Month: March 2013

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Nesco Food Dehydrator

By (author unknown), Cool Tools – July 09, 2010 at 01:28PM

The Nesco Food Dehydrator is a simple, affordable, and well-built tool for drying foods quickly and thoroughly. Though not an every day use item for most people, when it is needed it becomes absolutely essential.

I recently went on a weekend trip hunting for morels with some friends and came back with far more than I could eat. Luckily, this dehydrator made short work of the excess. The stackable trays easily fit 60 whole small morels and many of the larger ones that had been cut in half. I fit about 2-3 pounds of mushrooms in 5 trays.
Nesco FD-75PR 700-Watt Food Dehydrator-2.jpeg

Like the previously reviewed Excalibur Food Dehydrator, the Nesco model has a temperature control, fan, and heating unit. The Nesco’s heating unit is built into the top (other cheaper models heat from the bottom up) that sits on top of the stack of trays and blows air through a central column allowing for better distribution and airflow throughout. I used a temperature of 110 ˚F (or 43˚C) when drying morels, and left them to dry over night (about 8 hours). They were perfectly dried the next morning, and ready for storage in an airtight container. Any moisture left in mushrooms will lead to a ruined batch so I made sure to let them dry out for a little longer than necessary.
Nesco FD-75PR 700-Watt Food Dehydrator-1.jpeg

While I have mainly used this model for drying mushrooms, the large trays and variable temperature dial (95-160 ˚F) allows for a wide range of dried foods to be made. This particular model is also expandable to 12 trays if you need to dry a truly astonishing amount of food.

The Nesco, when compared with the Excalibur, has the benefit of being nearly $125 dollars cheaper combined with a smaller expandable footprint, a relatively quiet fan, and similarly adjustable temperature.

— Oliver Hulland

Nesco 700-Watt 5 Tray Dehydrator
$47

Available from Amazon

Manufactured by Nesco

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Yard Sale Search Catalogs Yard Sales Across Your Locale [Sales]

By Jason Fitzpatrick, Lifehacker – July 09, 2010 at 08:30AM

Yard Sale Search Catalogs Yard Sales Across Your LocaleIf you’re planning a weekend of yard sale hunting it pays to check out the sales in your area before hitting the streets. Yard Sale Search catalogs local yard, garage, and tag sales to help you plan your attack.

You can never have enough places to find yard sale listings when you’re putting together a list of stops for a Saturday of discount shopping. Yard Sale Search shows you sales by state, city, and neighborhood complete with a map, listing of goods and a description of the sale, contact information, and other additional tidbits about the sale.

Make sure to check out previously reviewed Garage Sales Tracker, Gsalr, and Yard Sale Treasure Map, to ensure you don’t miss any yard sale bargains. Have a favorite tool or tactic for getting great deals at yard sales? Let’s hear about it in the comments.

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Yard Sale Search Catalogs Yard Sales Across Your Locale [Sales]

By Jason Fitzpatrick, Lifehacker – July 09, 2010 at 08:30AM

Yard Sale Search Catalogs Yard Sales Across Your LocaleIf you’re planning a weekend of yard sale hunting it pays to check out the sales in your area before hitting the streets. Yard Sale Search catalogs local yard, garage, and tag sales to help you plan your attack.

You can never have enough places to find yard sale listings when you’re putting together a list of stops for a Saturday of discount shopping. Yard Sale Search shows you sales by state, city, and neighborhood complete with a map, listing of goods and a description of the sale, contact information, and other additional tidbits about the sale.

Make sure to check out previously reviewed Garage Sales Tracker, Gsalr, and Yard Sale Treasure Map, to ensure you don’t miss any yard sale bargains. Have a favorite tool or tactic for getting great deals at yard sales? Let’s hear about it in the comments.

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How To Get Your Very Own Free SSL Certificate

By Mohan Ramkumar, MakeUseOf – July 07, 2010 at 02:31PM

free ssl certificatesA Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) certificate helps us to encrypt the data being transmitted via the Internet. It will come in handy if you are running a blog or a personal webpage and logging into them from an unsecured public access WiFi Hotspot (such as coffee shops, airports etc).

Transmission of your login information over an unsecured connection can be intercepted and hacked. Internet security is a topic of interest for MUO authors and our readers alike.

SSL certificates encrypt the login data before transmitting them to your ISP/server making it harder for eavesdroppers to break in. That’s exactly why banks, financial institutions, ecommerce sites etc. use SSL for securing login information, user identity information and credit card data.


SSL certificates cost a lot if bought from providers like Verisign, GoDaddy etc. For those us who don’t run mission critical portals, that is not an option. Let us see how to get free SSL certificates from StartSSL.

Obtaining The Free SSL Certificate

A simple signup form kickstarts the process of getting the free SSL certificate. All the details, including home/company address to phone number are mandatory requirements. Once the signup is done, an email with the verification code is sent to the email address you specified.

free ssl

After entering the verification code, the application is sent to the second stage of verification by the StartSSL team and we are advised to wait for about six hours before being contacted by their team.

However, I got a confirmation mail in less than 5 minutes with a link to the account. Remember, this email is good for only 24 hours from the time it has been received, so act fast.

Installing The SSL Certificate

StartSSL offers free certificates with no holds barred and with absolutely no hidden charges. You can choose either a 128 bit or 256 bit key for encryption.

free ssl certificates

We have the option to choose between a high grade or medium grade private key. Once the type of key is selected, it is generated and we are taken to the installation page.

free ssl

Once the install button is clicked, the certificate is installed. There is also an option to download and store the certificate to an external disk and I strongly advise you to do it.

free ssl

Now that the certificate is installed in the browser, we can just click on the Authenticate option to enter the control panel. No need for an username and password. We are identified by way of the unique private key and hence it is very important to back it up securely.

free ssl cert

Validating The Domain Name

After authentication, we can start the process of validating the domain name & the email address with the help of the Validations Wizard. From the dropdown, you can choose the appropriate option. Let us go ahead and validate a domain name.

Once we enter the domain name, an email address has to be associated with it to confirm domain ownership.

free ssl cert

Once the email address is verified, the domain is validated. However, this being a free SSL certificate, StartSSL requires the renewal of this validation every 30 days, which involves the same process.

free ssl cert

Certificate Wizard

I chose the Webserver certificate since I am planning to use it for my WordPress installation. We need to enter a password to create a private key and then we have to enter the subdomain where the certificate will be used. Subdomain is a mandatory requirement.

The certificate created will support the domain and the sub domain. As the final step, we now have the text box displaying the encoded certificate information. Copy the content, paste it in a notepad file and rename the file as ssl.crt

The same page also has links to download the intermediate and root certificates. Download them to the same folder.

Uploading Files To Server

Navigate to the How to Install section in the FAQ section. Choose your server setup, for example Apache and you will have the code to modify the http.conf or ssl.conf file. Copy it and update the file in the root folder of the domain in your webserver.

From the same page download the ca.pem & sub.class1.server.ca.pem files. Upload all the files to the root folder and now we have the SSL enabled connection at the website.

free ssl certificates

Final Thoughts

Please exercise caution with the last step and ensure that all the directories (marked by arrows in the image above) follow the same naming convention of your ISP or location in your webserver. And do remember to validate the domain every 30 days to enjoy the security provided by the free SSL certificate.

Are there any other services offering free SSL certificates? If you know of any, do share them with us.

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Federal Circuit Extends the Scope of 102(e) “Secret Prior Art”

By Dennis Crouch, Patent Law Blog (Patently-O) – July 07, 2010 at 02:08PM

In an important case, the Federal Circuit has expanded the scope of so-called 102(e) “secret prior art.” Under the decision, a US patent or published application will be considered prior art as of the filing date of its qualifying provisional application.  The case is important because of the large number of provisional patent applications being filed each year.

* * * * *

In re Giacomini (Fed. Cir. 2010)

Giacomini’s patent application was filed on November 29, 2000.  In his search, the examiner found U.S. patent 7,039,683 (the “Tran patent”) and asserted that patent as prior art over Giacomini.  The Tran patent application was filed in December 2000 (after Giacomini) and issued in 2006. However, the USPTO asserted that the patent should be considered 102(e) prior art because it claims priority to a U.S. provisional application that was filed in September 2000.

35 U.S.C. 102(e)(2) bars patentability if

the invention was described in . . . a patent granted on an application for patent by another filed in the United States before the invention by the applicant for patent, except that an international application filed . . . shall have the effects for the purposes of this subsection of an application filed in the United States only if the international application designated the United States and was published under Article 21(2) of [the PCT] in the English language.

The question in this case is whether the 102(e) priority date for prior art reaches-back to the filing date of the provisional application. On appeal, the Federal Circuit agreed with the USPTO that the provisional filing date is the 102(e) priority date.

In the 1968 case of In re Klesper, the Federal Circuit predecessor court (the CCPA) held that the 102(e) follows the prior precedent of treating a prior art disclosure found in an issued patent as being disclosed as of the “filing date of the earliest U.S. application to which the patent is entitled, provided the disclosure was contained in substance in the said earliest application.”  The Federal Circuit agreed that this provision applies equally to provisional patent applications “ so long as the provisional application [provides] written description support for the claimed invention . . . in accordance with Section 119(e).”  Giacomini never argued that the provisional failed to describe the invention found in the prior art.

Therefore, the Tran patent “shall have the same effect,” [Citing 119(e)] including a patent-defeating effect, as to the claimed invention as though it was filed on the date of the Tran provisional. Accordingly, Giacomini, who filed his application after Tran filed his provisional application, cannot receive a patent covering the same subject matter under 35 U.S.C. § 102(e).

This decision follows the BPAI’s 2008 precedential of Ex parte Yamaguchi, 61 U.S.P.Q.2d 1043 (BPAI 2008). However, the decision is in tension with the Hilmer doctrine. In re Hilmer, 359 F.2d 859 (CCPA 1966) (a U.S. application’s 102(e) priority date does not extend to its Section 119 foreign filing date). Giacomini had argued that provisional applications should be treated like foreign filings rather than like non-provisionals because the priority statute for provisional applications is also found in Section 119 and becaues provisional applications lack the formality of non-provisionals. 

Note: US Court interpretations of 103(a)/102(e) offer a major difference between US practice and European practice. Namely, in the US secret 102(e) prior art is available to be combined as part of an argument for obviousness while in most European countries, the filing date of prior art is only important for novelty purposes.

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Why Google Won’t Show You What You Want & How To Fix That

By Ann Smarty, MakeUseOf – July 07, 2010 at 12:31PM

google won't show search resultsGoogle has been working hard to fit various people’s searching needs and find what they need even they don’t know what they are looking for.

The set of features developed by Google aiming at making it easier to search and find should be helpful for most people. But according to Google’s official guide, “sometimes Google helps out a little too much” and you need to know how to fix that.

Let me first clarify in which cases you may have trouble getting Google to search for what you exactly want:

What To Fix:

1. Google’s Spell-Checking Feature

Google treats spell-checking errors in two ways:

  • You may be suggested the proper spelling (but you will be lucky enough to see the search results for the original (misspelled) keyword you entered). This happens when too many people misspell the word, so Google starts thinking the spelling might still be valid;
  • You may be suggested the proper spelling (and you will see the search results for that “correct” spelling no matter what you have typed in the search box).

Google error fix

2. Google’s Phrase Versus “Oneword” Search

It is somehow related to the above one (as Google should be considering it an error) and I fight with it almost on a daily basis. Whenever you type the phrase as one word (when, for example, you are searching for a service name), Google would search for the phrase instead.

For example, I was recently trying to search for the articles related to OneLook (which is a direct and reverse definition search). Yes, I got a few results related to the service but most were dedicated to the phrase:

google won't show search results

3. Google Synonym Search

Some time ago Google started quietly showing and bolding synonyms in its search results:

Most of the time, you probably don’t notice when your search involves synonyms, because it happens behind the scenes. However, our measurements show that synonyms affect 70 percent of user searches across the more than 100 languages Google supports.

They do confirm that their synonym search algorithm isn’t perfect and there are “bad” synonyms returned. The reason is easy to understand: it is too hard to teach the machine to understand the natural language.

While Google does its best to refine the system and the underlying algorithm, some irritating cases still happen. The example is [google ads] search that exclusively focuses on “Google Adwords” in search results (which are similar but still different concepts: Adsense is the system while ads are the actual advertisements served):

Synonym search

So How Do I Fix That?

There are two common fixes to the three aforementioned issues. Here’s how:

1. + (used before the keyword) operator forces Google to stick to the exact match in search results: no error fixing or synonyms:

Google employs synonyms automatically, so that it finds pages that mention, for example, childcare for the query [ child care ] (with a space), or California history for the query [ ca history ]. But sometimes Google helps out a little too much and gives you a synonym when you don’t really want it. By attaching a + immediately before a word (remember, don’t add a space after the +), you are telling Google to match that word precisely as you typed it. Putting double quotes around a single word will do the same thing.

Google search operator: +

2. “” (used for “phrase search”) works like the above one but should be used when you want Google to search for the exact phrase (stick to each word in the phrase and their exact sequence):

By putting double quotes around a set of words, you are telling Google to consider the exact words in that exact order without any change.

google won't show search results

(note: in this case, the + operator would also help: [dr +robon]

Do you ever have trouble finding something in Google? Please let us know in the comments and we will try to find the fix together!

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