Coconut Milk, Coconut Oil, Pineapple, Cane Sugar

They say, “if you’re given lemons, make lemon aide.” My niece is lactose intolerant so I thought I could make ice cream using coconut milk. WRONG. It just didn’t taste right.

So, “if you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em”. In other words, if its going to taste like coconut, make an ice cream that should have coconut flavor!

It’s not perfect. It needs more coconut flavor. Next time I’ll leave out the coconut oil and add toasted coconut flakes.

It's been 18 months since the last quiz. Can you guess what is is?

Here are some helpful details. It's about 1.25″ x 2″ x 3.5″. It's tapered on the top and one side. The wrinkles are not significant. The hole is also not significant. The shape is very significant and should be reflected in your guess. The ball is significant but that won't win you any prize.

Post you're guesses as comments to the blog, on Facebook or Twitter. I'll reveal the answer over the weekend!

I’ve been looking at software design through new glasses – ones with a much better prescription. Put another way, I am looking with a much more critical eye and looking at both the function and the form.

While I agree that form without function is frustrating and a waste, there is no need for function without form. Even more to the point, good form can be the tipping point when similar function is present.

Case in point is the Yahoo Weather App for iOS.  I’ve used the WeatherBug paid app for a couple years but with recent iterative changes, it is becoming more and more tedious to use. There are two many taps and gestures to get to the relevant information.

Yahoo made an entirely new weather app and my guess is they have hired some top notch designers and artists along side unbridled developers to create their trifecta – a comprehensive set of function with truly beautiful execution.

In the video you will notice subtle details such as the use of a spinning sun graphic for the refresh indicator. The background images are pulled from Flickr with relevance to location, its weather, and its local time. The background blurs when the screen is scrolled vertically to view details of the weather. The wind is elegantly renders with both the wind speed & direction as well as animated windmills. Even the time of day is animated with a rising sun.

From anywhere in the app, horizontal scrolling takes you to successive locations while maintaining the context. Scroll left while looking at precipitation for one location will show you precipitation for the next location.

What strikes me about the Yahoo Weather App is that as much as it is beautiful to look at, it is completely intuitive to use. The interface never gets in the way and more important is that “it does what you expect”.

It's was a bit windy for any casual flying. It was extremely windy for any blimp flying!

The Despicablimp was making its way south and trying to stay as low as possible in an attempt to avoid excess head wind. Unfortunately that made for a rough ride as they porpoised along and right over 53VG.

A standard configuration for an air compressor has a regulator, a water separator, and a quick connect for hoses and tools. Most water separators are smaller than a soda can. Their role is to let any condensation fall out of air before it gets to your tools. It’s critical when the job is painting. (The paint booth has its own separator and micron filter.)

I’ve worked my compressor rather hard the past few weekends doing mechanical tasks on the truck – mostly an impact wrench. The shop has been comfortable most of the time – not too warm and not overly humid.

Today was / is “clean the shop day” (still not done in case you were wondering).

I decided I’d drain the large air tank on the shop compressor. The picture says it all. Those are QUART yogurt containers.

There are a lot of tweets than have no real value.
There are lots of tweets that are marketing and promotion.

Then there are tweets that actually make a difference – tweets that take place in emergencies and other tweets that are public announcements and broadcasts of information that will “help”.

@FollowTheGulls – the twitter feed for the Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel (CBBT) – may not tweet often but yesterday they tweeted an accident and closure to all lanes.

Tweets like this are not welcome but they are appreciated. They give citizens useful information and give receivers the ability to make decisions.

For me, the decision was pretty easy. The bridge is the only route across the bay for hundreds of miles. Shut off the car. Sit back. Make a couple calls to say I’d be late. Then read.

I need to follow more of these useful twitter feeds.