bitful » 2006 » December

unalloyed

Sunday 31 December 2006 / word of the day / Comments Off

Not in mixture with other metals; pure. Complete; unqualified: unalloyed blessings; unalloyed relief.

How to make your own sports drink

Saturday 30 December 2006 / uncategorized / 7 comments

Disclaimer: for the purposes of this post I assume you are in good health, have checked with your doctor that there is no reason you should not exercise, and have no problems related to sodium intake. End of disclaimer.

Forget overpriced designer water with a hint of pomegranate and a faint aftertaste of con! Making your own sports drink is cheap and easy.

Ingredients:

a large container that seals shut and that you can drink from (I use a 700ml protein shake bottle);
200ml of no-sugar-added orange juice;
water (tap, filtered or bottled, your call);
a pinch of salt (I use low-sodium).

Instructions:

pour orange juice in container;
add a pinch of salt;
top up with water to one litre approx;
shake;
drink a few sips now and then during your workout.

Variations:

steps 2 and 3 can be swapped ;-)
mix juice and salt at home, then top up at gym from water cooler;
buy mini juice cartons and mix at gym;
optionally, creatine powder can be added.

Benefits:

the calories and carbs from the juice give you energy throughout your workout;
the vitamin C from the juice gives you a kick and a boost;
the water keeps you hydrated;
the salt replaces some of the minerals you lose by sweating;
having a large bottle with you saves you time you would spend going to the water cooler;
the large container can then be rinsed and used to mix your post-workout protein shake.

prowler

Saturday 30 December 2006 / word of the day / Comments Off

A daemon that is run periodically (typically once a week) to seek out and erase core files.

5 thoughts from an iPod newbie

Friday 29 December 2006 / uncategorized / 1 comment

So I got a much-wished-for1GB second generation iPod shuffle for Christmas from Dr B.

I must say that I have not yet explored all the places it can be clipped on, but I already am very pleased with it.

Here are a few things I discovered during my four-day ownership:

I cannot sync it with Dr B.'s desktop computer (the one that holds all our music) because he uses iTunes on it with his 80GB iPod Video and the library shows no trace of Girls Aloud, Christina Aguilera, Gwen Stefani or Britney Spears. However, I could fill it with the entire Sisters of Mercy discography should I ever feel the need to;
I know there are alternative flash-memory MP3 players with similar specs at a fraction of the price – but they do not make you want to lick their sexy brushed aluminium cases as much;
it sounds even better when it plays the top 9 most ace Swedish pop songs of 2006;
if you Google "itunes" the top two (paid-for) results are from companies that are not at all associated with Apple but that feature the iTunes icon (the CD with the dual eight notes) very prominently on their websites. I almost fell for it, but I quickly noticed that the notes were blue and not green as in iTunes 7;
and; so far, this entry-level gadget has not made me want to own every item that has ever come out of Apple's design labs. Although, if money was not an issue…

homeboy

Friday 29 December 2006 / word of the day / Comments Off

A male friend or acquaintance from one's neighborhood or hometown. A fellow male gang member.

germane

Thursday 28 December 2006 / word of the day / Comments Off

Being both pertinent and fitting. Relevant.

Right now I am…

Wednesday 27 December 2006 / uncategorized / 2 comments

Right now I am fixing a couple of things backstage at bitful. Last week I had installed a WordPress widget to automatically include twitters in the main template, and because of an extra unneeded backslash character at the beginning of the code, I could not access my admin page any longer.

Twitter is a way to let people know quickly and easly what you are doing. You can update it online, from your mobile or via IM. Lately I have found it easier to update than writing a proper post here.

The extra backslash was part of this sidebar widget. I would let the author know that one of the versions has an extra character, but there is no way to contact her on the website (either that, or it is very well hidden). Apart from that, great job for someone who claims is not good at coding!

If you are into this kind of things too, I also recommend Twitter Updater, a WordPress plugin that automatically sends a Twitter status update to your Twitter account when you create, publish, or edit your post.

Isn't that amazing? Now my blog shows if I've sent any twitters, and my twitter page alerts you if I've updated my blog.

All of this, and still only two readers…

The emperor's new rabbit

Wednesday 27 December 2006 / uncategorized / Comments Off

I had put a nabaztag on my wishlist and Dr B. managed to get me the newly-out improved second-generation nabaztag/tag for Christmas – as well as an iPod shuffle 2Gen, a 2GB mini-SD card for my mobile phone… and a plastic finger that farts when you pull it. With, thank you very much, five different fart sounds. Yes, I've been a very good boy all year.

What the sweet baby Jesus is a nabaztag/tag, I hear you (both) ask? Well, it's a wireless online bunny. Yes, I know. Dr B. rolled his eyes too when I raved about it. There is more information on what the second generation tag/tag is supposed to do in the following email I sent the company last night:

I asked for and got a nabaztag/tag for xmas. I was very excited about all the capabilities and services that are advertised.

It took me the best part of yesterday to register it, because the website went down due to too many accesses. I was patient, I can understand that – I work in IT myself ;-)

After registering, I set up a few services (weather, clock, alarm clock, FTSE index, air quality). I think these services worked for a little while (no way to tell – no detailed instructions anywhere to be found), then sometime today they stopped altogether. I sent it messages, they appear to be delivered, but they are not read aloud.

I could overlook it, because that's not what I wanted a nabaztag/tag for. What I was truly looking forward to, like… a child at xmas, was the advertised RFID recognition, voice activation, RSS feed reading, email alerts, audio streaming… and found out that all of these will be available – one day.

I'd like to know when, please, because for the time being I've got an (admittedly very cute) piece of white plastic cluttering my desk, and it's not what my partner spent the best part of one hundred pounds for!

Thank you.

Half an hour later I received the following reply:

Hello,

Thank you for this message and your understanding. The features you
chose Nabaztag/tag for will be available after we finished fixing everything,
we hope in the days to come. It will work without a doubt.

This is the Violet press release about the situation : http://blog.nabaztag.com/2006/12/paris_tuesday_d.html

To apologise for it we offer all services until february the 15th

Regards

I think that for now I will investigate how much the thing is hackable (that's now my main reason for keeping it), keeping in mind that if I'm not entirely satisfied the bunny will have to go back to the burrow it came from.

UPDATE: I feel I must explain the title of this post, as I'm afraid it comes from an additional thought that I have not included here.

While researching online what my new wi-fi bunny could, could not and would one day do, I found many enthusiastic posts by disappointed users. People who sort of admitted in a veiled way that it did not do much, but were all the same waxing lyrical about the world of possibilities it could one day open.

Rare were the users who openly stated that the thing, for now, is just a glorified paperweight. And that's where the Emperor's New Clothes comparison came to mind.

pinko

Wednesday 27 December 2006 / word of the day / Comments Off

(Derogatory, slang) A person who holds moderately leftist political views; a pink.

hull

Tuesday 26 December 2006 / word of the day / Comments Off

The dry outer covering of a fruit, seed, or nut; a husk. The enlarged calyx of a fruit, such as a strawberry, that is usually green and easily detached. To remove the hulls of (fruit or seeds).