IT Legends – Tech in Connecticut

So, I love my crockpot.  They are so great.  Efficient, slow cooking, set it and forget it (wait, did Ron Popeil trademark that phrase?)!  I love chicken.  Its fewer calories for the protein than beef.  Its usually cheaper.  So, I wanted to cook it in my crockpot.  A lot of recipes out there say to use boneless, skinless chicken to cut on fat.  Well, ok – but you also can cut a lot of flavor that way.  And end up with tough, though wet, chicken.  Also, in order to save money I bought some whole chickens.

Now the dilemma: how do I cook a whole chicken in the crockpot without getting it super greasy?  Vegetable steamer – stainless steel and some of them have removable center posts (like the one I bought).  Take the center post out (if you can’t, just spear the chicken – I’ve done this too).  Do your normal roast chicken prep, like dry rub or something.  Keep the cavity empty for this one, though I suppose since you’re cooking 8 hours you could technically stuff the bird.  I put some seasonings on the skin, then cut up some veggies (specifically this time red peppers, onions and carrots) and placed all of this on the steamer in the crock pot.

I cooked it on low overnight.  Basically had it in there by 9 pm, stopped it about 7:30 am.  All that grease drops to the bottom.  There’s still some fat in the chicken, but the meat isn’t sitting in rendered fat.  Its tender, fall off the bone kind of chicken.  Easy to separate bones from meat (use the bones later for stock).  And you have the stock at the bottom for use later (maybe in making rice…  i usually cool it off in the fridge first and scoop off the congealed fat before using).  So…  rice, chicken and vegetables – so good.  Take the skin off or your personal trainer will yell at you!

We’ve decided over here at IT Legends that we need a new theme.  So, we are looking for WordPress Themes (we use the latest stable release, always).  We’re dark and according to James very 90’s – they want their background back.  Hey James, we want you to write again – get back up on that horse man…  or maybe we’re just looking in the wrong place?

So, if you’re getting this post on facebook or an RSS Feed instead of going to the site directly, please run to the IT Legends site and poke around a bit.  We like the layout, but we can be convinced to find another theme.  Does it need to be free?  How about free as in beer or less than $50 (but we prefer free since we’ve only made $3 – actually considering the cost of the domain, hosting, etc – we’re still in the red).  Yes, if you send a theme suggestion that we end up using, we will buy you a beer (or a beverage of your choice) the next time we are in proximity.

Repairing a friend’s PC tonight. She got it for free and it didn’t work.. Someone had previously tried to fix it and replaced the Power Supply with one that is so not correct it is silly… They put the 20 pin connector into the 24 pin slot on the mother board.. hmm Why won’t this power on???

I know, I know.. those pins aren’t “Required” but with a Pentium D class power hog, what do ya expect..

Luckily we had an extra PS around the house(surprise)

Anyway.. to the point.. I’ve mostly managed to avoid Vista.. really, but this PC has it installed and I have to say.. WoW.. It really sucks!

First I couldn’t connect to my own wireless networks, so I disabled the  firewall, then it displayed that it was back on, then it displayed that it was off again,  is not on.. now it is on..Then Windows showed it ON but not at recommended settings. So I click on what is recomended.. mistake…

So I mange to get onilne and head straight to windows update… more fun…

First, There are no important updates, just optional ones.. So I click to see those.. oh wait.. now there are actually 69 critical updates right next to those… . sigh..

I’ve used Windows 7 for a couple hours, nothing like this crap….

Disclaimer: I’m still on XP on my main PC.

I just got a Zalman ZM-GWB 8800GT/GTS on my favorite website, Ebay! (Finally, a full cover block for my EVGA 8800GT Super Clocked!)
Having several days for it to arrive I scoured the web looking for images of it esp the internals but  I couldn’t find any of the inside!

So, as soon as it arrived I did the only thing I could do: Opened up and snapped a few pics with the Iphone.

Here they are:

BTW: I also just picked up a 2nd one of the 8800gt cards.  Now I’ve got to get a 2nd water block!.. Will update once I get them hooked up.
Also.  I went with these instead of the Danger Den for 2 reasons: 1. Price  2. Size/orientation: These have the barbs on the side while the DD ones are on top and I’d have to cut a chunk out of my Sunbeam acrylic case. (same 2 reasons that I have the 8800GT and not the GTX, that and power usage) I already had to drill 2 holes in the case for the coolant tubing.

Disclaimer: I received no product or  Treasure from the listed companies. (though I’ll take some, and then of course disclose it)  Just writing what’s at hand and what I know. I purchased all this myself.

My co-worker just put me on to a cool new hardware/software solution coming out in Jan.
She saw it on an episode of  This Old House.
I just contacted PowerHouse Dynamics to ask them for a demo unit for their Total Home energy management solution.

The cool part is that it has current clamps for all the circuits in your breaker box and software that looks pretty slick to monitor everything.

Will update when I hear back from them.

Travis.