Captain Crunch

Captain Crunch, originally uploaded by nikconwell.

As I sat enjoying my 4th or 5th pomegranite martini (or perhaps it was 7th or 8th, dunno, lost count after 10), it crossed my mind, why do drink recipes say garnish with an olive or an onion or some such thing? And why not, say, a piece of Captain Crunch cereal? Why not indeed.

Perhaps this question could be answered with Science? Science indeed! Science will set us free!

So, behold. An experiment. On the right, a piece of Captain Crunch suspended in a glass of water. On the left, a control, a similar piece located within plain old fashioned air. Note that the glasses are the same. These are the rigors of sciencing. (Note to reader, ignore that child in the picture; somebody who is normally camera shy just couldn't stay away from the scientific process!)

After 25 minutes, a quick taste test showed that the Captain Crunch suspended in water was indeed still a little bit crunchy. Soggy yes, but still possessing crunch. The control piece remained crunchy.

And so you have it. I submit unmistakeable proof that Captain Crunch could indeed be used as a garnish. So, as you settle back with your Vodka Giblet or whatever, and as you compose your next bartending tome, keep in mind that Captain Crunch has been proven to be a viable garnish for a fruity beverage, worthy as a companion to a piece of fruit on a plastic sword or perhaps a fancy little umbrella.

Dunkelweizen

Dunkelweizen, originally uploaded by nikconwell.

Dunkelweizen is Bavarian for, "When you open this sucker up, it's going to foam up like it's Mt. Vesuvius and that foam is going to get all over the kitchen counter."

In other news, the beer tastes quite good. Good enought that I'm willing to put up with the foam and will open it in the kitchen sink to avoid serious messes.

DANG IT!

OK, so I've been holding Verizon stock for a little while.

Today Apple announces the iPhone will be available on Verizon. So then Verizon stock drops. WHAT????!!!! ARGH!

Safety first guys!

You know, they really should be wearing helmets.

Mac Mail vs Thunderbird

OK, so I upgraded to Snow Leopard. And that included an update to Mac Mail. Dunno, I can't see much different. What is different though is that this requires extensions to be updated. No big deal, except that my favorite extension, MailActOn, at the level of Snow Leopard, is now no longer free and is $24.95. I'm not against anybody making any money, and MailActOn is a really good extension. However, my use for MailActOn was to define keyboard shortcuts so I could file incoming messages into 4 folders. Hardly worth $24.95 for something that should be possible in Mac Mail to start with! Gargh!

I've been using Thunderbird on windows for a while and have been happy. I've been using keyconfig() to define keys to file my messages after I've read them. So, time to try this on the Mac instead of using Mac Mail.

First up, Add-ons. I found:

• keyconfig
• Lightning
• Provider for Google Calendar

Keyconfig lets me configure keystrokes for filing my mail:

I define things like:
MsgMoveMessage(GetMsgFolderFromUri('imap://account@server.bu.edu/saved-messages'));
and then assign to a key. Let's me run through my inbox quickly and file messages to various folders. (Note that the Uri account@server *MUST* match the name in the Thunderbird profile. I'm an admin for some mail servers and they have at least 3 or 4 names that all work and end up at the same server. If I don't have the exact name that I used when setting up the account originally then it won't match the thunderbird profile and it will be ignored. To see the profile, look at http://support.mozillamessaging.com/en-US/kb/Profiles. (You don't know how long it took me to figure that one out!))

The GUI on the Mac needs a bit of tweaking. For example, deleted messages don't look different visually - they just have a little gray circle with a line through next to them. Much better would be if the line was gray or had a line through it or something like that. Here's an article on how to change the GUI - http://eriwen.com/css/tweaking-thunderbirds-chrome/

Basically, create a folder "chrome" in your profiles folder and then create a file called userChrome.css with the following content:

/* set default namespace to XUL */
@namespace url("http://www.mozilla.org/keymaster/gatekeeper/there.is.only.xul");

/* Change color of deleted messages */
treechildren::-moz-tree-cell(imapdeleted) {
background-color: #999999 !important;
}
treechildren:-moz-tree-cell-text(imapdeleted) {
color: #FFFFFF !important;
text-decoration: line-through !important;
}
treechildren::-moz-tree-cell(imapdeleted,selected) {
background-color: #333333 !important;
}
treechildren::-moz-tree-cell(imapdeleted,current) {
background-color: #666666 !important;
}
treechildren:-moz-tree-cell-text(imapdeleted,selected) {
color: #DDDDFF !important;
}
treechildren:-moz-tree-cell-text(imapdeleted,current) {
color: #DDDDFF !important;
}
treechildren::-moz-tree-cell-text(imapdeleted, offline) {
background-color: #DDDDDD !important;
text-decoration: line-through !important;
}

So what am I missing?

• Mac Mail has Quick Look which Thunderbird does not have. Evidently somebody is working on getting that working for Thunderbird - http://grbmozilla.wordpress.com/2010/06/05/gsoc2010-proposal-add-quicklook-support-in-thunderbird/
• Mac Mail has good integration with iCal. Thunderbird integrates with google calendar (which I have integrated with iCal). But, I miss being able to click on dates in messages and create iCal events from them. And have the event in iCal tie back to the original message.
  

So what does Thunderbird do that Mac Mail can't?

• Awesome extensibility.
• "Filter these messages" is awesome. Can filter on various combinations of sender, recipient, subject. Can only do one of those for the search box for Mac Mail.
  
• Way faster. Mac Mail sometimes can take ages to trawl through mailboxes. Thunderbird is really zippy.

What do they have in common that's a bit different?

• Mac Mail's Smart Mailboxes is Thunderbird's "File->New->Saved Search..."

So far, I've been happy with the swap.

Stubbs BBQ

Stubbs BBQ, originally uploaded by nikconwell.

This BBQ sauce I haven't tried yet. I've used some dry rub spices by this guy. The awesome thing about it all is the quote "LADIES and GENTLEMEN, I'M a COOK". The guy sounds really BADASS! I can imagine him walking into some restaurant, the room goes quiet, and he stands up and proclaims "I'M A COOK, DANG IT!" I'd buy this guy's BBQ sauce any day of the week.

I've always thought the idea of getting a boat and sailing around would be a lot of fun.

And then I listened to this story...


http://castroller.com/podcasts/TheMothPodcast/1534043-Deborah%20Scaling%20Kiley%20Lost%20at%20Sea

Not fun, not fun at all.

Genius

Genius, originally uploaded by nikconwell.

Why yes, I am a genius, thank you for asking.

Note to haters, the "Genius Opponent" was NOT Mr. Potato Head.

Not reading

I've read Perdido Street Station and enjoyed it, so I picked up "The City & The City". Gave up after about 100 pages. Not really SF, the plot was very slow, and things were mostly dialogue. Not really what I was looking for. Next up, non fiction, "Life Ascending - The Ton Great Inventions of Evolution".

Makers

Just finished reading Makers - http://craphound.com/makers/

Great book, tons of fun. Brings back the feel of wandering old Florida indoor flea markets inside some converted Kmart or Walmart or such.

Also made me want to buy a 3d printer.