AeroGarden Round 2 – The end

AeroGarden Round 2 - Final
3 Herbs and 3 Lettuce at the end in the AeroGarden

AeroGarden round 2 has come to an end. 101 days planted, and some plants are dying and some are essentially not harvestable.  I did get some good salads out of this last go round, even with only 3 lettuce pods growing.

Lessons Learned

You really have to keep the Romaine trimmed, otherwise it will take off like you see in this last picture. It doesn’t have any edible leaves and it is trying reach the skies height wise.  Also, you really need to keep the lettuce trimmed on a regular basis, otherwise it grows out of control and you can trim off too much. I had one bad week that I wasn’t around and it grew out of control.

As far as growing herbs, I’d say unless you cook a ton, they aren’t worth it. I don’t cook enough with a use for herbs to justify growing them. The chives are just not flavorful enough to be useful, the parsley died an early death, and the basil grew out of control. With me not cooking a lot of pasta, to keep carbs under control, I ended up with a ton of basil with no use for it.

Next Round

In this next round I’m about to get a 7 pod lettuce kit. They sprout quick and I now know to keep it under control for this round.

 

Hard Drive Confiscated, Data Used 2 years Later

ArsTechnica brings us an article that will make anyone who enjoys freedom sick to your stomach. A person who was subject to an investigation had their computer and hard drive confiscated. At that time the government made a copy of said drive, obviously for evidence in the first case/investigation. They then used that copy two years later to build a separate case against them and that drive provided the damming evidence.

Hard Drive
All your data belongs to us

Now I get it, you may be saying well this person is a prior bad actor. They are a criminal and do not have the rights of us that aren’t. But this shouldn’t matter. This is akin to the government at one time getting a search warrant for your house, to investigate one case, but retaining a key and the right to come back later and have a look around for “other violations.”

Add further the fact that if you say, are crossing an international border, the government can search and seize your device. At that time they could make a clone of said drive and keep and mine the data for either a crime. What about if they keep the data and then try to argue you committed a crime prior to it becoming a crime?

I don’t seem to understand that as we citizens have made the governments job easier going all digital, they seem to need to change the rules that existed for paper and hard evidence. Just because it is now easier to store data/evidence doesn’t mean we should.

And what is the solution now? Do you encrypt and silo all of your data? Sure, there are those that will say if you are doing nothing wrong, what do you have to hide. But in a free society I shouldn’t have to concern myself with these things. Sadly with the way that warrants are handed out nowadays you may be involved in a case that you had no clue was coming. The rest of your data should not and never be used against you.

Link: http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2016/05/feds-can-keep-your-hard-drives-indefinitely-and-search-them-too/

Thermaltake Tower Project Case

Thermaltake The Tower Project Computer Case
The Tower Project

Thermaltake unveiled a new high end computer case at Computex 2016 called the The Tower Project.  I have to admit at first look I really like it. There is almost this look of it being an aquarium for computer parts, which makes even more sense with liquid cooling.  Granted the downside is the case looks like it would take up a ton of desk real estate which goes against my newer trend of minimalism. Then again, the entire idea is it to be a show piece of your office.

More info here:  http://computex2016.thermaltake.com/news_view_th_531_1.html