Waves POM-105785.2 Review

I know this doesn't quite fit here, but I just bought this thing (almost wrote thong, tgf spellcheck), and I felt the need to review it. Unfortunately, the netonnet website wouldn't let me do it without publishing my email adress... So I put it here instead.

I'm on a diet at the moment, so air popped popcorn sounded like just the thing for a snack.

By the way, don't worry, just because I don't eat it, doesn't mean I don't bake it, plenty of recipes for cakes and cookies and more to come. You're free to use butter and eggs and whatnot. I was always of the opinion, better a small slice of something special, than a big slice of something average.

Anyway, I have to say I'm very impressed by this machine. It's MUCH faster than using a pot, without using any fat, and without the trans-fats of microwave popcorn. 

A minute or so, and you have a bowl full of popcorn. 

It's a bit noisy, but not too bad, and you won't need to stand it for very long (this thing is FAST). And there is next to nothing in regards to washing up.

TIP: If you want the salt to stick to the popcorn, just spray some water (mist) on the popcorn before salting it.

CyanogenMod 11 on Samsung Galaxy S III

A couple of weeks ago, I decided to update my phone to the latest version of CyanogenMod, version 11, running Android 4.4 KitKat. CM11 has not yet reached stable, so I decided to go with the "snapshot" from early august, M9. Since it wasn't in stable yet, I wasn't sure what to expect, but I have to say, I am very pleasantly surprised.

As I was already using an earlier version of CyanogenMod, I already had the correct recovery SW installed, and could skip a lot of the stuff I had to do last time. Installation was in fact, a snap.

Just download the firmware and Google Apps, copy them to the SD-card, boot into recovery mode (switch off, then Volume up + Home + Power), flash the CM11 and then the GApps zip-file, and perform a "Wipe data/factory reset".

Reboot, and I was welcomed by the setup screen for what felt like a brand new phone.

As I said, I've been using this for a couple of weeks now, and I have yet to find a single bug. There has been some talk of possible Bluetooth issues (poor Harald), and I can't really speak to it as I haven't used it yet. But in everyday use, it works perfectly. If anything, it's faster and smoother than CM10.2 (Jelly Bean), and the battery life has increased significantly (CM10.2 was by no means bad in this area).

I'm lovin' me some KitKat right now, and so should you.

Wilfa CC-1 Review

The Wilfa CC-1 is a waffle cone maker. It's basically the same as a waffle iron, but it produces much thinner waffles that become crisp, to make ice cream cones.

Wilfa CC-1

Having never used another waffle cone maker, I don't really have anything to compare it with. That said, it seems to work quite well. The waffles come out fairly evenly cooked, and look nice.

The problems I have with this piece of kit don't really have anything to do with the device itself.

1. The manual, it's poor. A waffle iron is a pretty simple thing, to be sure. Still, there are 2 features that stand out on the device, the red and green lights on top, and the dial in the center. Neither of these things are even mentioned in the manual that comes with it! It's not that hard to figure out (I really hope I got it right after saying that), the lights indicate if the iron is up to temperature or not, and the dial is to set the temperature. It would be nice though, to have some indication of what temperature to use! I just set it in the middle, and that seems to work quite well.
2. Do you really need to make your own waffles? It's fun and all that, but unless you plan to experiment to find the perfect recipe for your cones, or you go through a, frankly, ridiculous amount of them, I'm not entirely sure I see the point of this as compared to just buying some.

As I said though, If you are after a waffle cone maker, then this is quite a good one.

Oh, and it has a "Österdalsmönster" (this is the pattern on the waffles). Some seem to rave about this, but to be honest, personally, it doesn't really matter to me.

Cone

Actually rolling the cones turned out to be quite tricky. You have to be fast, before the waffle cools enough to harden (this happens quite quickly), meanwhile you're trying to get the cone shape without burning yourself to much... I'm sure this gets easier with practice though.

I'll come back with a recipe for the cone shown above soon.

LMDE Review

I've been using Linux Mint, on and off, for a number of years now, and I really like it. For quite a while I was on Linux Mint 16 (I realize that 17 just came out), but a couple of months ago I decided to give LMDE (Linux Mint Debian Edition) a try. 

Linux Mint Debian Edition

Linux Mint Debian Edition, or LMDE, is a version of the very popular distribution Linux Mint. While the "normal", numbered, editions of Linux Mint are based of Ubuntu, LMDE is based on Debian Testing instead. Aside from what distro they are based on, the idea is that they should be the same.

First off, the installation procedure. It's different from the Ubuntu-based version, but I actually prefer this one. The Ubuntu installer (and the slightly modified one used in the main version of Linux Mint) is simply great, it's simple, intuitive, and looks nice to boot. The only problem I have with it, is that it's, in a sense, too simple. I feel like I'm not really the one in control, but rather I have to trust in that the Ubuntu team has done things correctly.

The LMDE installer still provides a nice, simple interface for installation. It does not by any means require you to be an expert in order to install it. It does show you a little bit more of what is going on, and provides you with just that little bit of added control of the process, which means that it feels very comfortable to use.

Once installed, there are only 2 visible indications that anything is different from the "normal" version. The first is the background, which has a Debian logo instead of the number of the LM version. Personally, I think the Debian logo looks better. The second is the font used for menu-button, icons, etc. Here I go the other way, the Ubuntu-based versions font is better. LMDE's font seems somehow smaller and thinner, making it slightly less readable. It is by no means a disaster, but it's not quite as good as the original.

For everyday use, things run smoothly and quickly, there is no sense that you are using a distro that is inferior to the Ubuntu-based version. The settings app and program manager look no different from that found in the "normal" version.

After a couple of months of use, I've only really found one bug. It's in the regional settings, and it's not as if that is something that you tend to mess with a lot.

I had a bit of trouble installing BankID due to the repositories being different from the Ubuntu-based ones. But then BankID is kind of a special case. I imagine that other applications which do not come from the default repositories might have similar problems in terms of dependencies.

All in all, I have to say that the Linux Mint team has succeeded very well in making LMDE the same as the "normal" version. There are a couple of very minor downsides, but then there is a major upside as well - LMDE is rolling distribution, which means that there is no need to reinstall when a new version becomes available. This seems especially beneficial now that Ubuntu only has 9 months support on their non-LTS versions. Only 9 months support means that you need to either run the LTS version, or reinstall every time a new version comes out (which has its own charm). I hear that Linux Mint may start to base each of their versions only on the Ubuntu LTS, so we'll see where that goes.

For now though, I'm sticking with LMDE. It is definitely good enough, that I don't see any reason to return to the numbered versions. And really, I don't think that there is any higher praise to give than that.

Wilfa ICM-C15 Review

I just got a new ice cream machine! You can get it here.

To try it out, I made a raspberry ice cream, recipe is coming soon.

The old one was of the kind where you put a part of it into the freezer for at least 24 hours before using  it, which was a little annoying, since you needed to plan ahead and you couldn't make more than one batch per day. This one on the other hand, has a built in compressor that freezes the ice cream, so no need to pre-freeze anything and you can make as many batches as you want in a row.

It looks rather nice, with it's aluminium shell, and it feels like it is of good quality.

Wilfa ICM-C15

Included in the box is the machine itself, an instruction manual, a measuring cup, and a spatchula-like thing.

Disassembled

It has some pretty smart features. The container for the ice cream is fitted with a handle, to make it easy to remove, and the spatchula-like thing is just the right size for getting the ice cream out of the bowl. Once started, it has a timer, so it will stop automatically when it runs out, but it will continue to keep the ice cream frozen for 1 hour after that. That means that if you forget to check it, it won't melt immediately. The default timer setting is 1 hour, but when I tried it it only took about half of that.

While the machine is running, the display shows remaining time and the current temperature (of the machine, not the ice cream).

There are a few downsides to this device. The aluminium surface collect fingerprints really easily, the machine is big and heavy, and it's quite noisy.

The size is 402 × 335 × 281 mm, so it takes up a significant amount of space, and you probably won't want to move it every time you want to use it, since it's pretty heavy. It's "feet" seem to be designed to make it easy to slide on a surface though, which is quite nice.

The noise-level is significant, but not unbearable. I'm including a video of it working, so you can get some idea.

All in all, I have to say that I would recommend the Wilfa ICM-C15. It works as advertised, has some nice features, and the result is delicious.

Machine in action

Done

The spatchula is helpful