Month: March 2022

Curse you, munmap_chunk()!

I still haven’t spotted a working solution to the problem where weather station programs in Python on Raspberry Pi fail, with no traceback details, after a couple of days.

I think it must be some resource in either the operating system, or the Python interpreter, running out, with very poor error reporting. I will leave it to people more familiar with the OS and interpreter to find out what it is, and fix it, in the fairly certain knowledge that everyone who could fix it has better things to do.

I found out that a Python program can actually restart itself, and changed mine to restart once a day. If that doesn’t fix it, I’ll let you know… (Update: it works.)

#RaspberryPi #Python 

Also: I used to have a comment on Stack Overflow, about this, but I removed it. The link below now just points to somebody else having the same problem.

My Stack Overflow comment on this.

Tofu squeezing

Tofu – a thing you need to know…

I tried cooking tofu several times, and was often very disappointed by the way it just broke up, and fell apart, when I tried. The results I got were nothing like the lovely illustrations people put by their recipes. Instead of pert, bouncy cubes of tofu, all I got was mush…


It tasted fine, sure, but something was wrong…


There’s something they don’t tell you in those recipes, and it’s this. Tofu is basically ground up soybeans, and water. Actually, quite an astonishing amount of water! There are several grades of tofu, and the ones labelled “extra firm” have less water. Less, sure, but still a lot. You want to know how much? Look!

I treated myself to a tofu press from eBay, ignoring the ones with a wimpy little spring to do the pressing. It came with a piece of cheesecloth to wrap the tofu block in, which I did, but I had to find a usable weight. I did try balancing cans on top of the press, but eventually, I found my wife already had a suitable weight for the job…

Tofu in a press with a 6Kg weight on it and a jug with the water that squeezed out of the block.
Those standard size boxes of tofu contain over 175ml of water! Get it out, and you can cut the tofu into cubes, marinate it in something tasty, which will soak right into where the water used to be, and fry them without them falling apart. Instead, they crisp up nicely on the outside, and more importantly, they stay together as cubes.


Feel free to thank me…


Duck and Mushroom ramen.

 

Duck and fancy mushroom ramen

Well, it’s what I made from the remains of the Sunday dinner duck, with the addition of some fancy mushrooms, home-made naruto and more.

There’s no helpful tip, or anything like that, with this post, so you really shouldn’t