Misc: Steel Cut Oats, Music Gear, Geek, VR
Food: Steel Cut Oats
I've been a fan of oatmeal for many years, going in phases. Using it as normal, occasionally in soups in place of barely, and in replacement of almond milk. Traditionally I have used rolled oats because they have always been accessible and taste great, Trader Joes has steel cut oats instead. They take more effort and time (like 40 minutes) but yum! I've tried several variations all of them tasty, cheap, filling and healthy:
* oatmeal + butter + maple syrup + frozen blueberries
* oatmeal + banana + coconut oil + frozen strawberries
After cooking, the fat goes in first to melt, and then the frozen fruit, which always ends up coloring the oatmeal wonderful colors, a purplish for the blueberry and a pinkish shade for the strawberry. metaeducat10n uses Jelly instead which is also clever. The nice thing about frozen fruit is it also cools the porridge to edible temp.
It's funny though, Everyt time I break out the can/tin, I'm reminded of Katy http://www.wiredgirl.com/ attempting to make some for the ABL, which turned out to be a major adventure for something as simple as a breakfast cereal. Trying to track down steel cut oats with no success at several major supermarkets, the attendents staring blanking having no idea of what she was talking about, being only familiar with the cheap 'quick oats', which always remind me of waspy rehydrated pencil shavings.
Geek: Music Tech vrs Computer Tech
The parrallels and the differences between the music and computer industry have always interested me. While software synthesis on commmodity processors replacing dedicated analog circuits is an undeniable trend, old music hardware maintains their values much longer than equivalent pieces of computing gear, and generally are built to last and be serviceable.
One of the interesting things that differs is support. e.g. a guitar pickup (a relatively simple input device) stopped working after owning it many years, emailed the company for support and all it costs is shipping to replace it, the email was friendly and prompt. Try that with a computer mouse after several years!
Geek: Shapeshifting Car will brace for impact.
Uses shape-memory alloy that swells to make the gap between the door and car more solid, distributing the impact energy and reducing the damage to the driver.
http://www.newscientisttech.com/article/dn9143-shapeshifting-car-will-brace-for-impact.html
Geek: VR 'most realistic VR room in the world - 100 Million pixels
6 sided CAVE format, In Iowa of all places, makes sense though I doubt there's much exciting in the real space going on out there. The pic they've chosen as a running example, is far from impressive though, i suppose playing Quake in a CAVE isn't supported.
http://www.iastate.edu/~nscentral/news/2006/may/c6update.shtml
Geek: Motion Capture without LED's or Magnetic trackers
3D immersive/sensor device allows a computer to see, track and react to user movements without any LEDs or wearables near E3 (think cross between Eyetoy and VR). They are in town today and tommorrow for E3 I think. Today they are showing it by appointment, and tempted to go as they mention the demo you can a) be a ninja, b) play the piano, c) fly. Which are all things I'd find fun...yet with the trip this weekend not sure it's a good way to spend a few hours.
http://www.primesense.com/ (website is still in stealth mode).
I've been a fan of oatmeal for many years, going in phases. Using it as normal, occasionally in soups in place of barely, and in replacement of almond milk. Traditionally I have used rolled oats because they have always been accessible and taste great, Trader Joes has steel cut oats instead. They take more effort and time (like 40 minutes) but yum! I've tried several variations all of them tasty, cheap, filling and healthy:
* oatmeal + butter + maple syrup + frozen blueberries
* oatmeal + banana + coconut oil + frozen strawberries
After cooking, the fat goes in first to melt, and then the frozen fruit, which always ends up coloring the oatmeal wonderful colors, a purplish for the blueberry and a pinkish shade for the strawberry. metaeducat10n uses Jelly instead which is also clever. The nice thing about frozen fruit is it also cools the porridge to edible temp.
It's funny though, Everyt time I break out the can/tin, I'm reminded of Katy http://www.wiredgirl.com/ attempting to make some for the ABL, which turned out to be a major adventure for something as simple as a breakfast cereal. Trying to track down steel cut oats with no success at several major supermarkets, the attendents staring blanking having no idea of what she was talking about, being only familiar with the cheap 'quick oats', which always remind me of waspy rehydrated pencil shavings.
Geek: Music Tech vrs Computer Tech
The parrallels and the differences between the music and computer industry have always interested me. While software synthesis on commmodity processors replacing dedicated analog circuits is an undeniable trend, old music hardware maintains their values much longer than equivalent pieces of computing gear, and generally are built to last and be serviceable.
One of the interesting things that differs is support. e.g. a guitar pickup (a relatively simple input device) stopped working after owning it many years, emailed the company for support and all it costs is shipping to replace it, the email was friendly and prompt. Try that with a computer mouse after several years!
Geek: Shapeshifting Car will brace for impact.
Uses shape-memory alloy that swells to make the gap between the door and car more solid, distributing the impact energy and reducing the damage to the driver.
http://www.newscientisttech.com/article/dn9143-shapeshifting-car-will-brace-for-impact.html
Geek: VR 'most realistic VR room in the world - 100 Million pixels
6 sided CAVE format, In Iowa of all places, makes sense though I doubt there's much exciting in the real space going on out there. The pic they've chosen as a running example, is far from impressive though, i suppose playing Quake in a CAVE isn't supported.
http://www.iastate.edu/~nscentral/news/2006/may/c6update.shtml
Geek: Motion Capture without LED's or Magnetic trackers
3D immersive/sensor device allows a computer to see, track and react to user movements without any LEDs or wearables near E3 (think cross between Eyetoy and VR). They are in town today and tommorrow for E3 I think. Today they are showing it by appointment, and tempted to go as they mention the demo you can a) be a ninja, b) play the piano, c) fly. Which are all things I'd find fun...yet with the trip this weekend not sure it's a good way to spend a few hours.
http://www.primesense.com/ (website is still in stealth mode).