Friday Fun - How do you know when you have no money?

Not sure if this is Friday Fun or Tuesday Tech

Q - How do you know when you have no money?
A - When your wallet does not open.

No seriously.

Some people over at MIT have built three different wallets.

• Bumblebee. - The wallet buzzes through a vibrating motor whenever your bank processes a transaction.
• Mother Bear, - The wallet protects the money within it when you need to be thrifty with a hinge that resists opening.
• Peacock. - The wallet swells and shrinks to reflect the balance in your accounts. 

Proverbial Wallets from John Kestner on Vimeo.

We have trouble controlling our consumer impulses, and there's a gap between our decision and the consequences. This is magnified by the digitization of money. When we pull a product off the shelf, do we know what our bank account balance is, or whether we're over budget for the month? Our existing senses are inadequate to warn us.

The Proverbial Wallet gives us that financial sense at the point of purchase by un-abstracting virtual assets. Tactile feedback reflecting our personal balances and transactions helps us develop a subconscious financial sense that guides responsible decisions. In addition to providing a visceral connection to our virtual money, tactile output keeps personal information private and ambient.

This is a project by the Information Ecology group at the MIT Media Lab. Read more at http://eco.media.mit.edu/proverbialwallets/

Credits: John Kestner, Daniel Leithinger, Henry Holtzman, Emily Tow, Danny Bankman

Having a moan about Flickr

Having just come back from holiday in the beautiful North West East of England, I decided to put up a selection of our holiday snaps onto Flickr

Just went to Flickr in this lunch time to get this message.

You have 178 photos stored on Flickr. Once you hit 200, you'll need to upgrade to a Flickr Pro account or you'll only be able to see your most recent 200 photos. 

:(

Sorry no, I don't want to pay $24.95 a year for something I don't use that much.

I have not put that many photo's up just 103 from our holiday in Spain and 75 from this last holiday.

I will have to republish them to Facebook, and put up with the adverts, etc.

I think I will look at Picasa and see what I can do with that, since I use it for this blog.

Monday Munchies - Ajillo Mushrooms

Few tapas taste more Spanish than champiñones al ajillo (garlic mushrooms), dripping with olive oil, garlic and dry Spanish Sherry. To make this tapa even more authentic, be sure to serve the mushrooms with plenty of fresh, crusty bread to mop up the delicious juices. This serves 4 and takes about 10 minutes to prep and about 12 minutes to cook.
Ingredients

• 2 fl. oz olive oil 
• 8 oz mushrooms, wiped clean and quartered 
• 6 cloves garlic, minced 
• 3 tablespoons dry sherry 
• 2 tablespoons lemon juice 
• 1/2 teaspoon dried red chilli, seeded and crumbled 
• 1/4 teaspoon Spanish paprika 
• Salt and pepper, to taste 
• 2 tablespoons chopped parsley 

Preparation

1. Heat the oil in a frying pan and sauté the mushrooms over high heat for about 2 minutes, stirring constantly. 
2. Lower the heat to medium and add the garlic, sherry, lemon juice, dried chilli, paprika, and salt and pepper.
3. Cook for about 5 minutes or until the garlic and mushrooms have softened.
4. Remove from the heat, sprinkle with chopped parsley, and serve on small earthenware platters.

Monday Munchies - Chicken badami korma

Ingredients

• A handful of almonds
• A splash of oil
• 1 black cardamom pod, lightly crushed
• 5 green cardamom pods, lightly crushed
• 4 black peppercorns
• 2 tbsp ginger and garlic paste
• 1 clove garlic, chopped finely
• 1 small piece of ginger, 2-3 inches, sliced
• 1 kg chicken, skin removed, the carcass split in half then jointed, including the neck
• 2 tbsp ground coriander
• 2 tbsp red chilli powder
• 1 tsp crushed red chillies
• ½ tsp garam masala powder
• ½ tsp carom seeds
• ½ tsp whole cumin seeds
• 1 pinch ground turmeric
• 600g white onions, roughly chopped
• 1-2 tbsp vegetable oil
• 250g plain natural yoghurt
• Salt to taste
• 1 tsp ghee (clarified butter)
• 1 clove garlic, chopped finely
• Few thin slices ginger

Preparation

1. Blanch the almonds briefly and drain them. Peel half of them but leave the skins on the rest.
2. Heat the oil in a non-stick pan and add the cardamom pods, peppercorns, and the ginger and garlic paste. Add 1 clove of garlic and a few strands of the ginger and fry off for a minute.
3. Stir in the meat, coating it in the spices and cook until the chicken is no longer translucent. Add the remaining spices and stir thoroughly.
4. In a separate pan, fry the onions until soft and combine half of them with the unpeeled almonds in a food processor. Blend the mixture and stir it into the meat mixture along with the remaining fried onions.
5. When the oil begins separating and rising up the sides of the pan, add the yoghurt and the whole, peeled almonds.
6. Stir the mixture thoroughly, adding 110ml of water to tenderise the meat. Allow the curry to cook gently for about 30 minutes or until the meat is cooked through and remove it from the heat.
7. Heat the ghee in a small pan, add the garlic and the ginger and fry off for 30 seconds before stirring it into the meat.

Friday Fun - Portal

Here is just a load of fun stuff to do with the game portal.

First here is a portal gun.

This spectacular, one-of-a-kind homemade Portal gun is for sale in this year's Child's Play charity auction to raise money to provide games and toys to sick children. The maker, Harrison Krix, has also documented the build.

Next is a portal shirt

Notorious hacker Benjamin Heckendorn -- aka Ben Heck -- has created a “see-through” Portal t-shirt that is perfect for freaking out kids at Halloween.

The t-shirt appears to show a hole through the wearer’s torso which reveals the scenery behind them, in homage to Valve Corporation’s puzzle platformer Portal. To create the effect, Heck cut a portal-shaped hole in the front of a t-shirt and positioned an LCD display behind the hole. On the back of the t-shirt was a CCD camera.

Whatever the camera captures behind the wearer of the t-shirt is displayed on the screen at the front, thus giving the impression of a gaping hole in the person’s torso. Unfortunately it doesn't work the other way -- there's no screen on the back. Though, that might make it a little heavy.

Heckendorn documented the making-of the t-shirt in his internet TV show The Ben Heck Show

And if you want to get a pair, go to Think Geek. there is a vid of a pair in action.

Monday Munchies - Sticky Ribs

Ingredients

• 1kg pork spare ribs
• 1 onion sliced
• 1 tsp mixed dried herbs
• 5 tbsps tomato ketchup
• 3 tbsps orange or apple juice
• 75g dark brown sugar
• 1 tbsp mustard
• 3 tbsp worcestershire sauce
• 1 tsp Tabasco

Preparation

1. Preheat oven to 200 C/400 F/Gas6.
2. Place ribs, onions and herbs in a large pan and cover with water.  Bring to the boil, then lower the heat and simmer for 20 minutes.
3. Mix together all the other ingredients.
4. Strain the spare ribs and arrange in a single layer in a shallow ovenproof dish and spoon over the glaze.
5. Bake for 20 minutes. (bit longer if you want them really sticky!!)

Monday Munchies - Chorizo Penne

Ingredients

• 350g dried penne (fresh is better)
• 250g chorizo sausage (cooking chorizo if you can get it)
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 2 shallots, peeled and finely chopped (onions will do)
• 1 tablespoon of picked thyme leaves
• 2 tablespoons sherry vinegar
• 125ml whipping cream (or you can use Crème fraiche)

Preparation

1. Bring a large saucepan of salted water to the boil. Add the penne and cook according to the packet instructions (between 4 and 15 minutes depending on if it is fresh or dried).
2. Slice the chorizo diagonally into thin slices, no thicker than 0.5cm. Heat the oil in a non-stick pan, add the shallots and cook over a medium heat for 2 minutes to soften. Add the chorizo and cook over a high heat for 2 minutes until it begins to release oil. 
3. Add the sherry vinegar and cook for 1 minute over a high heat, stirring to deglaze the pan. Add the cream and thyme leaves, bring to the boil while stirring and remove from the heat. Season with crushed sea salt and freshly ground black pepper.
4. To serve, drain the penne, toss with the chorizo cream and arrange in serving bowls. Finish with shaved parmesan and rocket.