The CaffiNation Podcast

This post is a summation of recent events and a close on the situation.

Zombies, or as they are called in more civilized circles, the undead, are a menace. The swarm an area, eat some brains and then shuffle on without so much as a by your leave. All kidding aside recent archaeological evidence found in Eygypt has brought to the forefront the idea that Zombies may not, in fact, be an entirely modern plague. In fact there is a great amount of evidence throughout history that they recurring problem and the time between the outbreaks seems to be shrinking. I may even be too late.

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I needed to share this one quick little blip for you then set you back about your business. I often speak about tech on this blog and mention coffee as an after thought. But this once I wanted top address the Tea and Coffee acolytes of the CaffiNation. I personally love that coffee and tea are a mystical pair of beverages. They seem to have this otherworldly quality about them. They have the power to bring family and friends together under a common banner, they have the ability to calm and sooth the roughest morning and calm the stormy nights.

It is counterintuitive that caffeinated beverages seem to calm us all down, and at the same time rev us all up in the morning.  I had a great morning here in the CaffiNation Headquarters sharing family time with my son, and my wife. I wanted to share a happy thought and Hope your having a good weekend as wel. Enjoy the rest of your time with your family and have a mug for me.

Alright this is silly, but that is the point…

Over on Twitter there was a strange missive put out by @ZeFrank concerning his allegiance to the blue team. Hearkening back to his days of summer camp and frolicking through the tulips no doubt. It took me, and quite a few other people who were not on when the message came out a few minutes to understand why there were team colors being put under various people’s profile picture. (more…)

So its been a bit since I’ve talked about Joost and this blog post is actually done from inside the program… Shhhh. I’m having a good old time watching Transformers, GI Joe, and Wallace and Gromit Shorts.

Overall I’m very pleased with the program and the quality of the entertainment coming through. I’m a hge hockey fan and actually got to see some hockey this season via joost as well, and not only the recent games i missed. How does the Game 7 1975 Stanley Cup Finals Grab you? well its pretty sweet for a boy from Philly to see it.

So if your interested just drop me a line and I’ll set you up with an invite. Be sure to tune in On Sunday Jan 20th for the 200th Episode! And Check any of the previous podcasts and find out how to enter the CaffiNation 2 in 2 Contest. Giving away some Fine Apple Swag. Anywhoo Back to my stories, writers strike be damned!

From Joost : Wallace & Gromit’s Cracking Contraptions - The Snowmanatron

It’s time for the annual West Wallaby Street Snowman Competition and this time Wallace is determined to win. Gromit may be a dab hand (or paw) at sculpting but Wallace has his new “SpeedeeSnowman” which will do the whole job at the touch of a few buttons. Wallace is thrilled wit…

Every year I get people asking me how to prepare for the onslaught of visitors to their house. a decent percentage of the adults all drink coffee in one form or another and being the Coffee Guy I feel it is my duty to impart the 5 tips for better Holiday Coffee Experiences.

First off this isn’t a tip but relax for the holidays, they come with enough built in stress don’t feed into your own cycle of crazy, take a step back and two breaths before issuing your standard comeback or retort. Better to loose a battle than start a war.

1. Buy a glass lined carafe. This simple piece of hardware can keep coffee fresh for hours. If the people who are coming are equal amounts regular and decaf then you might need two. For under 20 dollars you can have a ready reserve of coffee already hot and ready for your guests. When they request coffee, start a pot and pour from the carafe. Brew the coffee a couple hours before anyone is supposed to show up and you’ll be set.
2. Buy Whole beans, and an inexpensive grinder. While pre-ground coffee is a time saver it also doesn’t have the same full flavor profile. Grind the coffee earlier in the day, right around the same time you start your pot for the carafe. Grind one serving at a time and place them into individual baggies in the freezer directly after grinding. The coffee will taste better.
3. Pull the pot. Place a trivet, coaster or some other device to rest your pot on directly after its done brewing. Remove the pot from heat as soon as the drip stops, coffee left on the warmer for any longer than 10 minutes starts to get bitter, even if the initial brew was smooth. Burning the coffee is a common mistake. Your better off having to nuke a cup of coffee than have sour faces.
4. Sugar and Spice. look over our guide to sugar and spices and make sure you have all of the weapons that you would like to offer available. Check the sugar bowl and use a creamer, it makes for better presentation and an easy setup. Also consider using small jelly jars for any other spices you want to offer, or a unique sprinkler. Remember to put out the Vanilla extract
5. Avoid flavored coffee. Nothing polarizes a room quicker than brewing a sickly sweet pot of hazelnut vanilla only to find that half the room detests hazelnut. Use flavored syrups or spices instead to add flavor.

Bonus: When picking your coffee, choose a medium roast. Dark roasted coffee tend to have a stronger flavor, and can come off burnt even when they are fresh brewed. a nice medium roast should suite most palates nicely.

I hope this little foray into Martha Stewart’s Territory can help you prepare for the entertaining ahead. One last thought as you leave me. Know your audience, ask ahead of time who drinks what, uses what and try your best to have a ready supply of cream, milk, sugar and artificial sweeteners. You would be surprised at just how many people have very strong opinions on just which artificial sweetener they like.

Thanks and stay Safe and Caffeinated this Holiday Season.

How did I come to find the wonderful set of utilities Downloadable for free over at Comodo.com? What are these utilities? Well they are in no particular order A firewall, an antivirus, a backup util and so many more all free. Why you ask? Well the company Comodo, sells SSL certificates to websites. They figure if people feel safe being online then people will spend more money, spending money at web retailers means they need SSL certs, which aren’t cheap. How do you figure into this? Well Comodo decided to release a fully functional professional level, even enterprise level secure set of utilities to the public for free, to foster just such a safe environment.

The firewall? Works like a charm, clean, efficient and lightweight. It doesn’t slow your machine down at all. It asks when things seem out of the ordinary and explains what you might need to know very clearly.  Everything i own worked with this application with minimal fuss. It is a joy to work with.

Don’t Think of this article as a review… More of an introduction. The review will come later. Suffice it to say this is a winner I couldn’t keep under wraps.

How did I come to find these utilities? (more…)

The other day I was listening to, Geek Label Radio, the hosts were talking about how soon you let your geek show. That is to say how long after you met your significant other before you let the true depths of your geekness show. I’ve been having a fun time talking to a bunch of my friends about this topic and wanted to throw it out there for anyone else to ponder. I was pretty up front, I had posters of Lord of the Rings, Tye dyed t shirts and was pretty much and out of the closet geek. Others I know took months for the anime, fan fiction to come out. (more…)

Hello there dear listeners,

I have talked about this on the show before but this time I’m throwing down some link love to go with it. I’m be attending Podcamp Philly, at Drexel University September 7th, 8th, and 9th. Podcamp’s are free unconfrences, for a better explaination of the whole concept then head on over to their site at www.podcampphilly.com.

But seriously who should attend? Well anyone really. Podcasters, listeners, media people, bloggers, the curious, the criminally insane, the legally sane and everyone in between. Check out their sessions page for the topics being presented by some of the people showing up. If a topic peaks your interest then feel free to register and stop by. As of right now I don’t think i have anything I could ad to the already well packed discourse. I am there to be a sponge, absorb and network with other like minded people. So if your in town, live in town, or have nothing to do those days drop me a line using the handy dandy email button on the right, my left, side of this page. It is kindly labeled Send Email.

On an unrelated note, I LOVE their logo.

Fun in the Sun People: Welcome to Summertime!

First off I guess I should do a little housekeeping here. It is no longer spring, it is no longer the same week nor the week after this set of articles was started. But I felt obligated to finish it. I plan on showcasing a couple of recipes I have been eating for a little while in the hopes that someone else can enjoy them as much as I do.

I’m an amateur cook, I prefer to throw things into a pot “eyeballing” the recipe as I go. I work by taste so its a stretch for me to get a recipe just right. Here are some that I have worked to a point where I am happy. Please understand more so than anything else on this blog Food is a personal item to me. If you don’t like these please be kind and gentle in letting me know. However if you love yourself some good food then please be effusive with your praise.

Two Face give these recipes One Big Evil Thumbs Up!

sweet steak rub:

• London Broil Or Flank Steak. Long and Lean cut of meat
• 1/3 cup of sugar
• 1/4 cup of salt
• 2 tsp of black pepper
• 2 tsp of garlic powder
• 1 tsp of Cayenne pepper
• 1 tsp of chipolte
• Olive Oil
• 1 fork

Enjoy! Want to find out how to cook this? Keep reading. 3 More Recipes as well… (more…)

Once Again it is time for more Drivel to seep out of the maw of the CaffiNation. Today we will be discussing the urge that overcomes some of us during the Spring to try to get back into a slightly less rotund shape, or to resume working out for those of us without that problem. I myself could use a good walk or slight jog to help me on the way but I would like to think that the marvels of technology could eliminate that problem for me. I would like to think that Technology could not only do the work for me, better than me and in most cases quicker than me but look damn cool while doing it too.

Now I’m not what you would call lazy, no lazy would imply that i don’t do anything, but i would go with a heavy conservationist. I would much rather conserve effort and energy for other things. Like typing, or video games. SO it is with great joy that I happened upon several articles which would allow me to both type, i can feel my finger getting stronger already, and think fondly about video games… Ahh Mario you silly plumber.

The wonder that is the internet has brought us a great many gadgets and wonderful tools to help us make working out easier. And while the Wii Diet has caught on with some of the crowd, and DDR Fever has also picked up the bug and carried the Video Game genre into unexplored territory we will be focusing on slightly less mundane uses of technology.

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