Matter

Saturday, 10 May 2008

Béarnaise in the Land of the Free

Even though you might be tempted to stick to ready meals, it is always worth it to do your own cooking at home.

If you find yourself tempted by a juicy beef loin tenderloin steak, or filet mignon, why not give yourself a treat by preparing it with a nice béarnaise sauce. Of course, you will want to make this sauce yourself in the French traditional way; not using industrial simulacrum goo from some jar or Escoffier forbid, by mixing water with some packaged powder.


Béarnaise Sauce
Béarnaise Sauce

While it is not always straightforward to find basic ingredients in U.S. markets, you're bound to find what you need hidden in some dark corner of the isle. A good recipe for reference can be found here.

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Posted by default at 7:31 PM in Matter
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Matter

Sunday, 30 March 2008

Sigma DP-1

Everybody loves gadgets. Some just can't resist buying them, especially those phone-camera hybrids. While a lot of today's mobile phones have a built-in camera, the picture quality still leaves a lot to be desired. The lenses are vastly inferior and the image processing pipeline, if any at all to speak of, is usually quite flaky.

For now you'll still need a separate camera to get by. But do they make 'em small enough? Enter the Sigma DP-1: according to its manufacturer 'a full-spec compact digital camera with all the power of digital single lens reflex camera'.

Sigma DP-1
Sigma DP-1

I've always been on the lookout for a small form factor camera which could double up as an IT professional's Swiss Army knife, archiving white boards after meetings or documenting the back-of-the-rack cable mess in poorly lit data centers. As this might be it, I couldn't resist temptation and ordered me one. Stay tuned for some sample galleries!

Posted by default at 10:36 PM in Matter
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Matter

Saturday, 22 March 2008

The New Forthcoming Portishead

Exciting news on the music front. As music is still sound and sound is made when air molecules vibrate and move in a pattern called waves, I guess this falls under this category.

Portishead has a new album slated for release the 28th of April. I don't know if this date is fixed for every country out there. Anyway, that's the date reported for the release in little Belgium.

After hunting for information about the mysterious 'Alien' album, this is the first news from Portishead in ten (!) years.

The first single from the album has been posted on YouTube! It reminds me of the sublime soundtracks by John Carpenter, the detached atmosphere of Clock DVA, the lo-fi trance of Joy Division, intertwined with Beth Gibbons' crooning delivering that distinct Portishead melancholy.

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Posted by default at 12:44 AM in Matter
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