2025-The year in review · Monday December 29, 2025 by colin newell
Hey, hey! 2025 is almost done – and what do we have to show for it?
A.I. has taken over most aspects of our lives (apart from this one which is still occasionally tapped out by a human…)
Travel has become as unromantic as possible – hence I rarely travel much beyond the family room…
And flying? Well, I fly my Canadian flag with pride when the wind is gusting under 125 km/hr.
Truthfully, the last year or so I have been in Hamilton, Ontario and Calgary, Alberta.
Photo above: Coffee. Yes, it is still a thing for me!
2025 was a great year for in home cooking and broadening our culinary chops without broadening our waists.
2025 marks almost 2 years retired after 35 years + working at the local University in I.T. and tech – hardware and software support.
That old adage: “I don’t know where I found the time to work before has never been more true. I really believe that this is the most meaningful time of my life and I am happier than when I was carefree and 11 years old. Seriously.
Stuff – I do committee work with the municipality of Saanich… a couple of things… keeping me engaged… on the edge… sharp… where I gotta be…
After 16 or 17 years raising funds for Movember, I have moved onto a much more local project: The Island Prostate Cancer resource center. A great cause for men facing cancer and their families that find value in this great resource.
Music: I have been playing guitar and piano since the 1970’s – my debut album was in 2008 and that is increasingly feeling like a long time ago! Now I play around 1 hour a day – I collaborate with a few other players to make some noise with. Am I thinking long term? No, not at all.
Radio stuff: I am still doing ham radio as well as technical projects that revolve around “amateur” radio – like project building and supporting our radio community locally, regionally and internationally…
Coffee – As one of the (maybe former) authorities on the subject of cafe culture, home and office coffee and espresso based goodness… I am still picking away at my coffee project that started in 1994 — now known as CoffeeCrew.comCheck in…
Is there anyone out there? I genuinely do not hear much from anyone via this blog. It is entirely possible that I am talking to a brick wall… or a dry wall… or a wailing wall. You can send us a shout over here – anyone locally that sends me a shout, I will buy a coffee and treat – and we can talk about whatever comes up.
Colin Newell is a Victoria resident and has been writing about the subject of coffee and pop culture since the beginning of internet time…
Two tunes by Saanich vocal superstar Jeff Albert…
As we approach September, some ideas... · Saturday August 23, 2025 by colin newell
For those just joining us… hello. For those here for the first time or dropping in after a long time… Hola! Good day.
Looking at the stats for this blog, I see a lot of visitors… but I don’t get a lot of feedback.
I’d love some feedback. I have some ideas I am cooking up for the Fall.
One is a radio show. Yep. A new medium… or is it an old medium?
Either way. Yea. And it will be paralleled with a podcast.
But what are we up to? That is going to be the subject of some up and coming posts.
Stay tuned.
If you are a regular here, please send me a note via this easy contact page.
The community computing newsletter series #2 · Friday March 29, 2024 by colin newell
Recently a neighbour contacted me about his Windows laptop…
“I have a subscription to some anti-virus software and I updated it on my laptop and now the internet doesn’t work… what do I do?”
Windows 7, Windows 10 and 11 have built in Malware and virus protection – adding more “protection” does not always work out the
way we want it to.
My Neighbour had a “paid subscription” to a popular product and paid for even more coverage than he already had — (or needed)
I did a site visit, uninstalled the conflicting software and all things returned to normal. I advised him to call the 1-800
number at the software vendor, with his purchase confirmation number, and have the charge reverse or eliminated -
which he did and was very successful.
If you are a Mac user, the story is very similar — no additional virus/malware software is needed.
Now, it is true that Mac OS does not really have “anti-malware” features built into it, the Mac OS,
at the core is a Unix/Linux based hybrid that is significantly more resistant to attack than the Windows OS.
Buying additional software for the Mac is simply not needed, in part, because of the naturally robust nature of the Mac OS.
Hackers and bad agents don’t typically spend as much
time creating exploits for the Mac OS. It’s just not worth the effort.
For most of us, we surf the web and read our e-mail: A simple rule applies here…
If a friend or family member sends you an e-mail with a PDF, PowerPoint
or any kind of .exe (executable) file attachment in it, exercise extreme caution with it.
Most of us run into trouble while surfing the web with our favourite browsers — the reason being, the web can be a rabbit hole leading us deeper and deeper into potentially dark territory.
Most of the time, modern and up to date web browsers will warn us of impending doom when the warnings of “insecure connections” and “invalid site certificates” alerts pop up.
If your browser suggests you turn back, think it through before proceeding.
Bonus tip – Everyone uses e-mail. Considering using a web-based e-mail client. This allows for an extra layer of protection from the bad people by keeping the crap and malware in the cloud OR at least warning you of the potential for a bad download.
Colin Newell is a Vancouver Island resident, retired from 36 years in info technology, software and hardware support at a local University – his writing and speaking on the subject of food and coffee culture in Canada has been seen and heard widely on radio and TV
Rancilio Silvia re-visited... · Tuesday August 22, 2023 by colin newell
Long time reader Bert M. checks in with his Rancilio Silvia story!
Way back in 2007 we published this treatise on the Rancilio Silvia espresso machine — it has since been read about 600,000 times.
A Local coffee enthusiast, Bert M., took it all to heart and set out on a journey with this great Italian coffee maker – here is his update!
Hi Colin!
Just re-read the Rancilio Silvia article and thought I would give you an update.
On your recommendation I received my Rancilio Silvia and Rocky In March 2008. Silvia worked perfectly until I had to replace the pump about 2 years ago. Most of the chrome has peeled off the group head cover. Waiting for one of the new black group head covers. Silvia still works perfectly.
These following photos when the machine was about 13 years old.
Untouched photos of the 3-way valve disassembly (picture at right) before I realized it was the pump.
I thought maybe the 3-way valve was plugged up. – Whitfield Food Services (Victoria) replaced the pump for me – Fast, reasonable priced service there!
Thirteen years of following your recommendations for cleanliness obviously paid off. I shared these photos with a Toronto area service tech and he was amazed.
Two years ago I started using IMS precision basket and screen – it really improved the quality of the shot but they were not always great.
Picture at left – original group after 13 years of usage.
A few months later I gave my Rocky to a family member and purchased a Eureka Oro Mignon XL grinder with 65mm burrs. 3 shots and it was dialed – in and another really noticeable upgrade in taste quality. (“Let the grind do the work as you taught me”).
The biggest change with the grinder is consistency of quality shots. Every shot, and I mean every shot, is excellent. You were right again when you said, “Spend your money on the grinder.”
We drink Americanos – splitting the double shot and adding about 4 ounces of water with 2-3 teaspoons of 18% cream. Three times a day. Brita filter for the water for 15 years. No desire for lattes, cappucinos etc.
Method:
-Minimum 30 minutes preheat machine and portafilter before pulling the shot
-Hit brew switch till heating light comes on.
-Remove portafilter when heating light goes off.
-Then grind for 7.6 seconds and tamp. Use 7.8 seconds when the coffee approaches 2 weeks.
We still purchase Half-Caf Fantastico every two weeks on your recommendation!
-Portafilter into group head at 1m 30sec after heating light goes off.
-Pull shot for 31-36 seconds although 90% of time it is 33 seconds.
-Remove and flush group head and portafilter immediately until heating light comes on.
-Add water and cream to coffee.
-About 15 seconds after heating light goes off, flush group head with first a bit of steam followed by the water for a few seconds and use Pällo brush to quickly clean screen area. Wipe all carefully with dry cloth.
-Reinsert portafilter to be ready for second shot in about 10 minutes.
Boil all parts with ½ teaspoon of Granny’s dishwasher detergent every month and rinse rinse rinse. Back flush with same and only get a hint of colour in the water that comes through and then backflush with clean water about 10 times.
We have enjoyed perfect coffee every time.
Thank you Colin!
All the best.
Bert
