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Category: i-tech

07/10/11 10:39 - ID#54683

I don't need this Laptop replacement keyboard

Do I really want this keyboard? I am tempted to get it because it is exactly like a laptop keyboard. I am a very noisy typist and can probably wake the dead with my typing... or at least make them toss around. Maybe this keyboard will stop all that noise and I don't have to drown out the sound of my own typing with music?



image

BUT I am sure accumulation tax applies to such frivolous things. I can probably buy more heavy metal instead... Besides, I am sure the dead need all the extra exercise they can get. I am resisting this totally unreasonable impulse to buy this absolutely unnecessary keyboard.
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Permalink: I_don_t_need_this_Laptop_replacement_keyboard.html
Words: 149
Location: Buffalo, NY
Last Modified: 07/10/11 11:08


Category: i-tech

07/10/11 10:30 - ID#54682

VLC and last.fm

I upgraded to the latest VLC on Crunchbang today. It turned out that I had completely forgotten where the audioscrobbler settings for last.fm submission were in VLC after so many years of not changing them.
image

They are under Tools > Preferences > (Show Settings: All) > Interface > Control Interfaces > Audioscrobbler.

I always notice that the features that are super-important to me are usually buried under countless sub-sub-headings. Maybe that says something about the completely trivial ways I use my music playing software.
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Permalink: VLC_and_last_fm.html
Words: 82
Location: Buffalo, NY
Last Modified: 07/10/11 11:02


Category: eating out

07/10/11 10:06 - ID#54681

Coffee at the taste of Buffalo

I took a quick short stroll to stretch my legs around taste of Buffalo today and got to sample two different kinds of Keurig single-brew coffee. I had the blueberry and nantucket versions. It was pretty decent coffee... much better than the messy excuse I make at home occasionally.

But is the waste worth it? I know people have devised ways to reuse the single-serve coffee brewing Keurig cup more times than one... but still it is definitely way more plastic than I am comfortable just throwing away.

I felt guilty throwing away the small sample plastic cups they gave me. I also felt horrible looking at the trash cans around the event filled to the brim with plastic and more plastic. It was helplessness mixed with guilt because I was part of the problem. What are other ways to make such an event generate biodegradable waste instead? One alternative would be cups made of dried (or even fresh) leaves and bound by twigs (they use these back home).

(e:heidi), so what happened to your single coffee brewer in the end?
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Permalink: Coffee_at_the_taste_of_Buffalo.html
Words: 182
Location: Buffalo, NY
Last Modified: 07/10/11 10:14


Category: i-tech

07/09/11 10:51 - ID#54669

Microsoft and Apple gang up to stall technology and Google.

...and thus, effectively, stall future innovations in technology by Google, JUST BECAUSE their crappy outdated non-forward thinking technologies face the likelihood of making god forbid, less money than Google. While Google gives away and shares its technological innovations free with the people and helps make the internet a better and sounder place for the future, all Microsoft ever thinks of is making money and all Apple thinks of is how to keep extracting money in spite of their ridiculously high-failure-rate hardware and limited-software from snobby sheep.

And their combined evil solution? Well, just sue Google and its partner companies for every technological process ever patented by
  • a) buying the companies that originally created these patents (who needs the brains to develop and innovate and actually apply for patents when you can conveniently buy the company that created and innovated, in the first place..) and
  • b) by pouring money into nitpicky and downright grubby-paw litigation and
  • c) using cunning backdoor strategies to win these ligitations.

In the end, these strategies make Microsoft's technologically PALEOLITHIC and appallingly poorly made software make money out of what Google slaved over creating.

I read the OS News website after a conversation with (e:Paul) yesterday and was completely blown away by the ever-expanding EVIL Apple and Microsoft are perpetrating against progress in technology, in general and more specifically, how they have both invested substantial amounts of influence and money to keep open source technologies like Linux stunted and shunned by a large proportion of the population. Worse, when one branch of linux, the Android OS, is honed into a commercial success for mobile platforms by the brains at Google, Microsoft and Apple make sure that they STILL fleece the unsuspecting population and make money out of Android by using underhand and totally loathesome unethical legal strategies.

All of this makes me loathe Microsoft and Apple even more. It cements my view that any self-respecting consumer who lives with technology and thus, has even remote interests in innovation in technology, should seriously think about means and ways to move away from the stifling monopoly that microshit and crapple have on the market. More importantly, it is time to take assertive steps to implement this move away from the technological cesspool that microsoft and apple have managed to create.

(e:Matthew) was telling me how he has walked and continues to walk with kids and a pram down Linwood and it remains one of the most positive things one can do for a neighbourhood. I couldn't have agreed more. In a weirdly analogous way, small individual actions to dispel general misconceptions about linux and opensource technologies (that are not bound down by the venal giants, Microsoft and Apple) make a world of difference to the neighbourhood of future technological innovation that are not geared to fleece people but empower them to be more productive and encourage independent thought.

I am glad that I have taken the first daunting step by embracing linux and at the very least, trying to learn to think for myself. If I can do it, anyone can. It's not that hard. It just requires the willingness to fight the cancer that hamper progress and thought.

Do it today, try out a linux OS, try out R for analysis, ditch SAS, move your office applications to a browser-based cloud, weed out microshit and crapple from your lives, try out some Google products. See how they change and rock your world. You would have done that small invisible favour to help take web technology and innovation a little bit further and away from the artificial and downright, atrocious restraints that it doesn't deserve.
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Permalink: Microsoft_and_Apple_gang_up_to_stall_technology_and_Google_.html
Words: 621
Location: Buffalo, NY
Last Modified: 07/09/11 11:04


Category: the odes

07/08/11 07:10 - ID#54664

Dear diary...

image
PS: Inside chatter joke for (e:metalpeter)... ;-)

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Permalink: Dear_diary_.html
Words: 10
Location: Buffalo, NY
Last Modified: 07/08/11 07:10


Category: eating in

07/08/11 04:42 - ID#54663

Wo(r)k obsession

I bought a ton of collard greens today. I think it might be so cool to toss and stir-fry them with cashews, almonds and roasted garlic in one of these...


image


image

I am leaning towards the wok...

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Permalink: Wo_r_k_obsession.html
Words: 78
Location: Buffalo, NY
Last Modified: 07/08/11 04:43


Category: the odes

07/08/11 12:27 - ID#54662

Buying restaurantware

I recently saw this picture of a re-purposed sink on Amazon when I was looking up "Bar Keepers friend":
image
The caption says:

Recently installed in my garage a used deep well stainless steel sink from a restaurant.



That made me wonder. What happens to cookware from commercial restaurants once they close? Do they hold an auction to get rid of cookware? Do they end up in trash? So many new-ish restaurants close in Buffalo every now and then. What do they do with the things they have had?

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Permalink: Buying_restaurantware.html
Words: 107
Location: Buffalo, NY
Last Modified: 07/08/11 12:27


Category: i-tech

07/04/11 11:40 - ID#54642

Really random question.

I was searching for some answers on a forum when this gem appeared:
image

What on earth is a REAPER in the context of recording or shopping? Since when did random questions become so tough?
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Permalink: Really_random_question_.html
Words: 36
Location: Buffalo, NY
Last Modified: 07/04/11 11:40


Category: linux

07/02/11 09:14 - ID#54623

Remove ghetto icon text highlighting (XFCE)

I hate it when the Icon text is surrounded by a ghetto highlight on the desktop. Fix for removing the ghetto icon text highlight.

Edit the ~/.gtkrc-2.0 file

# Changing default ghetto looks
style "xfdesktop-icon-view" {
XfdesktopIconView::label-alpha = 75

base[NORMAL] = "#000000"
base[SELECTED] = "#CFD784"
base[ACTIVE] = "#FFE7BA"

fg[NORMAL] = "#D8D8BF"
fg[SELECTED] = "#ffffff"
fg[ACTIVE] = "#ffffff"
}
widget_class "*XfdesktopIconView*" style "xfdesktop-icon-view"


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Permalink: Remove_ghetto_icon_text_highlighting_XFCE_.html
Words: 63
Location: Buffalo, NY
Last Modified: 07/02/11 12:21


Category: eating in

07/02/11 03:23 - ID#54622

Smooth caramelized garlic paste

As a complement to (e:tinypliny,54608), the method below is probably the easiest (and the healthiest) way to get a smooth roasted/caramelized garlic paste for use in salads, salad-dressings, hummus, or any sort of dish where you need a smooth garlic flavour with a hint of sweetness to it. I used it on a multi-layered multi-texture quinoa salad yesterday.

I recommend that you don't use the multi-pack budget garlic that comes in mesh bags. They are abysmally poor when it comes to taste. To me, they don't taste like garlic at all! Sometimes, using even two whole bulbs doesn't give me sufficient flavour-levels.

So loose garlic it is.

1. Take a whole garlic. Wash it. (Don't dry it. Don't peel it.)
2. Wrap well in aluminium foil with a tablespoon or so of water.
3. Bake at 375 deg F for 40 minutes (just toss it in the corner while the onions are caramelizing...)

4. After 40 minutes, the garlic is caramelized and softened so well that you could simply take the peels off and smash the cloves to a wonderfully smooth paste with your fingers if you wanted. I used a spoon. It has this absolutely awesome silky consistency to it. Best of all, it doesn't make anything greasy or oily but instead gives dishes an earthy, well-proportioned and exquisite garlic taste.
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Permalink: Smooth_caramelized_garlic_paste.html
Words: 217
Location: Buffalo, NY
Last Modified: 07/02/11 03:30


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