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mashby

The personal blog of Michael Ashby

Month / November 2005

November 22, 2005

Homemade Biscuits – Round 1

My biscuits after the first roundWhen I got into cooking last year, my Mom gave me her Mother’s cookbook. It’s an old stitch bound notebook in which my Grandmother would write down her favorite recipes. There’s a wide assortment of dishes ranging from “Mincemeat Cookies” to “Cabbage Bundles”, but the majority of my Grandmother’s recipes revolve around baking. My Mother has told endless, dreamy tales of how my Grandmother was such a great baker. Unfortunately she didn’t pass on her knowledge, so all we have is this small notebook.

With Thanksgiving coming up my thoughts have been centered around cooking and one of the things that I’ve been wanting to try are Grandma’s biscuit recipe. So this weekend I thought I’d give it a shot. I have never made biscuits before and I’ve never seen them made either, so I didn’t have high hopes for the results of my labor. As long as the biscuits came out edible, I would be happy.

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November 20, 2005

Lampe Berger & Effusion Lamps

Aromalytic Crystal Effusion LampMy wife an I stumbled onto the greatest air purifier/aromatic thing-a-ma-jig in the world and I just had to tell you all about it. I’m not usually this gung ho about things for the home, but this little bad boy really surprised me at just how good it is.
When Mike Rohde and his wife Gail came to visit back in October, Holly and Gail went shopping in Franklin, TN to a place called The Factory. As they browsed the various boutiques and sundry shops, they entered “Cherie’s Unique Decor” and were immediately taken by the fragrance that wafted through the air. Asking the owner what smelled so wonderful, they were told it was a fragrance called “Red Currant” and when they asked about what was creating the scent, that’s when they were told the whole story.

Fast forward to several hours later when Gail and Holly are trying to describe how this oil lamp worked. Although they tried to explain it, I just couldn’t get my head around how this thing worked exactly. Mike and I both scratched our head a bit and figured we’d go out there ourselves and see them first-hand since Holly was so enamored with them. Lucky for Holly and I, we didn’t have to wait because Mike and Gail bought us one as an early thank you gift!

Now that I had one in hand, I could get a better sense of how this thing worked, but first I had to try it out for my self. We followed the instructions, waited for the wick to get it’s fill of oil and then lit the top of the lamp. After 4 minutes or so, we blew it out and then took a step back as the room began to fill with the most wonder scent. It was heaven.

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November 18, 2005

Mashby’s Top 10 Television Shows (part 2)

The other day I wrote about the first five of my top ten favorite television shows. It’s now time to cover the second half of my top ten. If you missed the first part, you can find it at this link. So without any further ado, my favorite shows from 6 to 10 are as follows.

06. “Lost” (ABC)
LostMy wife and I missed catching the first few episodes of Lost when it first began airing last year. It wasn’t until the Season 1 DVD came out that we were able to catch up and see what all the buzz was about. After the second episode we were hooked and now we never miss an episode and thanks to iTunes, I don’t have to.

“Lost” is the story about the survivors of a plane crash, who find themselves on an island. The real adventure begins once they discover that the island holds many mysteries and so do the survivors themselves. The hook that pulls you in and won’t let go is the way the story slowly draws you into the mysteries. Instead of big stunning revelations, the viewer peels away one layer at a time, much like layers on a onion. For this reason though, it’s really best to watch it from the beginning. Coming into the middle of Season 2 isn’t the best way to ease your way into the series. There’s a lot of strange things that occur and it’s best to experience them for yourself and not by word-of-mouth.

If you’re new to the series, be sure and watch the Season 1 DVD, or download the last season on iTunes for $34. It’s worth the effort.

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November 17, 2005

Michael Mace Tonight On Computer Outlook

Computer Outlook Radio Show with John Iasiuolo

Tonight’s guest will be none other than the former Chief Competitive Officer, Michael Mace on the Computer Outlook radio program. The show airs live at 7pm CST/CDT and those of us not in the Las Vegas area can listen live via the Internet at this link. simply choose your prefered stream and you should be good to go. If you miss the live broadcast, there will be a podcast available at a later date.

You may recall that Michael Mace gave the closing keynote at the 2005 PalmSource Developers Conference, which drew record numbers for a closing keynote. His presentation was rich with information and insight into what the future may hold for the mobile landscape, which Palm OS has a large vested intrest in. Shortly after the conference, PalmSource had a huge layoff and Mace was one of the casualities. A month or so later and PalmSource was purchased by Access. Suffice to say that it’s been a crazy couple of months since the Dev Con.

Tonight we’ll be catching up with Michael Mace, finding out what a wild ride it’s been since the DevCon, what he’s been up to since then and what he’s working on in the near future. There will be plenty of great conversation, because no one has his pulse on the mobile space like Mace.

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November 9, 2005

Mashby’s Top 10 Television Shows

With all the talk this week about the mechanics of receiving television this week, I thought it was high time to talk about the shows themselves. I’m a confirmed TV junkie who can’t seem to get enough. When I stumbled upon Broadcatching, my addiction got the best of me, but over the summer I pulled myself together and got my habit under control. So here’s my top 10 list of the creme de la creme of what’s out there on the boob tube. I’m listing them in my order of preference, so you don’t have to wait until tomorrow for the top-rated shows. Bon appétit!

01. “Firefly” (FOX)
FireflyThis series was canceled in 2002, but to this day it stands out as my favorite television show. Created by Oscar and Emmy nominated writer Joss Whedon, who had created two blockbuster hits for FX with “Buffy The Vampire Slayer” and “Angel“, was asked to create one more show for them. What he came up with was “Firefly“. The network eagerly bought the show and then didn’t know what to do with it. They decided not to air the pilot, then dumped it into a crappy time slot and in the end canceled it. Idiots.

Lucky for us, the fan base for the show was legion and they were vocal. After the show was canceled, they started up a grass roots campaign to drive the sales of the DVD for the series and that got Universal’s attention who decided to continue the story with the first of hopefully 3 movies called Serenity. The series is great, the movie is great and it’s all shiny.

“So what’s the story about?” It doesn’t matter. Go buy the DVD and watch it. “But isn’t it Sci-Fi?” It is and it isn’t. It’s unlike any show that’s out there, so go buy it and watch it. “Yeah, but I’ve heard it’s a western too” It doesn’t matter. Go buy the DVD and watch it.

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November 8, 2005

On-Demand Deal Doesn’t Really Meet Consumer Demands

A man scratching his headI didn’t really mean to make the topic of downloadable TV, or TV On-Demand, a theme for the week, but after reading a few announcements today I felt a few words were in order. Today CBS and NBC made two big announcements regarding providing content from their network in an On-Demand model. This of course comes on the heals of the ABC deal with iTunes, but it differs from that arrangement pretty significantly. Instead of just jumping on the bandwagon and signing up with iTunes, CBS and NBC are both using a model of using a Digital Video Recorder (DVR) to receive their programming. So instead of using your computer, you use a DVR directly connected to your television.

So how is this different? Well, with this model, you would have a dedicated device connected to your television that would then communicate with your television provider to receive the content. Once received and purchased, you could then hit a button on your remote and watch the program. With the iTunes model, you can easily download the content, but you have the hurdle of getting it to your television. With a DVR that hurdle doesn’t exist. Sounds like an easier solution then, right? Well, it is and it isn’t.

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November 7, 2005

The Future Of Download TV Looks Very Bright

A flat-screen television with sunglasses onI’ve written in the past how much I enjoy Broadcatching, but since that article it’s become harder and harder to use BitTorrent to successfully download content. On the other hand, it could also be that broadcatching has the same hurdles it always had, but I’m just now finding it tedious. Whatver the case, downloading TV isn’t what it use to be back in the day – like 9 months ago. Of course, I’ve also been a big proponet of the broadcasters selling their content online via download. In fact, for the record, I wrote about the viability of this content distribution channel back in May 2005. So you can imagine my elation and sense of validation when Apple announced that they were now distributing television via iTunes.

In case you missed the announcement, Apple released its next generation iPods and one of the new features was the ability to play videos. In addition, they announced that they were now making available for sale music videos and select television content from ABC and Disney. This was HUGE news, because it was the first step in what will probably become an avalanche of content. For now though, there’s only 3 shows from ABC (Lost, Desperate Housewives, and Night Stalker) and 2 from Disney (That’s So Raven, and The Suite Life of Zack and Cody), but with those two large networks signed up, it’s only a matter of time before other broadcasters belly up to the bar.

Now I could lose myself in the possibilities and the excitement of what’s to come, but given that the menu that is currently available for TV is fairly small, I think I’ll refrain. Why? Because it’s clear that the powers that be want to make sure that this model is viable. By releasing only three shows a piece, the broadcasters clearly want some proof before they go whole hog and provide more content. I was expecting to have to wait six months before the results came out, but Apple announced on October 10th that they had sold over 1 Million videos in 20 days. Whaaa?!? :O

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November 5, 2005

Thinking About Thanksgiving

A young boy wrestling a turkeyHolly’s folks are coming up to visit us this Thanksgiving, so this morning I thinking about what to cook for the big holiday. I really like to cook and I don’t have a chance to do big family dinners much, what with it being just Holly and I, so when a holiday comes around, I tend to get a bit excited.
My first thought was to do a more traditional southern style dinner. It’s a style that Holly and I are quite familiar with and it’s just good comfort food. Then I got to thinking that since her folks are coming up, they’re kind of used to this style of cooking for the simple fact that they are from the deep south. So the idea of doing something they’re already used to, didn’t seem so exciting.

So I did what I always do when I’m at a loss for a menu – I went to Food Network.com. I’ve garnered a lot of excellent recipes from there and it’s the first place I turn to when I’m looking for something new. I found that they had a whole section devoted to Thanksgiving and with it a whole range of recipes to choose from.

Since the meat choice is the centerpiece of the dinner, I figured that was the first thing to nail down. I’ve done pheasant and quail for past holidays, but I thought going with the traditional turkey would be fun this year. So the next step was to determine which way to cook it and that led me to wide array of choices, but I was able to narrow it down somewhat and was down to two choices: Italian Style Turkey (Roasted with Fennel Spice Rub), or Deep-Fried Turkey.

What was nice though, is that once I make a decision on how to prepare the Turkey, there is a whole menu already associated with each recipe. That certainly makes it easy to plan the whole meal. The problem is, they both sound delicious and I can’t decide which one to go with.

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November 3, 2005

An Update On Stuff And A Huge Thank You

Brain DumpIt’s been awhile since I posted and that’s mostly due to the fact that I’ve been busier than a one-legged man in a butt kicking contest. So I thought it was high time that I at least posted a quick update on what’s been going on and give the much due “Thank You” that is long overdue. But first… the update.

» BRAT was awesome. I did all 350~ miles and had a blast doing it. The scenery was gorgeous and the riding couldn’t have been better.

» Holly and I rode the Jack & Back on our tandem Josephine and we rode the whole course. We ended up doing the short course each of the two days, and that worked out to be about 110 miles all totaled. We did the short course because I was suffering more than I ever have in my life. No kidding. Josephine was not setup for me, so it was nothing but pain, pain and more pain. I should probably write about it, because it was as humorous as it was excruciating.

» NPUG celebrated it’s 6th birthday on October 6th. Hard to believe we’ve been around that long. I did the math just the other day, and I’d estimate that I’ve run approximately 60 meetings on Palm OS Handhelds during that time. Scary to think of it in those terms. I mean, who would have thought that there’d be THAT much to talk about? Who am I kidding? What’s my name?!? 🙂

» I became the editor for the BBC Hit Show Hustle over on TV.com. Since the bulk of my television viewing is done via downloads, I’ve stumbled across some real gems from the other side of the pond. Hustle is my favorite series that’s currently in production.

» My favorite television series that is not in production would have to be Firefly. My sister from another mother, Mary LaFleur turned me onto the show at Chris’ wedding and I think her pitch says it best. When I asked her what the show was about, her response was, “It doesn’t matter. Go buy the DVD and watch it.” Not one to leave well enough alone, I responded, “Yeah, but what’s it about. I mean isn’t it some kind of sci-fi western?” She just said, “It doesn’t matter. Go buy the DVD and watch it.” Well, she was absolutely right. If you haven’t seen it, then go buy it and watch it. It’s fantastic.

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