Saturday, 11 April 2009

Travel headphone recommendations?

I do a fair bit of long-haul air travel. I'd like to get a decent pair of headphones or earphones or whatever that I can use on the plane.

Desirable features:
  • Small (I'm traveling)
  • Robust (I'm traveling)
  • Block out or cancel noise (I'm traveling economy)
  • Comfortable (I'm traveling economy for about thirty hours door-to-door)
  • Work without power source (thirty hours, dammit)
  • Plug into those two-prong things they have in planes
  • Can be used as a skype headset (this is a bit of a long shot)
Any recommendations?

Thursday, 9 April 2009

The first question

Seth Godin says that the first question every web site designer must ask is "Do you want the people visiting this site to notice it?"

The first question every writer must ask too, perhaps.

If any programmers are reading this, you don't need to ask this question: I don't want to notice your code ever.

Sunday, 5 April 2009

More than five dollars these days

There are so many difficult things in the world: saying sorry, bring peace to the Middle East, adapting books to the big screen, accurately modeling turbulent fluids, wearing orange - I could go on forever.

Living in a world full of such difficulties, it's nice to know that there's the occasional, useful accomplishment that's within anyones reach. I speak primarily of making a chocolate thick shake.

It's a straightforward drink, elegant in its rich simplicity. To make it, you add chocolate and ice cream to milk and blend thoroughly. You need to be sure that it's chocolate (add chocolate), that it's thick (add ice cream), and that it's shaken (blend thoroughly).

Sad to say, even this refuge of culinary ease has its perils. In my wide experience, I've noticed the following:
  • Not chocolate. The give away here is the pale colour, vanilla taste and complete lack of chocolate. Remedy: add chocolate.
  • Not thick. A thick shake that's not thick is flavoured milk. Remedy: add ice cream.
  • Not shaken. Flavoured milk with unsuckable lumps of ice cream in it. Remedy: blend thoroughly.
With diligence, application and a rigorous obedience to the simple principles outlined above, you too can make chocolate thick shakes of excellence.