Every man loves gadgets, tools, toys and gifts. I scour catalogs and websites looking for the next cool thing. Occasionally, I find items that become truly essential. Items I use daily and can’t leave the house without. Some of these items are pricy, but there are also several that are less than $10. All of them are top quality and built to last a lifetime. Ladies, with Valentine’s day fast approaching and Father’s day a few months later, look no further than this list to make your man happy.

Saddleback Leather Wallet – A man’s wallet is his life. Look in a typical guy’s wallet and you’ll see cash, credit cards, pictures of loved ones, business cards from someone he met in a bar 3 years ago, old fortune cookie fortunes, shopping lists from last Christmas, and receipts from everything he has ever bought. His wallet becomes a part of body, molding to his shape over time. When you have that kind of relationship with an item, you want it to last. There are no better wallets on earth than the wallets made by Saddleback leather. They are beautiful, built to last, and come with a 100 year warranty. That’s right, they are guaranteed to last 100 years. Saddleback also makes the finest briefcases, ipad cases, and luggage around. My iPad case is guaranteed to last 97 years past the useful life of the iPad! I have many of their pieces and will never go back to cheap store-bought leather goods. Buy one of these and you’ll thank me for years to come. (read more…)

Choosing a data center is a big decision for most companies. Your IT infrastructure represents a critical asset for your company, and unless you are an uber-dot com company like Google or Facebook (which spread their gear around the country in tens of locations), you probably only have one or two data centers. Changing data centers is expensive and time consuming, so choosing the right data center partner is incredibly important.

Unfortunately, data centers don’t make it easy on you to differentiate between them. Everyone says they are “secure,” “highly available,” and “high density.” They all show you their generator farms, their battery rooms, and their security vestibules with bullet proof glass. Tour any three data centers and you’ll be left scratching your head trying to figure out what the difference is. As a result, many people end up using price and proximity as the primary decision points. Or even worse, they look at non-material amenities like free sodas and xboxes in the break room as the deciding factor.

There are critical differences, however, between data centers. Failing to recognize them can cost you more in the long run than any savings you might glean by choosing the low-cost provider. Having purchased services from a multitude of data centers over the last two decades, and having dealt with even more as an IT consultant, I’ve learned to recognize some of the hard to spot differences that can make or break a long term data center relationship. For simplicity (so you can copy/paste into your next RFP), I’ve listed the 10 questions you should ask your next data center below. A detailed explanation of each question follows, so you know what you should look for. I hope you find this list informative.

10 questions to ask your next data center provider

1. Which components of the data center facility are both fault tolerant and concurrently maintainable?
2. How are cooling zones provisioned to maintain operating temperatures during maintenance or failures of CRAC/CRAH units?
3. What are the average and maximum power densities of the facility on a watts/sq’ and watts/cabinet basis?
4. How often does the data center load test its generators?
5. What are the highest risk natural disasters for the area, and what has the data center done to mitigate their impact?
6. What are the minimum skill sets of the remote hands and eyes staff?
7. Does the data center maintain multiple redundant sources of fuel and water?
8. What certifications has the data center earned, and do they undergo annual audits to maintain them?
9. How does the data center track SLA compliance, and what is their historical track record? Can they provide their last 5 failure reports?
10. What is the profile of their top 5 clients, and what percentage of total revenue for the facility do they represent? (read more…)

Cassoulet is one of those great comfort foods that is wonderful anytime, but absolutely perfect on a cold winter evening. It’s meant to be warm and rustic, can you can pretty much throw whatever you have into the pot and it will come out tasting good.

I made this recipe up tonight on the fly, but it was so good I had to share it. Try it yourself and let me know what you think.

Ingredients

• 4 strips bacon
• 1 lbs boneless skinless chicken breast – cubed
• 3 -4 links andouille sausage – diced (I prefer Aidells’ but any will do
• 3 cans cannellini beans (white kidney) – drained and rinsed
• 1 yellow onion diced
• 2 carrots peeled and chopped
• 4 roma tomatoes diced
• 10 cloves of garlic finely chopped
• 1 cups dry white wine
• 2 – 3 cups chicken stock
• salt, pepper, italian seasoning, crushed red pepper, and Emiril’s essence to taste

Pre-heat your oven to 350 degrees. Fry the bacon in a large stock pot until crispy. Remove and set aside. In a separate pot, bring the chicken stock to a boil. Sauté the onions in the bacon fat for 5 – 7 minutes until translucent. Add the sausage and cook another 10 minutes, scraping the bottom with a metal spatula. Add white wine and garlic, and simmer for 2 minutes. Season chicken with emeril’s essence. Add chicken, tomatoes, carrots, beans, crumbled bacon, and other spices and stir. Add boiling chicken stock. The chicken stock should not quite cover the other ingredients, unless you want your cassoulet a little soupy. Cover the pot and put into oven. Bake at 350 for 75 – 90 minutes, stirring every 20 minutes. Leave pot uncovered for the last 20 minutes to help evaporate off some of the excess liquid. Serve it in bowls with lots of crusty bread (or just eat it plain if you’re on a low-carb diet like me). Enjoy! As always, if you try this recipe, please let me know.

I love all things BBQ. There is really nothing better on a hot summer day that firing up the grill or the smoker and cooking up some food of love. If you like seafood on the grill, it is hard to find a good sauce that is spicy but doesn’t overpower the delicate flavors of the meat. I created this sauce specifically for shrimp or lobster, but it would work just as well on any white fish. It is super easy to make, and will double as a salad dressing if you serve your seafood on greens.

Ingredients

• 2 cups fresh mango diced
• 2 cups fresh pineapple diced
• 2 habanero peppers finely chopped
• 16 oz orange juice
• 1 bunch green onions
• 2 cloves garlic
• 1/3 bunch cilantro
• 2 limes
• salt and pepper to taste
• 1 tbs grapeseed oil

Dice the garlic and the white ends of the green onion. You can also substitute 1/4 white onion. Heat the oil in a sauce pan and add the garlic and onion. Cook 1 – 2 minutes to soften. Add the diced mango, diced pineapple and orange juice. Bring to a boil. Cut the habaneros in half and discard the membranes and seeds. Finely dice the habanero and add to the pot. Chop the cilantro and add to the pot. Add salt and black pepper, about 1 teaspoon each, and the juice of 2 limes. Bring entire mixture to a boil and let cook at boil for approximately 20 minutes. The liquid in the pot should reduce at least 1/3rd. Pour mixture into a blender and blend until smooth. Taste and adjust salt and pepper as needed. Put into an airtight container and let cool.

Try putting this sauce on shrimp, and serving on butter lettuce with sliced peaches, some of my mango salsa, and some grilled corn. Simply Heaven.

I’m not normally a big fan of salsa verde. Most of the green salsas you get lack flavor or heat. While cooking up a batch of my feugo del diablo salsa, I decided to try my hand at salsa verde. The result was a nice well rounded mild salsa that goes well with chips, but would also be good as an enchilada base.

Ingredients

• 6 tomatillos
• 3 serrano  peppers
• 3 jalapeno peppers
• 3 green onions
• 1/2 bunch cilantro
• 2 -3 limes
• 4 cloves garlic
• salt and pepper to taste

Remove the husks from the tomatillos. Grill the tomatillos, peppers, and green onions on a grill until they have a nice char on all sides. The tomatillos should feel soft and will likely burst open. Remove the stems from the peppers, but do not seed them. Coarse chop the cilantro and garlic. Put the whole peppers, tomatillos, green onions, cilantro, garlic, salt, pepper, and the juice from the limes into a blender and blend until smooth.

If you want more heat, up the count of peppers. This is one of the simplest salsas I make, but it has a great smokey flavor and is a refreshing change to my spicier sauces.

Cold winter Sundays watching playoff football scream for a large pot of chowder. A thick hearty soup warms the body and soul. My mom used to cook this in my youth, but I perfected the recipe about 5 years ago by doubling the bacon and adding lump crab meat.

Any recipe that starts with 2lbs of bacon has to be good! This is the ulitmate comfort food, best served in a sourdough bread bowl. It takes about an hour to cook, but is worth every second.

• 2 lbs bacon
• 28 oz canned clams
• 6 – 8oz lump meat crab
• 5 – 7 large russet potatos
• 1 large white onion
• 1 stalk celery
• salt and pepper
• 1 pint half and half
• 1 pint non-fat milk
• small sourdough loaves for serving (read more…)

Nothing better on a nice autumn day than a little football, a little World Series baseball, and a whole lot of comfort food. I created this jabalaya recipe several years ago. It is a Creole or red style jambalaya, with equal parts sausage, chicken and shrimp. Other meats can be substituted, such as taso, duck or lump crab meat. The important part is the ratios. You can make this recipe as spicy or as mild as you want, by varying the amount of cayenne and Tabasco. It is important to chop the onion, jalapeño, bell pepper, and 1/3rd of the sausage as finely as possible. As the mixture cooks down, these ingredients will somewhat disappear, acting more like seasonings than major elements. As you are cooking, scrap the bottom of the pan frequently. This recipe takes about 90 minutes to cook, but trust me, it is well worth the time. This is the perfect dish for Christmas Eve, a football party, or any family get-together.

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 lbs Andouille sausage
• 1 1/2 lbs Boneless skinless chicken breast
• 1 1/2 lbs 21-30 Count shrimp (frozen)
• 3 – 4 Yellow onions
• 3 – 4 Green bell peppers
• 2 jalapeño peppers
• 5 – 6 Roma tomatoes
• 2 Bunches green onions
• 4 Cups rice
• 8 Cups hot water
• 1/4 cup grape seed oil (or canola oil)
• 20 Cloves garlic
• Spices: salt, black pepper, cayenne pepper, Italian seasoning, Emeril’s essence, and Tabasco to taste (read more…)

While creating my recipe for El Fuego Del Diablo, I started toying with ideas for fruit salsas. I wanted something that could be eaten with chips like a regular salsa, used as a garnish for fish or other meats, or served as part of a dessert.

I love mangos and I love habaneros, so that seemed like a good place to start. This recipe is a little sweet, has a little heat, and goes great with any Mexican food.

Ingredients

• 1 cup diced mango
• 3/4 cup diced pineapple
• 1/4 cup diced red onion
• 1/2 bunch cilantro
• 2 finely diced habaneros
• 1 lime

(read more…)

Man cannot live on technology and politics alone. Occasonally, you gotta eat. You might as well eat well. Real men do cook, but they don’t cook like wussies. Thus begins my series of posts on my favorite recipes. Most of these I made up myself, or bastardized from the work of others, with my own special twists.

First up: SALSA!!!! Specifically, my own 4 pepper, fire roasted, burn your face off, devil’s fire salsa. This stuff is HOT but it has a great flavor to match the heat. It is addictive too. If you are a chili-head, you must try this. The key to this salsa is the BBQ. I fire roast everything. This gives it a great smoky flavor, caramelizes some of the sugars in the peppers to add sweetness, and really intensifies the flavors of all the ingredients.

Ingredients

• 5 – Green jalepeno peppers
• 5 – Red jalepeno peppers
• 5 – Serano peppers
• 5 – Habanero peppers
• 6 – Large Roma tomatoes
• 2 – Bunches of green onions
• 2 – Limes
• 1 – Garlic clove
• 1 – Bunch cilantro
• Salt and coarse black pepper to taste

(read more…)

Not all gadgets are created equal. Some are cool for a while, and then end up at the back of the drawer. Others stand the test of time. In 1976, my dad gave me a PROTO key ring screw driver. 20 years later, it is still on my key ring, and I use it daily. It is the best gadget I’ve ever had.

The simplicity of the PROTO is its brilliance. This is no cheap piece of metal. This is solid steel. Designed to do one thing, and do it well. Back when tools were built to last, PROTO was the king. The screwdriver key ring was, I think, a give-away as advertising. But I would gladly trade a whole box full of normal tools for my PROTO.

Over 20 years, this simple tool has been pushed to the limits. As a box cutter, it is second to none. I’ve opened thousands of boxes with it, without cutting myself or the goods inside. As a computer tech, the PROTO is the 1st tool I grab when I need to get inside a case quickly. Other uses for the PROTO include paint can opener, beer opener, lock pick, hole punch, ice scraper, staple remover, paper shredder unclogger, and oh yeah, screwdriver.

Unfortunately, they don’t make em like they used to. PROTO was bought at somepoint by Stanley tools. They still make good industrial tools, but the replacement for the screwdriver key ring is a cheap knock-off. Compared to the original, it is crap. If you are lucky, you can still find the old ones for sale on E-Bay. I stole the photo for this article from a current auction. Go get your own, and stay away from mine!

Editor’s Note: This article originally published on GadgetWorkshop.com.