Assorted Wisdom - A place for random things I am learning

Word of the Day: churrascaria

Frank — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 05:53:14 -0700

churrascaria, noun, a restaurant specializing in churrasco

churrasco, noun, a South American method of grilling meat on a wood or charcoal fire, esp. in Argentina and Brazil; also, a dish of food cooked this way

Strange Comment Spam

Frank — Fri, 13 Jun 2008 00:06:33 -0700

I just finished deleting some quite strange comment spam from around the site. The links pointed to a number of websites on food and Australian beaches but the keywords in every comment were:

ratcatcher unsped angelophany undabbled bingle hawer grader unrestricted

No idea why these key words were chosen. Usually, the logic is apparent but, sometimes, search engine optimization really is a black art.

Chickenfoot: Educationally great but practically useless

Frank — Thu, 22 May 2008 11:48:19 -0700

I recently installed and started using Chickenfoot, a Firefox extension which lets the user write simple scripts that are executed on webapages. The scripts can be triggered automatically or run manually. Either way they manipulate the webpage after it loads.

Chickenfoot is similar to Greasemonkey except that Greasemonkey forces you to use properly formed Javascript and to actually understand the elements of the DOM to manipulate the page while Chickenfoot helps you along. It comes out of an MIT research project on Computer-Human Interaction so it recognizes common form elements and provides shortcut commands to manipulate them.

A Verstile Parsley Oil

Frank — Sat, 10 May 2008 14:54:29 -0700

Parsley Oil

100g parsley
8 Anchovy Fillets
2 Cloves of Garlic
A couple of peppercorns
A tsp of Sherry Vinegar
200ml Olive Oil
A pinch of salt

Pound together in a pestle and mortar or blend in a food processor. I use it to bast fish for the BBQ.

Originally printed in Times.

Word of the Day: Bloviate

Frank — Tue, 22 Apr 2008 11:44:18 -0700

Bloviate, verb, to speak pompously

Word of the Day: Dystopia

Frank — Sat, 19 Apr 2008 15:08:23 -0700

Dystopia, noun, a society characterized by human misery, as squalor, oppression, disease, and overcrowding.

Word of the Day: Coquette

Frank — Thu, 20 Mar 2008 15:02:39 -0700

Coquette, noun, a woman who flirts lightheartedly with men to win their admiration and affection; flirt

Quintura Search Widget: Unimpressive

Frank — Fri, 29 Feb 2008 15:52:41 -0800

I just finished putting a page up to test the Quintura search widget.

The process is quick and straight-forward. You register your site. Quintura crawls it and provides you with a search widget to embed where ever you like. Here is the widget I made for Assorted Wisdom.

It is easy but the results are strange. The initial results from Quintura include li, ul and ol. I admit that these HTML tags are common on the site but I think a search engine should be smart enough to disregard them.

Word of the Day: Disabuse

Frank — Fri, 29 Feb 2008 01:48:10 -0800

Disabuse, v., to free (a person) from deception or error.

A Changes for the New Year

Frank — Sat, 19 Jan 2008 15:12:22 -0800

After a long hiatus, I have returned to Assorted Wisdom to continue playing with technology. Some immediate changes:

In the time since my last post, YouTube took removed a video I had embedded so I removed the post about it.
I installed a Wordpress blog. I am curious how it compares to Drupal and MovableType. So the blog has use, I will right a post for every bottle of wine I drink this year. Or, at least, that is the plan.

UPDATE: I just fixed the URL for the wordpress blog.

Word of the Day: Tessellate

Frank — Tue, 06 Nov 2007 10:38:30 -0800

Tessellate, v., To form into a mosaic pattern, as by using small squares of stone or glass.

Word of Day: Tuple

Frank — Mon, 15 Oct 2007 13:58:24 -0700

Tuple, noun, in a database, an ordered set of data constituting a record

Amazon Astore Integration Failure

Frank — Sun, 14 Oct 2007 12:39:19 -0700

Yesterday, I tried to set up an Amazon astore and embed the store into the site. Setting up the store was a simple four step process which required no programming knowledge.

You can see my efforts here.

Unfortunately, the functionality seems to be limited to a fixed width so it failed to embed elegantly into my drupal template as you can see here:

That image was taken on a widescreen laptop. On my other laptop, the integration looks even worse. At some point, I will explore using widgets to integrate Amazon more seamlessly into the site but I was disappointed with the final outcome of my experiment.

Word of Day: Rumpus

Frank — Sun, 14 Oct 2007 03:52:46 -0700

Rumpus, noun, a noisy or violent disturbance; commotion; uproar

From the children's book, Where the Wild Things Are.

Word of Day: Oestrus

Frank — Sat, 13 Oct 2007 07:54:48 -0700

Oestrus, noun, The periodic state of sexual excitement in the female of most mammals, excluding humans, that immediately precedes ovulation and during which the female is most receptive to mating; heat.

Word of Day: Enology

Frank — Wed, 10 Oct 2007 12:55:27 -0700

Enology, noun, The study of wine and the making of wine; viticulture

From the Croatian Tourist Board website.

Trattoria Alla Madonna: Overrated in Venice

Frank — Tue, 09 Oct 2007 15:37:37 -0700

The Rough Guide rates Alla Madonna as some of the best seafood in Venice. Apparently, Italians don't eat very well. The fish was fresh and well cooked but no better than something from my BBQ.

When I go to restaurant, I want to eat something beyond my personal culinary skill. Alla Madonna fell short of that mark.

Word of the Day: Rambunctious

Frank — Tue, 09 Oct 2007 15:08:13 -0700

Rambunctious, adjective, Boisterous and disorderly

Word of the Day: Theremin

Frank — Fri, 05 Oct 2007 07:21:18 -0700

Theremin, noun, a musical instrument with electronic tone generation, the pitch and tone volume being controlled by the distance between the player's hands and two metal rods serving as antennas.

[Origin: 1925�??30; named after Leo Theremin (b. 1896), Russian inventor]

I had to look it up since I got sent this YouTube link.

Word of the Day: Pierogi

Frank — Wed, 19 Sep 2007 14:48:32 -0700

Pierogi, noun, a small dough envelope filled with mashed potato, meat, cheese, or vegetables, crimped to seal the edge and then boiled or fried, typically served with sour cream or onions.

Lamb Mechoui

Frank — Mon, 17 Sep 2007 13:56:56 -0700

From the Casa Moro Cookbook, I made a cumin and paprika salt to make Lamb Mechoui tonight. The recipe was easy.

The seasoning was freshly ground cumin, sweet paprika, hot paprika and sea salt in a 12:2:1:6 ratio. The lamb is only dipped in melted butter and lightly sprinkled with the salt before being grilled.

What I like about the recipe is that it tastes great off the BBQ but is so quick to prepare. I have started to keep extra cumin and paprika salt in my spice drawer to make it faster still to prepare.

Word of the Day: Betide

Frank — Mon, 17 Sep 2007 00:28:51 -0700

betide, verb,

to happen to; come to; befall
to happen; come to pass

I realized while reading the newspaper this morning that I could use the word "betide" in a sentence but I could not define it. As a result, it is Word of the Day today.

Pesto Technique from Jamie Oliver

Frank — Sun, 16 Sep 2007 15:26:38 -0700

I used Jamie's Italy for guidance on my pesto last night.

The ingredient list was nothing special: Pine nuts, basil and Parmesan cheese in a 1:3:1 ratio with a clove of garlic and some olive oil. The technique was good, though. It recommends a three-step process:

Word of the Day: Disquisition

Frank — Sat, 15 Sep 2007 02:10:35 -0700

Disquisition, noun, a formal discourse or treatise in which a subject is examined and discussed; dissertation.

I feel like Pesto tonight

Frank — Thu, 13 Sep 2007 16:27:34 -0700

My basil plant has done well. Time to make some pesto.

Comment Spam: Day Two

Frank — Wed, 12 Sep 2007 15:08:04 -0700

The site is without comment spam today. I have mixed feelings. I was kind of looking forward to implementing the akismet Drupal module I found last night.

Word of the Day: Avuncular

Frank — Sun, 09 Sep 2007 03:53:33 -0700

Avuncular, adjective,

resembling a uncle in kindness or indulgence
being or relating to an uncle

Everyzing for podcast transcription

Frank — Mon, 03 Sep 2007 02:19:45 -0700

The Economist �?? The World Next Week podcast had the following great quote about the Doha trade talks:

If it [the Doha talks] does come alive at this stage, it's going to be the greatest re-animation since doctor Frankenstein plugged in his monster.

Polish BBQ: Beetroot on the Grill

Frank — Thu, 30 Aug 2007 14:44:03 -0700

I have been peeling beetroot, wrapping them in foil and placing them directly the heating element of my BBQ.

I am still trying to work out the cooking times but the results are nice. I might try to wrap the beetroots in wet newspaper to see if that improves the results.

Kongregate: Casual gaming meets social networking

Frank — Tue, 28 Aug 2007 03:14:37 -0700

Sometimes, I like playing stupid mind-wasting internet games.

To the extent, Kongregate makes it easier to find a decent silly distraction and helps me keep track of distractions that I have liked in the past. I like it.