I am busy working on my project to post photos to a blog and I have come accross a useful and unexpected source for information… Microsoft’s MSDN site. They have full documentation for the metaWeblog API, example C# code and sample messages. MSN Spaces impliments the metaWeblog API, and think this is why they have a full break down on it. Usaully Microsoft doesn’t use Open protocols or ones that they didn’t invent. This might be the start of Microsoft embracing the open culture of the web… or not. Either way this is a good resource:
February, 2006 Archives
So I after reading the headline, there is not too much more to say. My new project is coming up with an application that will can resize and image and then automatically post it to a blog. This shouldn’t be too hard to do. Most blogs come with webAPI that let you mess with them programatically. I have also found two tutorials that should help:
I think I also need to look around and see if I can from some stuff on FTPing the file onto the server. I plan on doing this all in C#. I will update this as things progress… or fail to!
I am trying to figure out which stand mixer to register for. I am having a tough time narrowing it down. I am looking for a mixer that can handle two loaves of bread made with bread flower. There are basically two contenders the KitchenAid 600 Pro
The Viking is pretty much the same mixer as the ones made by Hamilton Beach and DeLonghi. All of these mixers are pretty much rebadged Kenwood mixers. Kenwood is a British company that has been making mixers of this style for the past 40 or 50 years. They went by the name of Kenwood Chef.
KitchenAid has been making mixers for even longer. However it hasn’t always been the same company. The KitchenAid stand mixer used to be manufactured by Hobart, which is famous for the commerical kitchen appliances. However in the mid-80’s the mixers began being made by Whirlpool. Since the change over the quality has supposidly been slipping. There seem to be lots of problems with engines burning out and gears being stripped. So when people say they have head a KitchenAid mixer for 20 years, it should be taken with a grain of salt. That mixer is a literally a different mixer. However it seems that Kitchen Aid is trying to improve the quality. The latest higher performance mixer have all metal gearing and motor overloading protection. They also have a new dough spiral mixer that kneads quicker than a regular dough hook.
In general it seems like the Vikings have more power, and are reliable. It may be tougher to repair them though since they are sort of obscure.
Some interesting threads:
It looks like Bush is planning more money for basic sciecnce! This is a great thing. Science… and more importantly basic research has been struggling lately. At NIST a lot of the research is no longer focus on basic research issues. Instead scientist are stuck chasing the topics that can bring in money. This means that they get to publish less papers and makes it tougher to follow interesting, and promising topics.
It looks like there is a chance for this to change though. In Bush’s state of the union address he promised more money for science in the “American Competitive Initiative”. A description from the Post:
“Now the president will ask Congress to increase spending on federal research and development next year by nearly $6 billion, to a level that would be more than 50 percent higher than the level he inherited in 2001. Under the initiative, the budgets of the NSF, the Energy Department’s Office of Science, and the Commerce Department’s National Institute of Standards and Technology would double over 10 years, with $50 billion in new funding.”