This is the modern World - Panasonic microwave oven · Sunday May 4, 2008 by colin newell
We just got our first microwave oven. No really. The sales guy (aged about 60) at the Victoria Sears sales center in appliances was incredulous.
I may as well have suggested that a legion of vacuum cleaner shaped electro-beasts from the Planet Zontar were disembarking onto the parking lot…
And were they angry.
Seriously though. As shopping goes, there are few Men that shop faster than I do.
Recently I selected new frames in an optical place… within 7.2 seconds.
Which begs the question: At that speed of visual acquisition, did I really need new glasses?
Fair enough – I did some online research and determined that this particular model of Panasonic microwave (in stainless-steel, 1.2 cubic feet, 1200 Watts, etc) was the right one for us. And I was in and at the counter talking to sales-guy within a minute – and ordering one within 2 minutes.
“Would you like to order one”, he asked, somewhat skeptical of my technological lineage…
“Yes, but first I need to consult with my C.F.O on this newfangled…” now gesturing towards my Motorola RAZR, “…wireless device!”
“Oh. You have one of those… How bold! …he improvised.
Long story short – We now have a device that will help us save lots of electricity. We do almost 100% of our cooking from scratch. No pre-prepared anything – and very few tins. And being able to do tertiary stuff beside our regular electric grill will be very useful.
Oh yea – while I was at the mall for this purchase, my wife asked me to pop into Bolen Books and size up some good microwave cook books.
I might as well have been looking for a basic Pet Rock users manual or the latest step-by-step guide to Disco dancing. Microwave cook books, it seem, went out of print around the advent of MTV and are about as fashionable as polyester stretch pants.
But I found one microwave cook book, at our Chapters Book Store (your Barnes and Noble)… printed in England… about 20 years ago.
With timely recipes like; Leek terrine with deli meats, Pork Crumble, Herby Baked Tomatoes, and Austrian nut pudding…
So this is what the Brits ate during the last great war!
In addition to this cook book and appliance, I now need a historic culinary translator.
One thing at a time.
Look forward to more food oriented blogs on this website (as time permits).
In all fairness, the cookbook is titled The Microwave Kitchen Handbook by Carol Bowen first printed in 1998. Bon Apetit!
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The origins of blogging as a sixties photographer · Friday March 28, 2008 by colin newell
When you are between 4 and 7 years old, the siren song of the Christmas tree, the glow of its lights, glitter and glass globules can be irresistible.
And on December 24, 1966 we all opened a gift before midnight… this family ritual we observed since I learned how to talk.
The kids around the Yule would pick out a box based on its smell, or feel or how it sounded when shaken.
And there was nothing particularly fancy about the box I grabbed. It was just more of a feeling… a feeling that would appear more often as I got older… a hunch… a sense of something big on the horizon that was my life so far.
And as I peeled away the cheap wrapping paper, the ink imprinting my fingers with ghost images of a simpler time, a box was revealed… imagine my delight seeing Made in Hong Kong and then an orange box… Diana-F Camera.
My first camera was the classic sixties Diana-F complete with rolls of film, magnesium flash attachment and an instruction booklet.
The Diana’s original all-plastic lens ensured that dreamy, gorgeous, color-drenched, always-blurry, and mind-blowing results were the norm. And behind this cameras cheap viewfinder was a kid who was seeing almost everything in his World for the very first time.
At 16 shots per roll, it was entirely possible to capture valuable portions of ones childhood with a few rolls of Black and White 400ASA 120 roll film – all ironically processed via the neighborhood druggist who would out source it to the closest photo-finisher, who in turn would edit out the more bizarre compositions and often, sadly, return a roll of film with no images but a envelope of cut film – with a druggist who sheepishly explained to yours truly that, perhaps, I had left the lens cap half-off or inadvertently smudged the plastic lens with petroleum jelly.
Which is exactly what our memories look like now – when viewed through the tarnished lens of cerebral memory.
That camera survived a good 3 or 4 years of hard use, shaping and honing my skills as an active amateur photo historian in my little corner of the World on Vancouver Island. By the time I turned 12 and graduated from elementary school I was rewarded for my academic successes with a German made Zeiss Ikon 126 cartridge camera – photo above – In comparison to the all plastic Diana, the Zeiss was staggering in its ability to capture detail – gone were the surreal and impressionist interpretations of my environment… replaced with pin sharp mirror images of a boy’s life on the verge of adolescence. The sixties were over.
Coffee - It's not your computers friend · Wednesday March 19, 2008 by colin newell
I spend a lot of time in cafes… of all shapes and sizes. I also work on a University campus – that has numerous cafes and lounges.
And there is a common list of ingredients in University, College and City Cafes:
Hot coffee. Students. And expensive lap-top computers.
Two of my colleagues, who I have coffee with, tell me this tale several times a week. Students are always bringing in their shiny new laptops; apples, PC’s – it makes no difference. They are now deep into their degree, or their Masters degree or their Phd and their life is on their laptop.
And they have spilled hot coffee into the thing. Hot coffee. Into a lap top computer. And while it is running. Coffee and laptops make for a lethal combination almost 100% of the time. Ok. Maybe 90% of the time provided you are lucky enough to be drinking black coffee.
Organic. Fair trade. Bird friendly. It makes no difference. If you spill anything, including water, into a lap top computer, it is almost always a death sentence. Good bye data. Good bye thesis. Good bye dissertation.
My two coffee buddies are, by the way, Apple certified technicians – and they see an endless stream of coffee related tragedy.
For us, at coffee time, this rich hot zippy beverage is a God send. I love coffee. They love coffee. We are surrounded by coffee lovers.
And if you are a student, coffee is the fuel that gets you through those never ending all night cram sessions.
But their MacBook Pro’s hate it.
One mouthful of Ethiopian Sidamo and I am singing. Four fluid ounces of Arabica coffee poured into an i-Book generally results in tears. I kid you not. We have seen more than our share of pouty faced girls and sad-sack boys whose second biggest academic investment (next to their tuition) has just gone up in a puff of smoke… and a very recognizable scent of Starbucks.
And the only thing that fixes it is a call to Mommy or Daddy… or not.
A student asks: “My computer is dead… I spilled my coffee into it… I have the extended Apple warranty on it… Is it covered?”
Technician Mike or Al replies… “This is a warranty program, not an insurance policy…”
And yet the average college or University age person who has invested almost 2000 dollars in their computer and software feel that they are covered. But they are not. And for good reason. The other recent enemy of the delicate laptop is the physical abuse it gets on the way to and from the cafe or dorm. Imagine getting stuffed into a pack-sack 3 or 4 times a day. Picked up. Dropped. Squished in next to your lunch… or into tight spaces. No warranty covers abuse. Try and remember that kids!
Coffee (or Beer) spilled into your 17” Dell is a sure fire ticket to the loans office. There is no second chance. Coffee, by itself (black) is an almost certain path to mother-board melt-down. Add cream or sugar and there is no chance of survival. Why? The fruit acids in coffee eat through the delicate circuitry faster than airplane glue through styrofoam – and the liquid (water content) shorts stuff out guaranteeing permanent death – sorry, no coma! There is something in milk (Lactose) that reacts with the motherboard resulting in something with the processor power of a slice of burnt toast! Not good.
So what is the fix? Well. There isn’t one. When I walk into Victoria area cafes (especially ones that have wireless access) – almost each and every table has someone at it with a lap top computer – and a tall mug of joe… in close and dangerously flirtatious proximity.
What do we, the technicians, do? Well, we preach and preach – if we see a student with an open lap top near a steaming mug of mud, we let them know the stats – even if we come off as worry-wart geezers.
Frankly, I would rather not have to work on someones fried MacBook pro – because in the end run, there is only bad news, sadness… and tears.
All for the love of the coffee bean.
Colin Newell lives and works in Victoria B.C. Canada at a local University – Coffee is his best friend… but he knows that coffee has a mortal enemy… called the lap top computer!
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Sun to set on common sense in 2009 · Sunday February 24, 2008 by colin newell
A December 2005 headline read… Congress is poised to make Feb. 17, 2009, the hard-and-fast date for the national conversion to digital TV — ending the more than 60-year era of analog broadcasts and potentially making millions of analog TV sets obsolete…
Hard and fast date? Hardly. The date of the analog expiry date has been bounced around more than the average basket-ball at a Nicks game.
Why? Why the space race to land-fill 75 million analog TV sets in the U.S.A. ?
Well – The government and the FCC (once considered the same thing, now hardly!) hope to collect more than $10 billion by auctioning off the spectrum now used for analog TV, allocating some of it to emergency services. Brilliant economics?
According to the FCC, people who want to keep their analog sets will be able to apply for subsidies. Each household can get up to two vouchers, worth $40 apiece, that will help pay for boxes that convert digital signals to analog. The bill sets $1.5 billion aside for that purpose.
Now hang on one moment. I live in Canada and I view converted digital signals from my cable company down-converted from the slightly superior digital to the analog signals that my HD Ready Sony is more than capable of slurping up.
So. Instead of forcing 75 million household to ditch their classic TV’s or add yet another set top box to their already straining consoles… why not get the cable companies to do it for you with the option of buying a box for the extra features?
No. That would make sense wouldn’t it!?
In summary, this whole affair is considered one great big gift for the tech companies and cable monoliths – thanks in full to the highly cooperative FCC which is little more than an imaginary government agency in corporate clothing.
