Hand Coding

According to a study at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, people buy different groceries as the economy shifts. But, it’s not all straightforward:

“You would expect that as incomes go up, consumption will rise, but that’s not true” for every food product, Azzam said.

Categories assigned the lowest numbers — -2.232 for pickles and sauces, -2.199 for vegetable oil — would be most popular when incomes fall, and least popular when they rise, Azzam said. Frozen specialty foods such as TV dinners (0.913) and store-bought ice (0.867) had the highest numbers, meaning they would be most popular when people have more money to spend. […]

As mentioned later in the article, people apparently tend to purchase more beer and less distilled liquor in tougher economic times. I’m not much of a distilled liquor drinker, but I’m not buyng much beer these days, either ;).

(Link from the CASPIAN newsletter.)

Zap2It, a tv & movie news site, features a preview of tv-midseason 2003. Of course, by now, it’s not so much a “preview”, and more of a “summary” ;). And by this point, I think some of the shows may have already been cancelled (I don’t recall if Veritas: The Quest is on anymore, for instance). Anyhow, some highlights:

What Not to Wear
Nominated by friends and/or family, a fashion victim is confronted for their clothing crimes. Under the guidance of two cruel-to-be-kind stylists, they are then sent out with $5,000 to put together an entirely new wardrobe. After buying new threads and undergoing a haircut and makeup revamp, each episode concludes with a dramatic reveal and follow-up footage to see if they reformed their ways or went right back to wearing stained sweats to the grocery store.
Premieres: Saturday, March 8 at 10 p.m. ET on TLC

Cartoon Network Bloopers
Even the animated world isn’t perfect. Find out what happened when Johnny Bravo flubs one of his lines or an anvil doesn't fall exactly the right way.
Airs: Saturday, June 7 on Cartoon Network

Traffic
Inspired by the Academy Award-winning film and using the same multi-tiered storytelling and innovative visual techniques, this limited series explores all aspects of the drug trade and stars Martin Donovan, Balthazar Getty, Mary McCormack and Elias Koteas.
Airs: Sundays from July 20 to Aug. 24 on USA

According to PalmInfocenter, Palm may be releasing a Tungsten C in March:

Highly speculative rumors from the PalmInfocenter forums, claim it may resemble the Tungsten W with a built in thumboard with integrated WiFi (802.11b) instead of a GSM/GPRS radio.

[…]

Another theory is that the “C” could possibly stand for Camera, or any number of other things. That would support this rumored device which was submitted anonymously back in November. Speculation on that device ranged from a possible Smartphone to a tablet like handheld. […]

It’s very characteristic of Palm to drop the price on their high-end model before announcing a new one (which they did earlier this month), and PalmInfocenter rumors have been reliable in the past.

So, there’s little doubt in my mind that a Tunsten C will likely be released in March. What its gizmo will be (802.11b, digicam, or otherwise), I can’t be sure. Personally, I’m rooting for 802.11b as that would allow for cradle-free hotsyncing and — even better — mobile e-mail access such as in airports or coffee shops.

Earlier today, Leia mentioned to me about Traffic.com where you can get real-time traffic reports for many metropolitan cities. Of course, Dallas is there, but several other cities such as Pittsburgh are also listed.

My only gripe is that this would have been an ideal opportunity to make use of the “title” attribute on the accident-links — instead of including the incident report (or an excerpt of it) in the title tags, their text just says “Click here for more info” :-/.

I was watching the awards show for Emeril’s Chocolate Contest which featured four finalists: Chocolate Turtle Martini, Chocolate Ice Cream, Chocolate Mousse Cake, and Triple Chocolate S’more Pie. Of those, Sarah Benner’s Triple Chocolate S’more Pie was voted best and I tend to agree — it not only seems choco-licious, but easy to make as well:

Triple Chocolate S’more Pie

Ingredients:

• 1 1/4 cups graham cracker crumbs
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 1/3 cup melted butter
• 1 cup milk chocolate chips
• 1 cup white chocolate chips
• 1 cup dark chocolate chips
• 1 1/2 cups sweetened condensed milk [Really, 1/2 cup sweetened condensed milk, three times —Alex]
• 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract [Like the condensed milk, this is really 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract, three times. — Alex]
• 1 1/2 cups miniature marshmallows

Preparation:

For the crust: Preheat the oven to 375° F. Spray the inside of a 9-inch pie pan with non-stick cooking spray. In a bowl, combine graham cracker crumbs, sugar, and melted butter. Press mixture firmly into sprayed pie pan, covering bottom and sides. Bake for 6 to 8 minutes. Set aside to cool.

For filling: In a microwave safe bowl, combine milk chocolate chips, 1/2 cup condensed milk, and 1/2 teaspoon vanilla. Microwave for 2 minutes on medium (50 percent) power. Alternately, combine all ingredients and melt in a double boiler. Stir until all chips are melted and pour into bottom of cooled crust. Set in refrigerator while preparing second layer.

For second layer, repeat above process using the vanilla chips. Pour over milk chocolate layer. Set in refrigerator while preparing third layer. For third layer repeat above process using the dark chocolate chips. Pour over white chocolate layer.

Preheat the broiler. Evenly cover top with miniature marshmallows. Place under broiler for a few minutes just until marshmallows are lightly browned. Refrigerate at least 1 hour.

• Yield: 16 slices as small pieces are sufficient for even the most devoted chocoholics
• Prep Time: 5 minutes
• Inactive Prep Time: 1 hour 30 minutes
• Cook Time: 20 minutes
• Difficulty: Easy

I might be inclined to substitute a premade graham cracker crust but, other than that, I’d be tempted to try this sometime.

PS: I generally enjoy most of the shows on Food Networks, but I have a small gripe about Emeril’s show in particular. The recipes often look tasty and, Emeril’s over-caffeinated personality aside, it’s also inconvenient that Emeril never mentions the ingredient-amounts (neither out loud nor on-screen).

So, you’ll have Emeril saying something like “And now, I’m going to add some butter to the mixer … and then some sugar…”. So, an archive of the show is no longer suitable as a “visual recipe” — I would have to refer to both the recording and the website every time I wanted to make one of the recipes from his show :-/.

As I use Plucker more and more (Plucker screenshots), I’m realizing that web browsing would be much more pleasant in color ;). Granted, I can get 4 shades of gray on my Palm Vx, but one of those shades is “white” and one shade is “black” (leaving really only two shades of gray).

So, if you happen to have a color Palm that’s just lying around, I’d be happy to take if off your hands for a few bucks (I’m not really even considering a new model at the moment, since even the m130 is still about $200).

[Dow update: -159.87 to 7858.24]

I’m looking for a utility to scan an IMAP account and auto-forward any messages from person A to a another account. Of course, if Mozilla supported auto-forward, I wouldn’t have to seek this functionality elsewhere ;).

As a halfway measure, I think I could set a filter in Mozilla to copy messages from person A to an intermediary IMAP mailbox, but that doesn’t do me much good since the destination account is POP3.

Even if there were some utility that could foward e-mail from an IMAP account but could only forward the entire account, then I might still be able to make use of that in concert with Mozilla copying messages to that intermediary IMAP account.

And, yeah, I suppose this would be easy with Linux. Stop snickering ;).

I’m in the process of building a new box for my mom, as it’s both cheaper and more future-proof for her than buying a preconfigured PC. I’ve ordered the parts so far and they should arrive soon:

• Processor: AMD Athlon XP 2100+ (review). Pricing on chips tends to follow a J-curve as processor speeds increase — I found that the 2100+ is is at the base of the curve, just before the sharp incline.

• Motherboard: Asus A7N8X Deluxe (review). This board won AnandTech’s Editor’s Choice Silver Award for best high-end motherboard for the Athlon XP platform:

  “With features like USB 2.0, FireWire, Serial ATA RAID and dual LAN (and all for a very reasonable price), we feel the ASUS A7N8X Deluxe is worthy of this award.” […]

  I almost went with the Epox 8RDA+ (as it won AnandTech’s Editor’s Choice Gold Award for best value motherboard), but I just could get past its poor board layout (to install more RAM, you have to remove the video card, bleh).

• Memory: 512 MB PC2700 from Crucial. This was an easy decision. Crucial’s RAM has consistent reliability, and they guarantee compatability if you go through their RAM Wizard. The free FedEx 2-day shipping didn’t hurt, either ;).

• Hard Drive: Western Digital Special Edition 80 GB WD800JB (review). This drive is currently atop the Leaderboard at StorageReview.com in the 7200 RPM ATA category. And, with their 8 MB cache, these drives really perform.

• Video Card: Leadtek GeForce 4 MX4200. Sure, it’s a crippled GeForce4 (as are all MX*.* video cards), but I doubt my mom will be playing 3D games anyhow. And, at $50, the price was right.

• CDR drive: Plextor Plexwriter 48/24/48A - 48x read & write, 24x CDRW (review). Yeah, it’s IDE, but Plextor’s Burn-Proof technology should nix any buffer-underruns. This drive also won the Adrenaline Vault Seal of Excellence earlier this month.

• Floppy: This is just an 1.44 MB OEM Panasonic drive. Move along, nothing to see here ;). And, yes, I condidered just not buying a floppy drive, but those things can come in handy especially during emergencies.

• Case: Antec SOHO Performance II (review). This fared well in a recent comparison of 15 cases at Tom’s Hardware. With rounded edges, front-mounted USB & Firewire ports, and quick-release drive bays, this case should last through a few upgrades. Sure, it doesn’t include a motherboard tray, but I can live with that.

  The 1080’s quality of construction is excellent, with rounded edges and heavy duty rivets that secure the case. You will find no twist or flex within the 1080, as it is build like a tank. The door of the case can be locked, and even though it is made of plastic, it secures well when locked. […]

• OS: Windows XP Pro OEM. My Mom’s not quite ready for Linux (or perhaps that’s the other way around?), so I’ll be installing Windows on her box. I could have gone with Win2k, but WinXP was the same price and it includes extra goodies such as built-in CDR support. And, were it $3 more, this would have been the single most expensive component in the system (the Asus motherboard edges it out at $146). Not to worry — she’ll be getting some open source goodness from OpenOffice.org :).

I enjoy selecting components and assembling PCs, so I look forward to putting her box together. More than that, the exercise of selecting her components allowed me to get up to speed on today’s latest components — which should come in handy for when I build my next PC (which I plan to do perhaps in the spring, assuming my employment situation has improved).

Looking over the Top 50 Projects list at Mozdev.org (sorted by number of hits), I came across Checky. Checky adds a menu item to Mozilla for validating pages:

Checky adds a submenu to Mozilla’s context menu that allows you to run whatever page you’re on through one of (currently) 18 different online validaton and analysis services. Checky-Agent can be activated from the Checky menu or by simply pressing the F10 key. So, for example, you could run your page against the W3C’s markup and CSS validators, the Web Design Group’s HTML Validator, and Watchfire's Bobby with a single keystroke and diesplay the results in a new browser window or tab.

I hadn’t heard about Checky before, but it could be quite handy for developing pages. As I strive for valid XHTML for client work (and otherwise), I’m sure I’ll be able to make use of it.

I was watching Sweet Dreams on Food Network this afternoon, and they featured a recipe for Peanut Butter Balls (printer-friendly version). I’ll get to the Peanut Butter Balls in a sec, but first a bit on Sweet Dreams.

As it’s described on the site, “hosted by Gale Gand, Sweet Dreams brings you delectable desserts on a daily basis”. Though they’re not particularly good for me, I do enjoy desserts from time to time (and, if I’m going to do something, such as bake, I may as well do it well).

Sweet Dreams is well-intentioned and the recipes produce fabulous desserts (they look delicious on tv, at any rate). And, that’s the rub — the show is geared towards people who already have a knack for baking but just aren’t up to speed on desserts in particular. So, for newbie cooks such as myself, some of the recipes are just useless in their complexity.

But, that's not always the case — and that's where these Peanut Butter Balls come in. They look hella-easy to make (I was about to use the phrase “easy to bake”, but there's not even baking involved) and I think that even I could make these. Anyhow, the recipe:

• 18 ounces peanut butter
• 1 (16-ounce) box confectioners’ sugar
• 1 1/3 cups graham cracker crumbs
• 3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
• 12 ounces milk chocolate, melted

In a large bowl, combine peanut butter, confectioners’ sugar, graham cracker crumbs, and butter. Mash together until combined. Form the mixture into balls. Transfer to the refrigerator until hardened, about 30 minutes. Dip the peanut butter balls into the melted chocolate and set inside mini paper cupcake forms. Let the chocolate set before serving.

• Yield: 32 balls
• Prep Time: 1 hour
• Cook Time: 3 minutes

The recipe also includes a sub-recipe for homemade peanut butter, but that seems like it might be more trouble than it’s worth :-/. I think I'll just stick with natural peanut butter for that role.