) V / / -_) V V (_-< \__ \ _| || | _| _| :
: \___|_| |_/__/__| |_|_\___|\_/|_\___|\_/\_//__/ |___/\__|\_,_|_| |_| :
: :
: Winter in Iowa (Latest Version) :
: :
: March 14, 2026 :
: :
: Experiencing the latest version of winter, we got quite a bit of snow :
: with very low temperatures in December especially. Being mostly :
: farmland, the winds get really strong as they cross the vacant fields :
: with little to slow them down. This makes them howl, especially at :
: night. I really don't like that feature and hope that it can be :
: patched before next year. Blowing snow drifts across the roadways, :
: especially the lesser traveled roads. I primarily stick to the :
: highways and avoid the by-ways, but I have heard other users complain :
: about this. It particularly bothers those who live in the country. :
: :
: It got down to -13F (-25C) earlier in the season, and we experienced a :
: wind chill of -39F (-39F). Did you know that the two temperature :
: scales converge at -40? There have been days in previously seasons :
: where it is -40 in both farenheit and celsius. The cold air hurts my :
: skin, and really dries it out. I think this is what is called :
: chapping. I use a giant vaseline stick to keep mositure in the back of :
: my hands, they get the worst. I also get ice in my eye lashes and that :
: is unpleasant. Maybe in a future revision they could make it more :
: temperate. I think 20F (-7) would be plenty cold enough. :
: :
: I did have fun making snow angels and sliding down into the deep ditch :
: earlier in the season, but even fully bundled up I found myself :
: getting cold snow inside my gloves and on my wrists. I was so cold it :
: burned. This seems like a glitch because hot=burn and cold does not. I :
: hope the developer addresses this in the next version. :
: :
: I did appreciate the hot patch that was pushed out in January. It has :
: given us several days in the 40-50F (4-10c) range. Temperatures like :
: that are much more condusive to human life. For instance, if I got :
: stuck outdoors for a few hours, I would most likely not freeze to :
: death in that time period. :
: :
: All in all, I don't care too much for Winter in Iowa. It is too cold, :
: too windy and potentially lethal. I do enjoy playing in the snow, but :
: my enjoyment is tainted by the cold=burning bug. :
: :
: Final rating: 2/5 winter weather advisories :
: :
: Review more of my reviews :
: :
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0101 ------------------------------------------------------| |________| |
0101 / TELNET Shell Update | ______ |
101 --------------------------------------------------------| | | | |
01 |__|____|_|__|
10 10
01 FEB-25-2026 01
10 10
01 A while back I wrote an entry called "Telnet shell: A new service from 01
10 my ISP." Well, I lied. I wrote the shell and was playing make-believe. 10
01 I remember when ISPs and colleges used to have such features and I 01
10 wanted to relive that experience. Specifically, I remember dialing in 10
01 to my ISP circa 1998 and finding the despite a successful handshake, I 01
10 effectively had no connectivity. I can't remember exactly how I did it 10
01 or what software I used, but I would dial back in via a terminal and 01
10 use terminal services to access the web and IRC in a text-only 10
01 interface. When the internet wasnn't down I would sometimes TELNET into 01
10 my college's system and access internet and e-mail that way. 10
01 01
10 When I was looking for a way to connect my Compaq 286/SLT (Compaq's 10
01 first laptop) to the internet, I landed on creating a dial-up server on 01
10 a Raspberry Pi 3b+. The same server also hosts my FTP server and my 10
01 TELNET/SSH shell, amongst other things that I can't think of right now. 01
10 Some of the services that I had set up are no longer working. For 10
01 instance, I used a bash script to grab showtimes for my local theatre 01
10 from the web and then filter out all the garbage I didn't want. 10
01 Eventually the site I was getting them from changed formats and I 01
10 didn't feel like rewriting it. Same for a written weather forecast. I 10
01 still have the visual forecast working, so I decided that it wasn't 01
10 worth maintaining the more verbose version. 10
01 01
10 The first two options in the shell, e-mail and web browser, are still 10
01 fully functional. This is no surprise as they are programs that are 01
10 actually running on the server. Option 3, which grabs time, date, and 10
01 moon phase got a slight update. I was previously basing the moon phase 01
10 on the Jewish calendar. This was fairly accurate, but I have since 10
01 installed a small program on the server that calculates it properly. 01
10 Now my script just calls on it for that part. 10
01 01
10 Option 4 used to be showtimes, but that has been replaced with a gopher 10
01 browser. The browser is running directly on the server, so I do not 01
10 have to worry about any maintenance for it. Option 5 remains the visual 10
01 weather forecast, but the text forecast that was option 6 has been 01
10 replaced with an IRC client. Again, this is installed on the server so 10
01 there will be no maintenance going forward. 01
10 10
01 Option 7, which I use first thing every time I login, shows me a random 01
10 joke. This is using a curl request and I hope the server never goes 10
01 down. I love jokes! Have you checked out any of my THREE jokes pages? 01
10 Option 8 remains as a geolocation service. I can't remember for sure, 10
01 but I would think that this is running locally. Option 9 remains an 01
10 online encylopedia--Gopherpedia to be exact. Great site, BTW! 10
01 01
10 Option 10, Chatbot, used to connect to ChatGPT via API. I didn't like 10
01 having to pay to keep this going, so I am now working on my own 01
10 chatbot. It is NOT true AI, it's just scripted. But I am having fun 10
01 working on it and trying to improve it. I plan to write more on this 01
10 later. Option 11 allows me to leave the shell and access the server 10
01 directly. I use this option to access the server. Option 12 quits the 01
10 session and closes the connection. 10
01 01
10 I have added one more "unadvertised" option. Option 99 quietly resets 10
01 the modem and dial-up server. This is useful for when I have an 01
10 unexpected disconnection. It never gets run from the Compaq because if 10
01 the option needs run, I won't be able to dial-in. However, I have SSH 01
10 access on my phone and can now easily reset the modem without having to 10
01 find a modern computer. 01
10 10
01 Anyway, I'm done rambling. And you're done reading too, I guess. 01
10 __________ 10
|u| ______ | | 01
| | ______ | |-------------------------------------------------------- 10
| | ______ | | View more of my computer logs / 101
| |________| |------------------------------------------------------ 0101
| ______ | 12101
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| | _____ | |
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| | | | | v |
| | '-----' | |
|_________|___________________________|_________|
Pizza sounds good right now
I like it with pineapple
green peppers and tomatoes
and some meat
pass the pepper flakes...