DoomBook

Welcome back, everyone out there on the Internets. Today I noticed something rather striking.

When I was looking for setup instructions to get my newly acquired DD-WRT based Buffalo router back on ATT’s DSL network I found a marked lack of decent information.

There were plenty of people complaining about how they couldn’t get it working, but not a single one stating, “here’s the fields you need to fill in”.

Now, there might be some of that on the actual DD-WRT forums. But that’s not what was coming up in Google on the searches. Which is what led to quite a bit of frustration on my part, as I like to have a bit of guidance in advance of actual setup to make everything go smoother.

So! What does it take to get ATT service running over a directly connected DSL router, where you’re ignoring the DSL-Modem bridging device from ATT and directly servicing the line with the new DD-WRT router? Not much. Just put in the user name (generally user@someurl .com) and your password and you should be all set. I’ll check and see what the other settings do (if the compression works or just breaks the line entirely) as I get time.

You may have discerned by now that I enjoy making things. Pretty much anything.

So after searching around a bit for “what to do with extra bottles of oil” and coming back with “making soap” I’ve successfully whipped up a couple batches of the cleanly stuff that look promising. But here’s the catch: you want to figure out when it’s done reacting with the lye and, well, becoming soap.

Now, I could just buy some litmus strips. That’s probably a pretty good solution, but it A) involves buying something and B) involves finding the something to buy. Which wastes both time and money, and mostly defeats the using-up-leftovers nature of my initial soap making initiative.

One thing I *do* have is quick access to grocery stores and what-have-you on my ride home from work (very built out sections of Connecticut). After a bit of research, I found (and then remembered) that middle school science classes generally include an experiment whereby you test the PH acid/base level of various substances and objects using a reactive mixture made from a vegetable.

Our answer here, dear reader, is cabbage. Specifically the red variety.

Using nothing but some simple instructions, found here, you too can make an off-the-cuff PH judgment based on a simple PH chart of the water coloration. Or if you want to get fancy (or use the stuff for a bit longer of a period) you can reduce it in alcohol instead.

It’s not useful outside getting a rough reading, but fortunately for my soap making (and possibly ground soil testing) I really want to know if it’s near the center of the range, not get an overly accurate reading out of it.