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Category: i-tech

06/22/11 09:51 - ID#54551

Scratchpad!

I lose my notes all the time and can never keep them in one place. I then conduct detailed unwieldy searches to locate them because I only remember having written a note somewhere with some specific content but never recall what I named those notes! I now have something that fixed this problem quite elegantly - Scratchpad for Chrome!!!

With Scratchpad, I can not only have all my notes sync silently with google docs but also search their full text from anywhere and everywhere. I think eventually, I will end up replacing the bland notepad entirely with Scratchpad.

image

I only wish I could embed Scratchpad and Google Tasks side by side on chrome's new tab page now.

More about this awesome App:
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Permalink: Scratchpad_.html
Words: 149
Location: Buffalo, NY
Last Modified: 06/23/11 09:48


Category: eating in

06/22/11 12:01 - ID#54546

ChooseMyPlate.gov

Nice idea - replacing the food guidelines pyramid with a plate instead.
image

I would suggest, cutting those grains by half and assigning that half to add up to an eighth more of vegetables.
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Permalink: ChooseMyPlate_gov.html
Words: 37
Location: Buffalo, NY
Last Modified: 06/22/11 12:04


Category: eating in

06/18/11 10:37 - ID#54533

Finding time to cook?

If I cooked and planned ahead like this woman wants us all to, I'd never cook anything.

My favorite way to keep grains, beans and herbs is labeled and stored in glass jars ranging in size from gallon to 1/2 pints. These same items, if stored in boxes or plastic bags, defy functional organization...



Yeah, and you never know when you might reach for rosemary and use cilantro instead.

Remember, if you’re hungry right now, it is not the time to start washing rice. Order a pizza for dinner and while you’re waiting for it to arrive, then determine tomorrow’s main dish.



Seriously? How long does it take for this woman to cook rice? 5 hours? I have never EVER had a hungry day when it took me more than 20 minutes to put a well balanced rice-based dish together from scratch. Such ridiculously pseudo-methodical articles about planning ahead and cooking is what makes simple cooking seem tough to people and encourages junk food consumption.

Cooking is meant to be unplanned, quick, improvisational and fun when you are doing it for yourself and your loved (or even unloved) ones. That is why it's called "cooking" and not "strategizing".
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Permalink: Finding_time_to_cook_.html
Words: 208
Location: Buffalo, NY
Last Modified: 06/18/11 10:47


Category: i-tech

06/18/11 12:26 - ID#54521

Most useful Chrome extensions

A few weeks into any of my fresh Chrome installs, my extensions and bookmarks start to get out of hand. I just try out most of them and forget to remove them. But a few of them are constants. Some of them can even be called useful. Yeah, apparently, I don't have anything interesting to blog about so I will blog about dull things now.

The 1st extension I install (and this reflects the sad state of my internet usage) is the creatively named OWA Chrome Companion which obsessively checks my work email every few minutes and pops up a wild array of small notifications everywhere if a new message (however spammy and random) comes in - at which point I have a mild anxiety attack and scurry about trying to unsuccessfully ignore the email. It kind of defeats the whole point of the extension.

Oh well... moving on, I hate filling forms and entering passwords repetitively so these two extensions just fill them in for me:
  • Autocomplete = On
  • Lazarus Form Recovery:
I guess if someone developed a way to hack these extensions, I could be in serious trouble...

And I hate new windows popping up all the time so this extension makes them behave and forces every single tab and page and popup into ONE window. By the end of the day, I have a million tabs, but still it a fair price to pay for ONE WINDOW!


It's kind of a vicious cycle, so I need this "Tab Glutton" to keep a check on my tabs. (Actually, I end up not managing them at all and sometimes accidentally close everything and re-opening everything again from scratch but let's not talk about it.)


Then of course, there is link grabber which helps me visualize all content on a page and the content that I am usually interested in (pdfs mainly) at a glance and grab them without having to wade through all the text.

Lastly, Readability Redux makes the web a better place:
I can get rid of most evil and awful ads and poor web designs and can read the content in peace. I just wish there were a spring green or vibrant orange background to the text...
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Permalink: Most_useful_Chrome_extensions.html
Words: 419
Location: Buffalo, NY
Last Modified: 06/19/11 09:26


Category: i-tech

06/15/11 04:29 - ID#54498

It's an error.

And that's all I know.
image

Strangely, this summarizes my life@work right now.
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Permalink: It_s_an_error_.html
Words: 16
Location: Buffalo, NY
Last Modified: 06/15/11 04:29


Category: buffalo

06/11/11 07:20 - ID#54478

Citybration balloon ride and cheerio breakfast!

I REALLY want to go on a hot-air balloon ride over downtown buffalo ->

image

If I can take one of the earliest balloon rides, I then want to dash to the city hall and watch the rest of the balloons and the sunset at the city hall sunset reception!!!

Who wants to do this with me? It's on Friday, June 24th, 6:00 PM to 9:00 PM. (e:matthew)? :-)

And OoooooH! Downtown-Buffalo made authentic Cheerio Breakfast on Sunday! Wooohoo! June 26, 10:00 AM to 12:00 PM, Erie Canal Central Wharf. image
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Permalink: Citybration_balloon_ride_and_cheerio_breakfast_.html
Words: 110
Location: Buffalo, NY
Last Modified: 06/11/11 09:14


Category: science

06/10/11 07:51 - ID#54468

Wash your produce well!!

A mass scale epidemiological investigation into the German e.coli outbreak spread over the past few weeks FINALLY identified organically grown bean sprouts as the source of the offending e.coli strain. People who ate these sprouts were nine times as likely to develop bloody diarrhoea when compared with people who didn't. From:

After wild allegations against the whole Spanish salad produce industry, the unmasking of the organically grown sprouts as the culprits comes as a bit of a eye-opener about the health risks of organic farming. Are we really sure that the human and animal refuse used as fertilizers in organic farms do not leave behind cysts and eggs of sundry virulent bacteria and parasites? Do we always make sure that we wash our produce well before eating it raw?

In the past, I have been guilty of trusting apparently fresh-looking greens and produce too much and eating them after a cursory wash. However it pays by the spadefuls to remember that cysts/eggs are hardy and can survive mild non-abrasive washing. It is up to us to make sure that our food sources are not contaminated.. and even if they are, that we do the utmost that we can to prevent superficial parasitic and bacterial cysts and eggs from entering our system.
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Permalink: Wash_your_produce_well_.html
Words: 221
Location: Buffalo, NY
Last Modified: 06/10/11 07:53


Category: eating in

06/09/11 07:45 - ID#54461

Raw Applesauce as butter substitute

Do you think raw applesauce as in
1. Chop apples
2. Blend it like hell.

Will work as well as regular applesauce as a substitute for butter? I have successfully used store-bought applesauce almost completely as a butter substitute but I don't feel like buying those small sealed applesauce plastic cups. And I don't want to take all the time to make "authentic' boiled-in-a-saucepan applesauce.

What do you think? Has anyone tried just using raw applemash as a butter substitute?


EDIT:
The Original Recipe of the Speculoos for 6 biscuits contains:
8 oz Unbleached All-purpose Flour
5 oz Sugar Dark Brown
5 oz Butter
4 tbsp whole milk
1 tsp Baking Soda
2/5 tsp Cinnamon Ground
2/5 tsp Nutmeg, Ground
2/5 tsp Cloves, Ground
2/5 tsp Ginger, Ground
2/5 tsp Ground Black Pepper

with these crazy Nutrition Facts
Serving Size: 1 speculoos
Amount per Serving
Calories..................324
Calories from Fat.....168.8
% Daily Value for a 2000 calorie diet
Total Fat..................18.76g (28%)
Saturated Fat...........11.93g (59%)
Cholesterol...............51.46mg (17%)
Sodium..................180.47mg (7%)
Total Carbohydrate...36.22g (12%)
Dietary Fiber..............0.18g (0%)
Sugars....................20.51g

Protein......................2.37g (4%)

Estimated Percent of Calories from:
Fat====52%
Carbs==44%
Protein==2%

That would be like eating 118% saturated fat in ONE biscuit.

Alternative ingredients to the Belgian Speculoos
2 cups all purpose flour
1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
1 1/2 teaspoons ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/4 cups (packed) dark brown sugar
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
1 large egg

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Permalink: Raw_Applesauce_as_butter_substitute.html
Words: 217
Location: Buffalo, NY
Last Modified: 06/10/11 02:44


Category: i-tech

06/09/11 12:05 - ID#54457

What do IE tab extensions for Chrome do?

This is a question for (e:Paul). I wanted to view the full version of the RPCI Microsoft OWA email client in Chrome but it simply wouldn't allow me. I found these IE extensions for chrome:

1. IE Tab Classic:

2. Chrome IE Tab Multi:

The questions is how do these extensions manage to load the fully featured OWA while native Chrome cannot? Is using these extensions as risky as using IE? How are these extensions working?
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Permalink: What_do_IE_tab_extensions_for_Chrome_do_.html
Words: 89
Location: Buffalo, NY
Last Modified: 06/09/11 12:07


Category: i-tech

06/09/11 08:14 - ID#54456

Guitar Google Doodle

Google doodles keep outdoing themselves all the time and today is the peak of overachieving. They have a FULLY functional guitar with a recording feature as their logo honouring Les Paul, a guitarist and an innovator in music.

image
Go ahead! Play it! And I can't believe someone (Zack Bernardin) created this masterpiece with a mouse... or a keyboard sequence!

I couldn't create a coherent tune even if I tried!


From:

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Permalink: Guitar_Google_Doodle.html
Words: 84
Location: Buffalo, NY
Last Modified: 06/09/11 08:19


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