Tangentorama

I've had "crack case and vacuum computer" on my To Do list for months, but even so, when the fan would kick in to high gear I'd just shrug that it was summer, ponder whether the ever-increasing pigginess of software justified a new toy, and reach for my A/C remote. Today it was overcast, so when the fan sounded like it was about to have an electronic coronary, I got up from my computer game and walked alllll the way across my office to get my computer vacuum.

Since I was in the middle of a large file transfer, I started on the outside, vacuuming the vents and joints. When I took the vacuum's tip away from one spot, it pulled a tuft of dust out of the case with it. Uh oh. Maybe it was just that one spot—after all I'd been good about clearing any accumulated dust or cat hair from the external vents. Then another tuft. And another.

Download finishes, I get the computer powered down to open the tower, and confirm that not only do the tufts and layer of dust continue inside, there's even a little spider nest. Fortunately it had not yet disgorged its tiny-yet-twitch-inspiring spawn three feet from where I spend most of my waking hours.

I feel like I deserve a visit from computer protective services.

My computer is back to being pretty quiet (for an over-powered full tower), and I expect the performance will pick up a touch too. It's a minor miracle it was working at all, and testament to some serious over-engineering in the cooling system.

Looks like Dell is still treating Alienware as an independent subsidiary, so hopefully they'll keep making their great gaming machines and just gain some operations expertise from Texas. And not just because there are too few technology vendors who understand that electronics can have style too—I know I paid extra for my case in plasma purple with green lighting. Hey, Apple folks pay extra for style, but they don't get a color choice since Steve Jobs seems to be channeling Henry Ford on that topic.

Now off to add a recurring task to Outlook to keep that dust under control. Computer vacuums which are gentle enough to not suck the wires off their connections and come with tiny attachments can be found for less than $20—good to have one around.

Before I post a recipe, it has to be tasty—the fact that it's vegan or veggie is a bonus on top of that. This version has the moist texture of a pound cake, nothing on the bad list, and is absurdly easy to make. I've baked it in both a standard bundt pan and tray of mini bundts.

While I made this with cognac, I'm sure any nog-compatible booze will do. One of my pantry staples is a mini bottle of Courvoisier which contains about 3 1/2 tablespoons, perfect for recipes.

Vegan
Prep time 10 minutes | Cooking time 20-35 minutes
Source: Ann Ray

These are a fabulous snack—€”if you're a carbaholic like me it's hard to stop eating them. The recipe doubles well and freezes well; it takes just a quick nuke and they're ready to eat (you can also re-steam to thaw). Most of the prep time is waiting for the dough to rise, and most of the cooking time is putting batches in your steamer. The filling can be prepared a day in advance.

Vegan
Prep time 2 1/4 hours | Cooking time 30 minutes
Source: Ann Ray

Seattle area | Ballard neighborhood | Map
Dinner only
http://marketstreetgrill.net/

My VeggieFoodie Rating: Excellent

This is my favorite veggie-friendly steakhouse—my sister can get her kobe, and I have a choice of several tasty items on the menu.

You'll always find several appetizers/salads and a vegetarian entree on the menu. The soup is frequently vegetarian and they're happy to check on the stock (in my case the minute I walk in the door). Best of all, the times I've requested a vegetarian pasta the chef takes it as an opportunity to get creative and doesn't send out the same old same old. One time it came with artichoke hearts, heirloom tomatoes, chantarelles, and tarragon—yum! And if you're in the main dining room, they'll also serve the wonderful bar menu mac and cheese if you request it. However, my favorite item at the moment is their profiteroles, which are the best I've had anywhere with crisp pastry, coconut ice cream, and warm dark chocolate sauce poured at the table.

The bar is a great place to hang out with a friend or do some reading, though if they get any more regulars they're going to have to build a bigger one. Market Street Grill is a usual participant in the 25 for $25, even offering that deal every Sunday with a bigger selection than most restaurants provide.

More reviews:
Yelp | Judy's Book | Citysearch | Seattle Weekly

Technorati | Restaurant | Food and Drink | Vegetarian

I couldn't find a recipe that had the ingredients I wanted, so I melded five. While this tastes like a "rich" soup, it's very healthy and close to fat free. If you have tofu haters in your household, the soup stands without it. You'll also find it very quick to make, with most of the prep time for soaking the dried ingredients. Within the ingredients, the only one that is going to require a trip to your Asian market is the lily buds (stringy mystery vegetable matter in your restaurant bowl), which are dried for easy storage. For photos of the mushrooms, see the Cook's Thesaurus.

Vegan
Prep time 25 minutes | Cooking time 30 minutes
Source: Ann Ray

I'm watching The Day the Earth Stood Still and Klaatu mentions destroying the Earth, which naturally made me think of Sam Hughes' Geocide site. Despite the impressive amount of research humanity has done on destroying life forms, nobody has yet found a viable way to demolish our homey little ball of rock. Though it's not for lack of contemplation—the fiction page lists Vogon construction crews as only one of many methods.

This is a fabulous ice cream or fudgesicle recipe, and unbelievably quick to mix. The texture is a hair less creamy than a premium ice cream, but that's due to a lower fat and sugar content. Don't worry, you won't miss it on the decadent taste!

Vegan
Prep time 10 minutes | Cooling 2+ hours | Freezing in machine/freezer
Source: Ann Ray

This is a quick goodie which I've used both as a candy and as a topping to tortes and other desserts. Depending on the purpose, I'll either use whole nuts or cut them into pieces. For the nuts, I often use a mix of hazelnuts and pecans for the dessert topping, but you can pick anything you like.

Vegetarian / Vegan
Prep time 0-10 minutes | Cooking time 10 minutes
Source: Ann Ray

I stumbled across a great short film today: "The Plight of Clownana." It's very funny and off-beat, and best of all you can watch the full length on their Web site. I just wish they offered a higher resolution version to download—I'm sure there are nuances of the dance-off that I missed. According to an IMDB post by "cbdowling" (unverified as Chris Dowling the writer/director/narrator) Jensen Ackles is driving,  Riley Smith throws the drink, Christian Kane gets beat up by DM and Kris Polaha is fourth in the jeep. 

Stockholm recently concluded a wonderful experiment in reducing traffic congestion. From January 1 to July 31, they turned on a variable cost toll system which charged 3 different toll levels, peaking twice a day at rush hour. From 6:30pm to 6:30am the roads remained completely free. All this was done using simple metal arches over the roads—no stopping for a toll booth. If you had a transponder box the funds would be deducted from your bank account; if you didn't, you'd receive a bill based on your license plate that could be taken care of at convenience stores.

Guess what? People changed their work schedules. They used buses and bikes more. Those with environmentally friendly cars could chortle a little more since they got a free ride. Travel times dropped by 1/3 at peak hours. Pollution was reduced. Even accident rates went down.

And why did it end July 31st? Because this was a trial period for a plan which was an unpopular initiative. The public vote to make it a permanent system is September 17, with every traffic planner in the world watching closely. While public support is greatly increased (and traffic right back up at December levels with the tolls off), politics are never certain.

Further reading:

• Official Stockholm Trials Web site
• World Changing, a Stockholm-based environmental blog
• Wall Street Journal article (subscription required)

I love it when technology is used to reinforce human behavior instead of to try and force people into a computer's mold. I could live with a toll system like this on 520 or I-90.

And now a counterbalance to my last post...

Today's Mercury News has a great article about Hector Vega, a San Jose valedictorian who has come forward as an illegal alien. He came to the US just 5 years ago speaking no English, and not only got out of remedial language classes within a year, he recently graduated with a 4.0.

Kudos to Santa Clara University who grants scholarships to worthy students regardless of immigration status, and to Coca Cola who did not have a standing policy but stood behind their scholarship as well.

While Vega's visibility is building support for his eventually becoming a citizen, it has raised his profile in a country where an Immigration and Customs official will state "Anyone who's in this country illegally is in violation of our immigration laws and is subject to arrest." Meanwhile, it would be nice to see the DREAM Act passed. After all, the contribution one has already made to an adoptive country should be at least as important as having tidy paperwork.

A few days ago, my Mercury News 60 second business break e-mail listed three companies restating earnings—two in response to formal or informal regulatory investigations.

Half the time when I log into the Wall Street Journal there's yet another mention of options back-dating. These were cases where executives were miraculously granted options on days the price took a dip, such as these to one CEO. The Journal crunched this as 1 in 300 billion odds but the CEO called it "blind luck":

One of the columns I read regularly in the Wall Street Journal is McCartney's "Middle Seat" about the airline industry. He writes today "With liquids banned from passenger cabins..."

WHAT???

I'm high maintenance, I admit it. Not only am I picky about my toiletries, I'm also a vegetarian which means I'm schlepping food on flights. This means that I pack a lot of gels, lotions, and liquids when I travel. If it's a short business trip, I'm doing my best to get everything in a (barely) allowed pair of carry-on bags because in most airports checking will add 15+ minutes to check-in and 45+ minutes to exit.

Right now the TSA is listing this as an "enhanced security" measure so I hope they get carry-on screening sorted out soon. I figure I have a better chance of that happening (slim) than airports developing efficient checked baggage handling for 50% more load than they're currently managing (none).

Recently AOL had a little "oops." They released 3 months' search data for over 650,000 subscribers. While they removed the AOL account names, they replaced those individual IDs with equally unique numeric IDs. Between "ego surfing" for one's own name and other specific local searches over such an extensive period, many of the "anonymous" people in this file could be identified. Theoretically this was supposed to be just for researchers, but they put it up on an unprotected site and naturally a whole bunch of other people found this Web goldmine. While they've apologized, there's no way to stuff the data back in the box.

Why do people care about the file? Several reasons. Search engine optimization consultants are drooling over the opportunity to compare search queries with the pages people clicked on. Since Google drives AOL's searches, their competitors now have a handy volume of data for reverse engineering their algorithms. Law enforcement has enough searches on illegal topics to keep them occupied for ages. The rest of us can simply be seduced by the life dramas captured in a season's worth of surfing.

Why should we all care about the release? If you didn't understand Google's resistance to disclosing this kind of data, maybe you can now see how personal it really is. Compared to regions such as the EU, the US already has very weak and patchwork privacy laws. And yet, it seems each week there's another attempt to erode them a little more. For some reason Minority Report is coming to mind, when Anderton (Cruise) was walking through the shopping center and every billboard tracked him as he walked by. If you think it's just SciFi, you haven't been paying attention to RFID developments.

GrupThink has a list of easily mispronounced domain names. Amazingly only one is listed as being renamed so far. General rule: Never combine a plural with "exchange."

For those who haven't had enough marketing classes in their life, the Chevy Nova is considered one of the original global naming "oops." In Spanish, "no va" means "doesn't go." Of course according to Snopes it's a false story, so take it as you will.

Once these cool they have a great crunchy texture—even my personal trainer binged on the container I gave her. Since this recipe is egg-free, the raw dough is always safe for "testing" (by the tablespoon). The dry ingredients and extra add-ins are available in the bulk bins of stores like Whole Foods.

Vegetarian / Vegan
Prep time 15 minutes | Cooking time 30 minutes
Source: Variation of Joy of Cooking Quick Oatmeal Cookies

If you're female and having a rough day (let me know if this works for guys too), try Cute Overload. It's  a frequently updated site packed with adorable critter photos. You can also find links to other photo sites like Stuff On My Cat and e-commerce niches you never knew existed like guinea pig costumes.

I've spent the last four days at the National Speaker's Association annual convention. Imagine 1,700 people who love to talk, give advice, and be the center of attention. Now turn up the volume another few notches.

Despite the occasional din, this has been one of the most fabulous professional growth experiences I've ever had. While Toastmasters is an excellent place to learn how to speak more coherently (especially if you have "um" problems), NSA is a place to learn how to manage the business of being a speaker. They have four core competencies they develop in their members:

I was recently responsible for IT for a software/Web services company, and along the way developed some tracking spreadsheets to document server status. While they were created for disaster recovery, on a day-to-day basis they turned out to be very helpful for troubleshooting problems and configuring new folders or servers.

Here's a template with the more generic tabs I used. It's all set for Windows LAN and Web servers, including detailed NTFS and IIS permissions.

Enjoy!

I've finally found a great program for managing data on my desktop and laptop!

My primary system is an Alienware desktop, and then I have a Vaio SZ for when I'm out and about. (Yes, I like nice toys.) I keep my data organized by topic—personal, business, clients, etc.—in folders off the root. This takes care of most of the data, but there are also a few orphans under Documents and Settings such as my bookmarks and iTunes library data, some of which reside in folders where I only want to grab one or two files.

All of this adds up to about 10GB of data that I want to have synchronized when I switch from the desktop to laptop and back. I've used two applications, one paid but worth it, and one free but useful.

Google has snuck out yet another service (no doubt to be terminally in Beta). This one I heard about through an article about eBay stock dropping, despite having both AdWords and Analytics accouts.

I find Google Checkout very intriguing for two reasons.

First, they've undercut most of the reputable merchant account services, even Costco which was the least expensive last time I crunched the rates. Not only are the basic discount rate, per-transaction and monthly/annual fees lower, the fact that you don't need a separate payment gateway like Authorize.Net for real-time processing is another savings. Their simplified rates are also a nice change from the bait and switch experience with many merchant services companies. Many will advertise rates which can only be achieved by brick and mortar or high volume vendors, and it's only when you dig through the fine print that you learn you'll be paying a full percentage point more.

Mom would make a batch of this soup, put it in pitchers in the fridge, and we'd all just cruise by a couple times a day and fill up a pint glass (the slurpable aspect makes it great for picnics and BBQs). This is a casual and easy version of gazpacho, though it dresses up well for dinner parties with some croutons and diced cucumber as garnish. The soup can be prepared a day in advance, and is best with at least a couple hours to let the flavors blend before serving. It's also monstrously healthy, as it's 100% vegetables, fat free and low sodium. Serves 8+ as a soup course.

Vegan
Prep time 15 minutes | Cooking time 0 minutes
Source: Janet Ray

I grew up calling these "Snow Mounds," a much more descriptive name for these easy, crumbly sugar coated goodies.

Vegetarian / Vegan
Prep time 15 minutes | Cooking time 30 minutes
Source: Ann Rainey

Update: After many fabulous years Mandalay has closed its doors as Janny and Erik move North to be closer to family. I'm in mourning for my curries.

Seattle area | Wallingford neighborhood | Map
Dinner only
http://mandalayspice.com/

My VeggieFoodie Rating: Fabulous

This is one of my favorite restaurants in Seattle. They do wonderful curries with complex spices from several Southeast Asian countries. My favorites on the current menu are the Malaysian Green Banana Curry, Thai Green Curry, and Szechwan Black Bean Stir Fry. If you happen to spot a Pineapple Panang, Taro Root, or Green Mango curry on the specials board, go for it.

In addition to the curries, there are some vegetable sides, appetizers, and daily soup which are veggie. Most of the items flagged on their menu as vegetarian are in fact vegan—just ask and you'll find the staff knowledgeable about the ingredients. If you manage to leave any room for dessert, try the Toasted Coconut Bananas or Thai Basil Cheesecake. Most of the curries keep very well as leftovers or takeout.

Tell them Ann says "Hi" ;-)

More reviews:
Yelp | Judy's Book | Citysearch | Seattle Weekly

Seattle area | Ballard neighborhood | Map
Dinner only | 21+
http://www.thebalmar.com/

My VeggieFoodie Rating: Excellent

I've now been to BalMar twice, and both times the food was excellent. Saturday night was a packed, younger crowd with lots of noise bouncing off the brick walls, but Thursday evening it was much more mellow and I had a leisurely meal and conversation with a friend.

They have a tasting-style menu with "Small Plates"—two make a good meal, perhaps with room left for bites of their decadent molten chocolate cake. The items in the Veggie section are all vegetarian, as well as a few under Etc.

More reviews:
Yelp | Judy's Book
Normally I'd also include CitySearch, but when I typed "Bal Mar" in their search engine it came back with "We assumed you meant Wal Mart, instead of bal mar." Yeah, right.

Technorati | Restaurant | Food and Drink | Vegan | Vegetarian

I've been seeing the nice orange RSS icons everywhere, and wanted one to replace the plain text TypePad uses by default. With a little Googling, I found http://feedicons.com/. They've done a really nice job packaging this up, with multiple sizes of the icons and instructions on how to change the color if orange doesn't do it for you.

For anyone on TypePad, here's the code I used to get the icon to appear with no border and to pick up the subhead style for the word "Subscribe". Adjust icon dimensions based on the one you end up using.

<div class="module-syndicate module">
<h2 class="module-header" style="margin-bottom: 15px"><a href="http://[yourblog]/index.rdf"><img src="[youriconpath]" border="0" height="32" width="32" style="border: 0px"> Subscribe</a>
</h2>
</div>

Now I need to stop playing with my blogs and bill some hours! ;-)

Technorati | Blogs | Blogging | Technology | TypePad | Web design | RSS

Update: TypePad has added Technorati tags to their software. On the composition page, click Customize the display of this page and you can turn it on.

I looked around for a tag generator and didn't find one that did exactly what I wanted, so I built one. It will let you:

• Keep track of the tags you use (up to 50)
• Open tag links in the same window or a new one
• Set text/paragraph formatting
• Change the opening text "Tags" and delimiter between tags

All you do is put an "x" next to the tags you want in a particular post and copy the code it generates for the paragraph. Since I can't write ASP or Perl to save my life it's in a spreadsheet, but should be cross-platform.

Please let me know if something needs tweaking or if you find it useful!

If you want to muck around with the basic formulas yourself, first un-hide all the columns and rows as there are a few layers of If and Concatenate statements due to working around Excel limits.

For anyone wondering why I bothered with this when Technorati picks up my TypePad categories as tags, it's because the two serve very different purposes in my blogs. I use categories to organize posts when someone is within the sites, while with the tags I'm trying to capture more terms to match what people might be searching with. More of the whys—as well as a video demonstrating tags in Technorati—can be found at Rich Brooks' Flyte blog.

Technorati | Blogs | Blogging | Marketing | Technology | Technorati | TypePad | Tags

The trailers for Nickelodeon's "Barnyard" coming out in August depict a group of 4 cows who have very male voices—and udders. How many people forgot to mention the emperor was running around without clothes?

Technorati | Film | Movies

I've been to steakhouses which were veggie friendly and Italian restaurants which weren't. As a cook, foodie, and 15 year vegetarian, I'm a firm believer that accommodating vegetarians can be easily done by just about any restaurant. (I'd love to see every restaurant accommodate vegans too, but that's going to take more time.)

1. Knowledgeable staff
If I ask whether an item is vegetarian and the wait staff says "Um, yeah, sure it is" I start focusing on the green salads for dinner and never come back. If I ask and they answer "No, it has worscheshire sauce" I've found a new home. Vegetarians don't expect wait staff to have the ingredients memorized, but we do need the first reaction to be "I'll check with the chef" instead of a guess.

It's that time of year again! The day when mobs of people descend on Seattle's Fremont neighborhood for its rather unique take on summer parades. A bit of what makes the Solstice Parade special:

• Naked cyclists—with some body paint of course
• All human pushed or pulled floats
• Utilikilt brigade
• Flock of belly dancers
• Political and environmental statements in floats
• Charming disarray

It's all today, Saturday June 17th at noon! For a great set of photos from last year, see Tim Greyhavens' site.

PS—520 is closed this weekend.

Technorati | Seattle | Culture | Fun | Travel

If you like films with quirks, find your local film festival!

Not only do you get to see some of the most creative films generated by the industry, you encourage the creation of cinema that isn't calculated to appeal to the greatest possible audience by catering to the lowest common denominator. Yes, some of the films are rough, but you'll also find gems by up-and-coming talent. You'll also find films with impressive casts whose established actors are there because they found the project interesting.

While we all know about Sundance and Cannes, there are many local film festivals to attend. You can find a staggering international list at Inside Film Online.

Here in Seattle we're just wrapping up SIFF, and it's been wonderful going to screenings. They did a great job this year with their Web site, providing a good system for identifying films of interest and winnowing that list down to something feasible. This is a non-trivial task—today, a Thursday has 18 screenings and this goes on for weeks. Their ticket system also allows the purchase of will call tickets up to 30 minutes before a showing, and you can pick up tickets for multiple venues at any box office.

Next year I look forward to even more shows. The only thing I'll do differently is load up on as many immune boosters as I can before it starts! I've missed two of my films because of a cold caught at one of the screenings.

Technorati | Film | Movies | Seattle | Culture | Fun | Travel

Infoworld has a nice quick article called "What users hate most about Web sites."

Of course to read the article, you have to get past the animated banner ad at the top, animated inset ad on the article, and pop-up it will attempt to open—items number 1 and 4 on the most hated list. As irritating as these regular ads are, I've accepted them as a fact of life on browsing free sites, though I greatly prefer Google's context-sensitive ad words as they've actually been known to be things I'm interested in.

Here it is, a picture perfect Seattle June weekend, and what am I doing? Sitting inside with a pot of mint lemon tea, a bowl of dry Cheerios, and blogging about TV as I miss today's SIFF flick. I hate being sick.

I killed my cable in January, when the most recent rate hike put my Expanded Basic—no premium, no digital, no PPV—over $50/month. Since I only watched a handful of shows regularly and also had a TiVo subscription to grab eps at odd hours (TiVo rocks), it just wasn't making sense when I could get box sets on Netflix.

That was the rational financial justification. The emotional justification is I was tired of giving $50/month to a company that ticked me off.

Or you would if you were a little pewter shoe. Since you're a human, I'm afraid you can't fit on the Start square for your $200. Sorry.

I'm an eccentric geek in the Ballard neighborhood of Seattle.  I first launched my personal site a couple years ago to keep track of vegetarian restaurant and other lists that I seemed to be repeatedly generating and sending via e-mail. Some quirk of my psyche loves collecting and disseminating information (including bits I personally could never use). I'm sure you know people who you can always ask "Where can I get" and they'll list 3 stores including URLs—that's me.

Tangentorama is basically everything which doesn't fit tidily in my survey research blog Practical Surveys, as well as my playground for working with TypePad. The layout will have some pretty awful moments this first month as I'm not bothering to prototype things out on a test site.

Please post general comments/questions to this entry—I do take requests. When I feel like it.

Cheers,

Ann