Category: learning curve

Kicking myself and the limitations of technology

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Two parts to this one, but they are annoying intertwined in a doubly annoying double helix of annoyance.

The preamble to this post is that when I was looking for a new alarm clock tone for my phone, I took popular opinion on board and installed Zedge and had a fun time going through some of their expansive sound file database. Previously, my alarm clock tone was Radiohead’s No Surprises, but I found that put me in an even more depressed mood than I would usually be in at 6 o’clock.
To cut a long story short, I settled on a file called “MGC tone 1”, which was a cover of some throwaway dance track from the 90’s. I couldn’t quite remember who it was by at the time I downloaded it – I should really have known it, as the 90’s is my era in pub quiz music rounds – but that wasn’t really important: I had my new alarm clock tone.

Fast forward to a few weeks later and I am permanently grumpy every morning because I wake up to a song that I don’t know the artist or title of. I don’t like not knowing things I should know. It’s becoming a bit of  an issue. If I had a cat, it would be forcefully booted down the stairs each morning. But I don’t have a cat, which might explain why my daughter looks increasingly worried when she sees me heading down to make breakfast.

So – that’s half my problem. Now, for the limits of technology bit.

I love technology and I remain in awe of what it can do. But it can’t do everything. And while software like Sony Ericsson’s Track ID (and everybody else’s Shazam) are unbelievably brilliant, they can’t ID what some bloke did on a synth in his Ohio bedroom. Nor can they ID me singing what some bloke did on a synth in his Ohio bedroom. To be fair, this may not be solely down to the technology bit.

Half my problem with searching for things on the internet is knowing what to search for. Some things just don’t work in Google. Like, for example “Beepy electronic dance tune from the 90’s“, which plainly doesn’t tell me what my beepy electronic dance tune from the 90’s is.

That’s where you come in. Because at least one (or more) of you will know what this song is and who it’s by. Like I should.

No prizes here, save for my eternal gratitude and the satisfaction of having made my family’s lives a bit easier each morning.

Who’s going to be there with the first comment?

UPDATE: Winner is Kevin; song is PPK’s Resurrection.

Ivo backs me, rubbishes Christine’s Brilliant Idea

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The eagerly-awaited “fracking the Karoo” column from Daily Maverick “Opinionista” Ivo Vegter has finally arrived, bringing with it further discussion of the dubious brainwashing tactics used by the anti-frackers (Lewis Pugh, TKAG et al). It’s nice to see that Ivo has finally jumped on-board with 6000 miles… after our previous differerences over… well… everything, really. And although he doesn’t actually mention this site in his column, you can tell he’s read it and then put it in much more technical (read: better) English.

Lewis Pugh was rousing. He invoked Mandela and Gandhi and the brave people who fought and died for freedom. The propaganda was spectacular and alarming. There would be war over water, he warned, if we permit Shell to prospect for shale gas in the Karoo.

This is about our children’s future, and that of our children’s children, he preached. Shell is proposing to destroy our environment, he said, launching into stirring rhetoric about the ravages of global warming. Then he invoked the political tyrants being toppled in north Africa, and deftly juxtaposed “corporate tyranny” as if it’s the same thing.

It was grand oratory, concluding in Churchillian fashion with a call to arms and a vow to fight on, so “good will triumph over evil”. Yes, he actually used those words.

It was a slick performance, full of emotive appeal and rhetorical hyperbole. Dutifully, the mainstream media – whose sympathies I may have mentioned before –cheered this green David, standing up against the corporate Goliath.

But just because a little guy is facing up to a big guy doesn’t make the little guy right.

Ivo quotes from several apparently pro-fracking papers, reports and article, which I have not had time to read (remember kids, this is his job, it’s merely my pastime). But the gist is that the main opposition to fracking in the Karoo is flawed by being based on incorrect information, poor data and/or downright untruths. Still, this opposition is cleverly presented as fact with a huge helping of emotion on a sideplate, and is then dutifully lapped up and regurgitated by their supporters.

But while Ivo might agree with me:

One keeps hearing how Big Oil lobbyists are evil spinmeisters and insidious manipulators of public opinion. Don’t forget that Big Green lobbyists can deceive the public with the best of them.

he pours scorn upon Christine’s Brilliant Idea™ – as documented yesterday on this blog.

Oh, and one other thing. Ditch the word “fracking”. It is a barbarous bastardisation of a perfectly good English term. Using it has only one purpose: spin.

It is designed to make people who don’t know better fear a perfectly ordinary industrial technique that has been in used safely and successfully around the world for many decades. It permits cute, but crude, phrases like “Fracking up the Karoo”. It should be beneath any self-respecting journalist.

Christine will surely be heartbroken.

Me? I’m off to try and find a “self-respecting journalist”. hahahaha!

How did I miss…

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…this?

as I was told earlier, anything deep fried – even a scorpion – is edible. But to deep fry beer? That’s something very special indeed.

The beer is placed inside a pocket of salty, pretzel-like dough and then dunked in oil at 375 degrees for about 20 seconds, a short enough time for the confection to remain alcoholic.
When diners take a bite the hot beer mixes with the dough in what is claimed to be a delicious taste sensation.

Inventor Mark Zable said: “Nobody has been able to fry a liquid before. It tastes like you took a bite of hot pretzel dough and then took a drink of beer.”

I have never been tempted to visit the USA before, but Mark Zable’s remarkable invention may have changed all that. And he beat me to it. I was desperately working on a recipe for deep-fried beer, but kept drinking the ingredients. And I continue to do so. This is the same issue that has also held me back in my quest to produce the world’s first Castle Milk Stout ice cream.

Mr Zable previously invented dishes including chocolate-covered strawberry waffle balls and jalapeño corndog shrimps.

And how did I miss them?

Quota Quote

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Here’s something a bit different – a quota quote.

The heaviest armour afloat, when attacked by an 18″ gun, would not appear to be, metaphorically speaking, much better than cardboard.

Sir Robert A Hadfield, 1925

Hadfield was referring to these armour-piercing shells, made in Sheffield and used extensively to great effect during the First World War:

Hadfield‘s was the only firm in the UK to make 18 inch shells. Between 1916 and 1919 only 500 were produced.
The shell could penetrate up to 1.2m of steel plate – rendering it effectively useless as a defence and hence his likening heavy armour to cardboard.

This shell is held at Sheffield’s brilliant Kelham Island Industrial Museum. [photos]