Lemon-Blueberry Macarons

I realize it hasn't been a very long time since I last made macarons, although with a different flavour, but they seem to be the sort of thing that you want to perfect. Unfortunately, they are notorious for being difficult to perfect, but I'm giving it another go anyway.

The result this time was better than the last time, I got a nice smooth surface and they "popped up" nicely. The downside was that a fair few of the cookies cracked, maybe next time I will let them rest a bit longer before putting them in the oven. I also learned that overcrowding the oven-tray is a bad idea. Still, the once that didn't crack were near-perfect, so progress.

Strictly speaking these are not "lemon-blueberry macarons", but lemon macarons with a blueberry butter-cream.

Lemon macaron with blueberry filling

Ingredients (about 60 "halves", ie 30 macarons):

Macarons:
4 egg whites
0,5 dl caster sugar
4 dl powdered sugar
150g peeled almonds
2 tsp yellow food coloring
2 tsp lemon aroma

Ingredients for the macaron cookies

Blueberry butter cream:
150g room temperature butter
2,25 dl powdered sugar
1,5 tsp. vanilla sugar
1 egg yoke
A couple of handfuls of blueberries

Ingredients for the blueberry butter cream

 

Linux Mint 15 - Cinnamon

I was a big fan of Linux Mint back when I first started using Linux, but for the last few years I've been trying various distros, trying to find "the best". Since then, I've found the "classic" desktop a little bit boring, but a few days ago I decided to go back, and it's almost like I never left (in a good way).

In my opinion, Linux Mint has always had two main strengths, stability and usability, and that still holds true with this, the latest incarnation. 

Being based on Ubuntu, it inherits that solid base. It then adds on the Cinnamon window manager, which is smooth, not too hard on the eyes, and easy to work with.

I haven't really used Cinnamon a lot before, but this latest version is really nice. It shows that there is a reason that the "classic" desktop was the way it was for such a long time, but at the same time it combines it with some of the nicer features from the more innovative window managers. I'm thinking specifically about the use of "hot corner" to select active window and workspace, which I really like.

Basically, this is an operating system that you can put in front of just about anyone, and they will be able to use it. There is nothing difficult, or even tricky, it just works. 

Orange cake

This is a new recipe for me, but I just love citrus in cakes, so I figured I give it a whirl. The batter for this cake is quite soft, so treat it with care.

Please excuse the frosting spilling around the cake, I went a little too heavy on it.

Orange cake

Ingredients:
2 oranges
4 eggs
3 dl sugar
2 dl melted butter (a little less than 200g)
3 dl flour
1 tsp baking powder
powdered sugar

Ingredients

Script for changing name and/or numbering of anime files

I have an HTPC running XBMC, and I like anime, which tends to lead to a problem (very much a luxury problem, but still).

Anime series often have files that use absolute numbering, ie just an episode number, they are not divided into seasons. The problem is that the scrapers used by XBMC are not able to handle this, since their sources do use the "normal" season & episode format.

Now if a show is just 10 or 20 episodes, this is a minor inconvenience, just rename the files and it's done. If the show has 40 or 50 episodes, it's a bit more of an inconvenience. But if the show has a large number of episodes, it's a real pain. I remember renaming the show "Bleach" (which is a quite popular anime) in this way, it has 366 episodes (not counting the specials), and let me tell you, it was not particularly entertaining.

So in order to avoid this in future, I decided to make a bash script capable of handling this. Yes, I know, I could have done it as a full on program, with a GUI, but I felt like learning more about bash scripting and regular expressions.

Anyway, here it is. If you want to use it, just copy-paste it to a textfile (I named it chNamNum), then make the file executable using "chmod u+x chNamNum" in terminal. To execute the script, open terminal, go to the folder you saved the script in, and enter "./chNamNum <path to the folder the files are in>". The script will then ask questions about what you want to change in the filename:

• Do you want to change the name of the show? (y/n)
• Please enter the new name of the show
• Do you want to keep the name part after the episode#? (y/n)
• Do you want to change the numbering from absolute to seasons&episodes? (y/n)
• Please enter the number of seasons
• How many episodes are there in season <x>

The last one is repeated for each of the number of seasons specified.

Now, I can't really cover all eventualities of how the filename is formatted beforehand, so there are some limitations to the script. It assumes that the filename is something along the lines of "name01description.mkv". It can handle quite a few variations, but the important thing for it to work is that the first numbers in the filename is the episode number. So if the name of the show you want to use it on contains a number, I'm afraid you are out of luck (though you could adapt the script specifically for that pattern).

Oatmeal cookies

These oatmeal cookies are delicious, kind of in the middle of crunchy and chewy. They're easy and quick to make, and don't contain any ingredients that you (or at least I) don't normally have at home anyway. Perfect if you have someone coming over and nothing in the cupboard, or if you are simply feeling peckish.

Simple oatmeal cookies

Ingredients (30-40 cookies):
125g butter
3 dl oatmeal
1,5 dl sugar
2 dl flour
1,5 tsp baking powder
2 tsp vanilla sugar
3 tbsp water

Ingredients

Raspberry macarons

Macarons are essentially 2 almond meringues, put together, with filling in between. In this case, the filling is a raspberry butter cream.

They are notoriously difficult to make (and distinguage with macaronis when pronounced). However, I find that the only thing that is really difficult, is to make the perfect macarons. Things like, is the top smooth and shiny, and have they "popped up" are the concerns? The perfect macaron is a lovely thing, both to behold and to eat. However, most of the things that are likely to go wrong when making macarons are cosmetic, ie they will still taste wonderful. So unless you are planning to sell them, I say give it a go!

This is only my second time making macarons, and as you can see from the images below, I don't quite have the estethics down yet, but the taste is still nice, and to my mind, that's the main thing.

Raspberry macarons

Ingredients (about 60 "halves", ie 30 macarons):

Macarons:
4 egg whites
0,5 dl caster sugar
4 dl powdered sugar
150g peeled almonds
red food coloring (optional)

Ingredients for the macaron cookies

Raspberry butter cream:
150g room temperature butter
2,25 dl powdered sugar
1,5 tsp. vanilla sugar
1 egg yoke
A couple of handfuls of raspberries

Ingredients for the raspberry butter cream

BankID with card reader on Ubuntu 13.04 64-bit

I had a fair bit of problems getting this to work, so here is how I did it.

There is a lot of good information on the Ubuntu wiki for Nexus Personal, but since it tries to encompass everything, I find it a little difficult to follow.

The card reader that I have is a Digipass 920, so if you are using something else, you may need to change out the driver for the one appropriate for you device.

Do keep in mind that the BankID application will not be automatically updated. If you need to update to a new version you'll have to download and install it again as described below.

• Get the BankID application from https://install.bankid.com/Download?defaultFileId=Linux (the website blocks 64-bit Linux from the "regular" download procedure, so if you're downloading from that you need to use this direct link)
• Unzip the application
• Open a terminal and go to the directory that you unzipped the application to, and type in the following command (Please note that the version number will change):
• sudo ./install.4.19.0.11351.sh i
• Open Synaptic Package Manager and install the needed packages (Synaptic is not installed by default in Ubuntu these days, so if you don't already have it, install it from Ubuntu Software Center):
• ia32-libs - Needed to run 32-bit programs
• pkcs11-data - Needed for Firefox to be able to read the certificate file
• pcscd (NOTE: Make sure that it is the 32-bit version! Easiest is to select "Architecture" on the bottom left, and then "arch:i386" on the top left, then type in "pcscd" in the Quick filter) - Driver for the Digipass
• Edit: I notice that on Linux Mint, there is no option to filter by architecture in Synaptic, the name of the package you need is pcscd:i386. Either reboot and filter by name in Synaptic or use the terminal command: sudo apt-get install pcscd:i386
• nspluginwrapper - Needed for Firefox to be able to use the 32-bit plugin
• Go back to the terminal and give the following command:
• sudo nspluginwrapper -i /usr/local/lib/personal/libplugins.so
• Check that the plugin has been registerd by nspluginwrapper
• nspluginwrapper -l
• The output should be something like this:
   /home/user/.mozilla/plugins/npwrapper.libplugins.so
     Original plugin: /usr/lib/xulrunner-addons/plugins/libplugins.so
     Wrapper version string: 1.1.2
• Start/restart Firefox, go to Tools -> Addons and check that you can see Nexus Personal under Plugins
• Give it a try, it should now work

Edit: I've tried this on Ubuntu, Linux Mint and Pear OS so far, and it's worked on all of them.