This was the hotel I stayed in for the IETF conference. It was fab 80s!
Category: General
Now that is a good looking steak!
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:
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.”
OverSneezer: noun – One who makes a dramatic gesture out of sneezing. This can a deep inhale pre-sneeze or a loud and expressive sneeze.
Ant: See UnderSneezer
It looks like Metro is in the process of survielence cameras in the actual Metro train cars. I 
have only seen this in one of two cars is it is definatly just a trial. I am not sure if they are even connected back to anything. I am just happy I don’t have the job of reviewing those tapes. The only thing more boring than riding on the Metro would be having to watch other people having to ride on the Metro.
Have you ever wanted to drink coffee in the shower? Why should you waste all this time drinking coffee not in the shower! I have found a solution for this delema. It is a suction cup mounted drink holder. It is currently aimed at Boaters, but I think it would be much more useful for showerers:
Remember those train set from your childhood? Now imagine if they were steam powered and gave off little puffs of steam while going chuga-chuga… pretty cool right? Well these trains have electric boilers that produce steam, that drives that train. A little round-about, but pretty fansanating!