Suffice to say, there aren’t many books that get me terribly excited; Modernist Cuisine is, however, one of the few. Assembled and written over the course of three years by a team of scientists, photographers, cooks, and geeks, all led by Dr. Nathan Myhrvold, it’s being praised by many, including me, as the definitive cookbook of the 21st century.

The first thing you need to understand about Modernist Cuisine (MC)  is that it isn’t a cookbook. The main focus of this book isn’t to provide you with a set of recipes you can simply follow to produce a meal, but to provide you with the knowledge and fundamental understanding by which to create on your own. In that sense, MC is rather more of a textbook than anything else. Yes, there is a book dedicated to recipes, but as you will come to see, these are meant more as inspiration and platforms than step by step guides. Read more

So it finally happened. After years of having accounts all over the place, one finally got hacked. None of my devices could fetch mail, so I logged into the web client to see what was going on (sometimes Google goes down). It gave me some screen that said there had been suspicious activity on my account, and that I’d need to verify my identity using a code sent to my phone. Entire process took about 5 seconds, and access was restored under my existing password. There were about 20 emails in the inbox, all returned undeliverable, with some link to a spam site in the message body (thanks Google for catching that). All of the addresses were kind of old (probably emailed them years ago) but I’m sure a couple were still active.

I’m not sure who or how, other than someone must have known my password. It’s odd because, while I use the same password for a few things, I have about 8 that I rotate around. The one I use for GMail though is one of my better ones, and one I typically reserve for higher security sites. I only enter it on my own devices (laptop, phone, etc), so I’m thinking someone must have sniffed a packet or hacked into one of those sites.

In any case, I spent the better part of the day assigning unique 20+ character passwords to each site I frequent. Finally bought 1Password (both Mac and iPhone / iPad version) and put it to good use. I’ll post up a quick review and share how well the program works. In the mean time, it isn’t a bad idea to remember to change your password often, and to something better than just the minimum requirements. XKCD rases a good point in one comic (#936 – Password Strength), that picking a string of 3 or 4 easily remembered words as a password, is as secure, if not more, than picking a string of just randomly assigned characters.

So the big news here on the East Coast is this so called Hurricane Irene. I say “so called” not because I’m one of those conspiracy nuts running around thinking that the gays or pork fried rice angered god to smite us, but because meteorologists in New England are generally clueless. It isn’t their fault really, this region is so cluttered with jet streams and what not, it’s almost impossible to really predict whats going on. However, every time they fill the news with headlines of some big thing coming our way, we get a quick shower, and it’s over. We’ll see if this one turns out any different (hope for the best, prepare for the worst), but I have my doubts. Regardless of this history, people still freak out, stocking up on supplies like they’ll be lost at sea for months.

In other news, my Pantone mug STILL hasn’t arrived. I emailed the shop earlier this week, and nothing. They’re a UK based company, so I’m just assuming they have typical international type issues with this whole US order fulfillment thing, otherwise, a chargeback is in order. Blasted brits.

This year’s ALMS race at Lime Rock park was held a few days ago on the 9th. As always, it was a great time. Porsche USA was kind enough to set up a hospitality tent, complete with a few raffles and talks from various engineers and speakers. The first fifty Porsches even got to do a victory lap around the track, which I thought was a pretty neat thing. All in all, despite Flying Lizards not placing as well as I had hoped, it was an enjoyable race. Got a great spot on the back straight (in front of a tree covered in poison-ivy) and got to witness a few crashes first hand (I hate Corvettes anyways). Lots of great cars and bikes to walk around and see, and for the most part, everyone was pretty friendly. Even remembered my earplugs this time,

Can’t really say that I’m a huge hockey fan, but like most Boston residents, I’ve been watching a bit over the past few weeks during the playoffs. I tried listening on the radio on my way home from work or something, but to be honest, I couldn’t keep any of the names straight enough to know what was really going on. Wanted to pick up a jersey to show my support, but after seeing the $400 price tag, I thought again.

In any case, they won, after a nice 7-game series (which I’m sure you know unless you’ve been living under a rock). Parade is Saturday some time, which means I’ll be fleeing the city ASAP to avoid the worst traffic nightmare of my life.

Interesting fact about the Stanley Cup that I didn’t know: all players since the introduction of the cup (give or take a few years) all get their name engraved on the cup each year. The top part (the actual cup) is the only original part of the trophy, with the engraved rings having been replaced and added to as space was needed.