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Recent Articles

Today's Frozen Meal: Lean Cuisine Grilled Chicken Caesar

Monday, 2010 February 8 - 1:07 pm

"Grilled white meat chicken with broccoli, red peppers & garlic flavored radiatore pasta in a parmesan Caesar sauce".

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Posted by Ken in: food

Today's Frozen Meal: Kashi Pesto Pasta Primavera

Friday, 2010 February 5 - 12:40 pm

"Yellow Carrots, Sweet Red Peppers & Peas; Kashi 7 Whole Grain Penne Pasta; Basil Pesto Sauce with Shredded Parmesan Cheese."

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Posted by Ken in: food

Today's Frozen Meal: Healthy Choice Chicken Parmigiana

Thursday, 2010 February 4 - 12:30 pm

"Breaded Chicken Breast in Marinara Sauce with Cheese, Whole Grain Penne, Broccoli & Caramel Apple Multigrain Crisp". (You know, I notice that most of these meal descriptions avoid the serial comma. I think that in this case, I'd like to see a comma after "broccoli" so it doesn't seem like we're getting a "broccoli & caramel" dessert. Though then again, sometimes a piece of broccoli does find its way into the dessert section, so maybe they're just covering their bases.)

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Posted by Ken in: food

Today's Frozen Meal: Amy's Thai Stir-Fry

Wednesday, 2010 February 3 - 12:42 pm

"Made with organic rice & vegetables."

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Posted by Ken in: food

Today's Frozen Meal: Healthy Choice Whiskey Steak

Tuesday, 2010 February 2 - 12:51 pm

"Beef in Whiskey Dijon Sauce with Roasted Potatoes and Vegetables."

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Permalink Comment (1)

Posted by Ken in: food

Today's Frozen Meal: Amy's Pesto Pizza

Monday, 2010 February 1 - 1:34 pm

Or is it Pizza Pesto? "Made with organic vegetables and basil."

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Posted by Ken in: food

Today's Frozen Meal: Marie Callender's Fettucini Chicken Balsamico

Saturday, 2010 January 30 - 3:51 pm

(Actually, this is yesterday's meal. For some reason I never clicked the "submit" button for this post yesterday.) "Broad Egg Noodles and Balsamic Reduction with White Meat Chicken, Spinach and Mushrooms".

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Posted by Ken in: food

Punditry

Friday, 2010 January 29 - 9:17 am

I'm reading a lot of "the iPad will be a failure" articles and comments lately. It just brings to mind all the "iPhone will be a failure" comments in 2007, and the "iPod will be a failure" comments in 2001. John C. Dvorak famously argued that Apple should pull the plug on the iPhone and license it out as a reference design to Samsung. Samsung. Or there was this famous Slashdot comment on the iPod: "No wireless. Less space than a nomad. Lame." How many people nowadays even remember what a NOMAD was? (It was a bulky, awkward MP3 player from Creative Labs.)

It's true that not every Apple product has been a blockbuster success. Critics immediately point to the Newton and the AppleTV as examples of Apple failures. But the difference with those products is that Steve Jobs did not believe they'd be hits. The Newton was a product that Steve despised; he killed it as soon as he returned to Apple. He described the AppleTV as "hobby" for Apple, an experimental, a dip-your-toes-in-the-water kind of thing. But the things that Jobs predicted would be huge, the iPod and the iPhone, were huge.

And here we've got the iPad. And just like the Nomad user back in 2001, there are people all over the Internet saying things like, "No Flash. Does less than my netbook. Lame." I wonder whose comment will be enshrined in the punditry hall of shame two years from now?

Permalink Comment

Posted by Ken in: techwatch

Today's Frozen Meal: Amy's Macaroni and Cheese

Thursday, 2010 January 28 - 12:38 pm

"Made with organic pasta". And cheese. It's macaroni and cheese: not a lot of mystery here.

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Posted by Ken in: food

Apple iPad Thoughts

Wednesday, 2010 January 27 - 8:20 pm

So it's here, the iPad. The essential specs:

9.7" diagonal 1024x768 IPS LCD display
802.11n WiFi, Bluetooth, and optional 3G
1 GHz Apple A4 Processor
16GB, 32GB, or 64GB Flash
10-hour battery life
Microphone and speaker
30-pin dock connector
Accelerometer and compass; in the 3G version, GPS
iPhone OS 3.2; runs iPhone apps
$499 for 16GB/WiFi model; $829 for top-end 64GB/WiFi+3G model

I'll run through how I did with my predictions, and then give some more thoughts about the device.

Read more...

Permalink Comment (1)

Posted by Ken in: techwatch

Today's Frozen Meal: Healthy Choice Balsamic Garlic Chicken

Wednesday, 2010 January 27 - 12:48 pm

From the Mediterranean-inspired "Café Steamers" collection: "Grilled Chicken Tenderloins with Whole Grain Pasta, Mushrooms, Spinach, Tomatoes and Vegetables in Balsamic Garlic Sauce".

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Posted by Ken in: food

Happy Australia Day

Tuesday, 2010 January 26 - 9:51 pm

Yes, today was Australia Day, which I will celebrate every year from now on thanks to Elizabeth. I started the day with a Tim Tam Slam, and had I known in advance I was supposed to barbecue some lamb, I would have done that too.

As it was, I put on my Australia temporary tattoo and brought some Vegemite to work, along with 48 little squares of toast. I sent an email to all my co-workers, explaining what Australia Day was, and inviting them all to try some Vegemite.

I had planned to take a picture of each person as they experienced the awesome power of concentrated yeast food product. The theme song of the day was "Vegemite Face", as performed by Lady Gaga. You know, "V-V-V-Vegemite V-Vegemite Face."

As it was, I brought 44 too many squares of toast. Including myself, only four people gave Vegemite a try. And no one had the taste-bud-blowing experience I expected them to have.

Ken Vegemite

Mostly, the reaction was "hmm, not as bad as I thought". Of course, these were the guys who were the least likely to react in entertaining ways.

I ended up giving most of the Vegemite to a Chris, who's visiting from Christchurch, New Zealand. He's been here for a few months and has searched high and low for Vegemite, to no avail. He was so disappointed that I didn't have a local source for it, I had to let him have the rest of my supply.

So thus ends Australia Day in Raleigh, North Carolina. Next year I'll grill up some lamb. But all the same, thanks, Elizabeth! I had a fun time with all of this. Did I mention that every woman in the building smiled at my temporary tattoo today? (Not that things like that matter to me any more...)

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Posted by Ken in: funnyhaha, life

No Frozen Meal Today

Tuesday, 2010 January 26 - 12:06 pm

Aw, phooey. This:

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is not microwaveable.

Instructions

We don't have an oven or a toaster oven in the office, so this will have to wait for another day. Guess I'm eating fast food today.

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Posted by Ken in: food

Apple Tablet Coming Wednesday, According to Everyone

Monday, 2010 January 25 - 11:33 pm

It seems like everyone except for Apple themselves has confirmed that a new tablet computing device will be unveiled at their media event this Wednesday. It's a lot like the days leading up to the iPhone announcement: a lot of hype, a lot of speculation, and a lot of pundits (with no actual knowledge of what the product will be) predicting that it will fail.

So here's what I think about the tablet.

Read more...

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Posted by Ken in: techwatch

Today's Frozen Meal: Whole Kitchen Chicken Tikki Masala

Monday, 2010 January 25 - 1:09 pm

"White Meat Chicken in a Traditional Curry Tomato Sauce with White Basmati Rice." It's from Canada!

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Posted by Ken in: food

Citizen's United v. FEC

Saturday, 2010 January 23 - 4:46 pm

Some of you may not follow Supreme Court cases as closely as I do. Maybe you're aware of the bombshell that the Court dropped a couple of days ago, in the case of Citizen's United v. Federal Election Commission. It boils down to this: The Supreme Court has ruled that corporations are entitled to use unlimited amounts money from their general funds to finance political advertising, because (a) corporations are essentially people, (b) money is essentially speech, and (c) the First Amendment guarantees people the right to free speech.

Perhaps you have a vague sense of the implications of that, but let me lay out a few numbers for you. Exxon Mobil made $45 billion in profit last year (on $443 billion in revenue). If they spent just one percent on that profit (or just a tenth of one percent of their revenue) on political advertising, that would still be four times more money than Obama and McCain spent on their 2008 campaigns combined. That's one company, taking a tiny piece of their profits, dwarfing the combined campaign spending of two presidential candidates.

Now suppose you take the Fortune 500 list. Looking at the companies that were profitable in 2009, if they set aside four percent of those profits and put them towards political advertising, that would be enough to buy every ad spot on ABC, NBC, CBS, Fox, and CW for an entire year. All of them. EVERY. SINGLE. AD.

We're talking about a lot of money, folks. Wait until you see what happens in the next couple of elections... if you thought political ads were bad in 2008, it'll be an order of magnitude worse in 2010 and 2012.

And that's not even the worst part.

Read more...

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Posted by Ken in: politics

Today's Frozen Meal: Stouffer's Lasagna with Meat and Sauce

Friday, 2010 January 22 - 1:35 pm

Meat AND sauce! Do they make sauce-less lasagna? "Lasagna noodles layered with meat and herb seasoned tomato sauce and three kinds of cheeses."

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Posted by Ken in: food

Today's Frozen Meal: Amy's Roasted Vegetables Tamale

Thursday, 2010 January 21 - 1:13 pm

Or is it Tamale Roasted Vegetables? "Made with organic black beans, tomatoes and corn masa."

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Permalink Comments (2)

Posted by Ken in: food

Today's Frozen Meal: Smart Ones Fajita Chicken Pizza

Wednesday, 2010 January 20 - 12:27 pm

(The box actually reads "Stone-Fired Crust Pizza Fajita Chicken". Words of order not matter does.) "Grilled White Meat Fajita Chicken with Fire Roasted Vegetables and Poblanos on a Zesty Sauce topped with Cheese on a Stone-Fired Crust".

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Posted by Ken in: food

Today's Frozen Meal: Kashi Veggie Chana Masala

Tuesday, 2010 January 19 - 1:14 pm

"Kashi 7 Whole Grains & Sesame Pilaf; Chickpeas, Red Peppers, Fire Roasted Eggplant, Carrots & Edamame; Zesty Garam Masala Sauce". Another Kashi vegan meal.

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Posted by Ken in: food

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