Some Thoughts on Planting Your Own Garden

With the arrival of Springtime, one's attention often turns to gardening. Indeed, there are few pleasures more sublime than the taste of home-grown vegetables. My thought is that many folks who "don't like vegetables" simply have only tasted the anemic stuff at the grocery store. I have grown vegetables and kitchen herbs in containers for the past decade. Here are a few quick thoughts, based upon my experience:

1) Containers - use buckets, pots, or other containers that are lightly colored, or else paint them. Light colors such as white, beige, tan, or even the "terra cotta" clay flower pot color are OK. The reason to use these is that dark colored containers will absorb more of the sun's heat and could cook the roots of your plants! I learned this one the hard way when I tried to save money and use the cheap, dark gray pots they dispose of at the nursery!

I've used 18-gallon plastic storage bins with excellent results - but try to go for light colored ones! The lid doubles as a "coaster" to set the bin on; during the winter the lid can be put back on the bin. Drill several 1/8" to 3/16" holes in the bottom for drainage.

2) Tomatoes will need, at bare minimum, 5-gallon containers to grow big enough to produce well. Herbs may be grown in shallower, pan-shaped containers. Other crops such as lettuce, onions, carrots, ... need at least a foot of soil depth to grown in.

3) I like to use a spreadsheet - such as EXCEL or the one that comes with the free Open Office suite to keep track of my activities. Data such as which plants you started on what dates, where you bought the seeds or seedlings, how many seeds you planted, how much yield you got, ... are all useful to remember and learn from for next year's planting. Many of my plants are started indoors - that is also recorded, along with dates they were transplanted outside.

4) Recording how many seeds planted will help you to track germination rates. If you planted 10 of a certain seed and 2 actually come up, you know you are either doing something wrong or else have a poor quality seed supplier. Many of the seeds bought at big box retail outlets are of poor quality - if you can obtain the "heirloom varieties" they often germinate better and produce a tastier product, too.

5) Heirloom v.s. hybrid seeds - will often store longer than the commonly available hybrids under similar conditions. 2,000 year-old grains taken from Native-American burial sites have actually germinated and grown into mature plants! Seeds harvested from the traditional heirloom plants may be saved and used for next year's planting. This is what folks did for thousands of years prior to modern scientists playing with the genetics of plants and domestic animals.

Hybrid plants often produce seeds that cannot be saved and used for next year's planting. The reason for this is the genetic manipulation used to produce the hybrids - often the offspring are sterile or else loose some of the characteristics they were bred for. This is a great boon for the seed companies - you are basically forced to re-buy seeds EVERY year. Burpee, American Seed Company, and Monsanto are laughing all the way to the bank!

Hybrid plants are often more vulnerable to being TOTALLY wiped out by a disease or pest because of their lack of genetic diversity. With NORMAL plants, a plague may wipe out MOST of them, but there will usually be some individuals that, due to their genetic differences, will survive and reproduce. With hybrids, you have an ENTIRE field of plants that are genetically IDENTICAL to each other. ALL of them will have the SAME WEAKNESSES, as well as the strengths they were bred for. So, if they happen to be susceptible to a particular disease that strikes in a given year, it's likely the crop will be utterly wiped out. While hybrids weren't around back then, the Irish Potato Famine was in large part due to the extremely limited genetic diversity of the crops being grown at the time. Same with many other devastating crop failures around the world.

6) I start seeds indoors when possible. This allows me to more tightly control lighting, water, and temperature to help assure proper germination of the seeds. Some I plant in dirt; some such as beans I sprout in wet paper towel placed in sweater boxes, then plant in dirt later. This sprouting technique is a sure-fire way of seeing early on what is germinating, since they are not covered up with dirt.

Last year I planted some hybrid beans, spinach and lavender seeds (these were all I could get on short notice) outdoors - NONE of them germinated. We had a lot of rain and unseasonably cold weather which could have messed things up. This year I just planted some in dirt indoors. I also have some in wet paper towel to see if they sprout there. I'll see if either set of these germinate. I bought these last year from either the local home improvement store or Wal-Mart (I can't remember now - a good reason for record keeping as described above). If they don't germinate within a reasonable time indoors I'll scrap them and get some others.

7) Introduce natural predators such as lady bugs and praying mantises. These are available at better garden supply stores. When deploying these, do so at dusk AFTER spraying the plants with a mist of water. They'll then be more likely to hang around and feed on the aphids, spider mites, ... These GOOD predatory bugs also like being around aromatic herbs - yet another reason for having these mixed among your vegetables.

Tomatoes and Red Spider Mites
In the interest of protecting the environment, the makers of "Seven Dust" have made their product ineffective against the red spider mites that ravage tomato plants. For several years I have used an "all natural" orange oil based liquid household detergent (bought at Wal-Mart) mixed 1:4 with water and applied to the affected plants with a pump spray bottle. A few minutes after application I use a garden hose with a spray nozzle to CAREFULLY blast the bugs off the plants. With practice one develops the right "feel" to use enough force to remove the bugs but not damage the leaves and blooms on the plants. This process removes most of them. I do this during the hot, dry part of day when there are fewer of the natural predators, such as lady bugs, present.

This technique is also useful for other types of pests as well. There are commercially made insect removal soaps made for this purpose, but I get by with the "poor boy's" remedy described here. I have read that a dilute dish soap solution works for this, too.

Recommended Reading: Look for the book "Square Foot Gardening" - the techniques work for either container gardening or more traditional gardens and will vastly increase the yield in a given area.

Testing Your Login Security

Most folks log into their internet service accounts, email accounts, ... assuming their passwords are secure against prying eyes. Sadly, many of these accounts transmit passwords "in the clear" - meaning that anyone nosing around on the network could potentially grab your account information and conduct all sorts of nefarious activities IN YOUR NAME. Even some banks and other sites that deal with financially sensitive matters still don't adequately protect your login information. This is how folks end up having their accounts hijacked and even being locked out of them. No doubt this contributes to the rising tide of ID theft cases we hear about in the media, news reports, ...

A Potentially Eye-Opening Experiment
Here's a good exercise for the proactive reader:
Install a good packet sniffer such as Wireshark on your PC. There are other packet sniffers besides Wireshark, but this is widely available for us LINUX users, is full-featured, and works well. Simply Google "packet sniffer"+"whatever name of your operating system" for software that should work for you.

After installing the packet sniffer, start it and get familiar with its interface. When you are comfortable using it, open a separate window and log into your email account, or blog account, ... and watch what happens. Using Wireshark, one can see whether or not the communication is encrypted - as it will tell you so. If the data is properly encrypted you will see "gibberish" in the "capture window"; THIS is what you want. If it isn't, the data sent - likely including BOTH your screen name AND your password - will appear readable in the "capture window". If this is happening you are a sitting duck for someone hijacking your account!!

What To Do Now
At this point you MAY want to consider complaining to the provider of the service in question. It is inexcusable in these times for logins to not be properly encrypted! That said, you will want to CAREFULLY word your complaint - as most folks are still woefully illiterate where computers and the Internet are concerned and you DO NOT want the entity to which you are complaining to think YOU are hacking them! You could do as I did with my ISP a while back (see my previous post) and allude to some "diagnostic software" that turned up the problem. I've found that being tactful, but firm, works best. "Your mileage may vary", but until enough people complain loudly enough to ISPs, account providers, and software vendors, we will continue to suffer with shoddy, insecure systems and services. If you have a choice you can always switch providers.

Legal Issues
I want to emphasize the need to use packet sniffers and other such tools in a LEGAL manner. It is legal to use these "hacker" tools to test and "harden" your own PC or network, but using them on anyone else's systems or network without expressed permission is unethical, illegal, and potentially dangerous.

Usage Considerations
After conducting a test using your packet sniffer - shut it off. Packet sniffers can, in some cases, cause security issues of their own, so use them judiciously.

While what I have just described does NOT, by far, address ALL possible compromises to your online identity, this one is a BIGGIE.

A quick Word On Firewalls
Many folks still do not use a firewall to protect their computers - but they should. In simplified terms, a firewall is a piece of hardware or software that allows certain types of communication between your PC and the Internet, while stopping other types of traffic. Some firewalls strictly do "packet filtering" - while others, namely some software firewalls, also have settings that control which applications may access the Internet. For firewall software, windows users can choose from Zone Alarm, Black Ice Defender, Trend Micro, and a number of others. Most, including the firewall that ships with windows, have well-documented problems. There are sites on the Internet which compare them; some prior research can save money, time, and headaches. Many DSL "modems" and even some wireless (wi-fi) access points contain a "hardware" firewall. The advantage of the hardware firewall is that it is physically between the Internet and your PC - so many problems may be stopped BEFORE they ever reach your PC. In order to do their job, hardware and software firewalls must be configured properly. Many firewalls, when left in their default configurations, do NOT adequately protect you against some common attacks.

It is beyond the scope of this post to detail configuration of all the different firewalls out there; you will want to do your own research and consult the instructions with whatever system you use.

In a later post I will discuss some methods you can use to test your firewall.

Tools For Testing Your Computer and Network

Late last Fall, I completed some on-line courses on PC Security. These were quite interesting, and enlightening. Eye-opening would not be an exaggeration. The "advanced" course covered tools such as "wireshark" - a packet sniffer, and "nmap" - used for probing a PC's software ports. The lesson on using wireshark came at a very good time, as I shall describe below.

Diagnosing Slow Internet Service
Wireshark, and other packet sniffers such as "TCP Dump", are used to monitor data as it passes across the network. A packet sniffer will tell you if packets are being dropped, re-routed, and will tell you the IP address of any routers or computers involved in the connection. Within a week after I had gone through this lesson and installed wireshark on my LINUX system, my Internet connection slowed W A Y down. The term "glacial" was an understatement - with throughput falling below that of 56K dial-up. I verified this using several sites on the web which test your connection speeds. When I fired up wireshark and attempted to navigate to a web site, I saw that MANY packets were being dropped - both at one of my ISP's routers as well as at a DNS server. Ping times were in the seconds, in some cases, but averaged around 700-800 milliseconds. Armed with this information, I was able to avoid the inevitable lame questions such as "Have you cleared your browser cache?", or "Have you tried rebooting?", ... when I called my ISP's tech support line. I was able to talk intelligently with the technician, citing the data I gleaned from my earlier wireshark session. During my 30 minute call, the technician identified a configuration problem at their end and fixed it. One word of warning: Wireshark and nmap are both legal when used properly and ethically, however they ARE considered "hacker" tools and should be used with CAUTION. If you are trying either of these on your work PC you may well get an angry phone call from your IT department - or even face discipline! ASK IT's permission FIRST if you are legitimately wanting to do this on their network for educational purposes. Your ISP also will likely take a dim view of your running these tools from home to probe other machines on the Internet, figuring you're engaged in nefarious activities. My ISP didn't ask me what "diagnostic tools" I was running prior to my talk with tech support, so I didn't tell them.

Testing Your PC's Security and Firewall
Recently, for my continuing IT education, I bought someone's cast-off copy of Windows VISTA "Home" edition. I partitioned my newest machine and configured it to dual-boot my choice of VISTA or LINUX. Soon, I plan to run my OWN tests of VISTA and its built-in firewall by probing it with another networked LINUX box loaded with the nmap port scanner. Since both machines contain LINUX systems, I can effectively use either box to test the other's firewall configuration.

Removable "Drawers" for Quickly Reconfiguring a PC
Removable hard drive "drawers" allow you to quickly remove a physical hard drive from a computer through the front panel WITHOUT opening up the case. With this, you can use a computer in multiple configurations and OSes - it's like having several PCs, only MUCH cheaper! For example, on the dual-boot VISTA box I mentioned above, I have a Win 2K/LINUX dual-boot drive and the VISTA/LINUX dual-boot drive. Each drive is installed in its own drawer and can be swapped within a few seconds by powering down the PC, removing the one drive and inserting the next one. One drive/drawer may be used for software development while another can be reserved for general browsing, multimedia, or whatever. I have several small, <10GB hard drives left over from 10 years ago. I'd like to get another couple drawers for these and use them for certain types of testing in my lab. Loading one with LINUX and Apache server would be VERY useful for testing one's web pages BEFORE going "live" with them on-line.

Adequate Ventilation for Electronic Equipment

If an electronic assembly dissipates an appreciable amount of power, the designer, technician, or builder must provide adequate means of getting rid of the heat generated. Some designs use the case as a heat sink for power semiconductors. Examples of this include car alternators, car stereo amplifiers, and many power inverters currently on the market. Other equipment - quite likely including the computer you are reading this on - uses forced-air ventilation.

It is beyond the scope of this post to supply design formulae for calculating air flow. Electrical or mechanical engineers who read this will not find anything new here. For other home-brewers, hobbyists, and tinkerers, I offer the following pointers I have learned from practical experience:
Keeping It Cool
1) "Muffin", a.k.a. "biscuit" type fans - such as used in most PC power supplies and as case fans - are commonly available from many electronic supply houses. Usable ones can often be scavenged from old equipment. Fans as small as 1/2" to 6" diameter are made and can be purchased from some distributors. Units measuring 2-4" across are the most common I've seen and used.
2) RETURN air supply is needed - just as with an air conditioner. I typically allow from 1.5 to 2X the fan's area for total return air grille area. This is strictly an empirical value that has worked well for me - it is NOT based on any precise calculations. Your mileage may vary!
3) The fan should draw the air through the case and discharge it outside. Having the fan blow air into the case, by drawing it in from outside, will often cause "dead spots" to form around components. These stagnant air pockets may cause overheating - even if the air flow is otherwise adequate. This is why most equipment fans discharge OUTWARD.
4) Try to position the fan as close as possible to the hottest components. This quickly gets the heat out of the box - preventing it from cooking the rest of the circuit assembly.
5) When operating at "normal" room temperature, a semiconductor should be at most warm, but NOT hot to the touch. If you cannot comfortably leave your finger in continuous contact with the device at "normal" room temperature, it is too hot and WILL suffer thermal damage and failure. See manufacturer's data sheets on your diode, transistor, or IC for more precise information on safe operating temperatures. Please bear in mind too, that even with fans and heat sinks, devices cannot dissipate nearly as much power when operated in high ambient temperatures as they do at "normal" room temperature. Study carefully the device dissipation v.s. ambient temperature curves for the device(s) in question to be sure it will do what you intend to do under worst-case conditions.
6) Beware that a circuit that stays nice and cool in your lab at "room temperature" may overheat and fail if you are operating in a vehicle or outdoors on a hot, sunny day! Verify that your equipment is staying cool enough under the hottest conditions you ever intend to run it.
This is why engineering companies test their prototypes in special environmental chambers. I have on occasion used my kitchen oven (set to 170 F) and refrigerator freezer compartment to test home projects built for use in the car! Granted, most home freezers do NOT go near low enough to test for "nighttime in the dead-of-winter" conditions in places like Montana and the Dakotas.
Keeping It Clean
1) To keep dirt and dust to a minimum inside the equipment, you will want a return air filter placed directly behind the return air hole(s). A piece of 3/16" thick foam of the type sold as replacement filter material for window unit air conditioners works well and looks professional. If you electronic supplier has them, a frame to hold the filter foam looks classy and provides easy removal for cleaning. You will see an example of this later on in my "serial port relay controller" project writeup. Otherwise the filter may be glued to the inside of the case.
2) Lacking proper foam to make a filter - other expedient materials such as "cheese cloth" and even women's panty hose material also work reasonably well in a pinch.
3) Removable filters may be washed, blown out with "canned air", or vacuumed. Filters glued in place will need to be blown clean or vacuumed.

First Post

Greetings!! I created this blog to showcase some of my skills and to share information that others might find interesting or useful. As this blog develops I plan to post on a wide range of topics including, but not limited to, the following: Anything computer related, electronics, amateur "ham" radio, shortwave, digital photography, and information on electronic engine controls in cars/trucks/motorcycles.

Hope readers of this blog will find the content enjoyable and will check back regularly.