The Outraged Potato

Word Vomit Support

2009-04-29T20:07:00.000-07:00

For any questions/comments about the Word Vomit iPhone app, please email angryspatula@gmail.com.

Thanks,
Matt

Eyeball FREE Support

2009-04-08T20:49:00.000-07:00

Please email angryspatula@gmail.com with any questions or comments.

Thanks!
Matt

iMonster Support

2009-03-27T19:13:00.000-07:00

Please email angryspatula@gmail.com with all questions and comments.

Thanks!
Matt

Angry Eyes Support

2009-03-26T21:17:00.001-07:00

For any questions/comments on the Angry Eyes iPhone app please email angryspatula@gmail.com.

Thanks!

Eyeball Support

2009-03-05T10:36:00.000-08:00

Any questions/comments on the Eyeball iPhone app can be addressed to angryspatula@gmail.com.

Thanks!
Matt

My New Favorite Tea

2009-02-16T15:45:00.000-08:00

After I was completely let down by Peppermint tea (it makes my heartburn worse), I went in search of a new caffeine free herbal tea. I have decided my new favorite is chamomile. Not only is it tasty and can actually help relieve heartburn, it is a nice relaxing tea. Celestial Seasons has a good one called Honey Vanilla Chamomile.

Fun Warcraft III Strategies: Hiding

2009-02-13T21:11:00.000-08:00

Sometimes when you are about to lose its fun to hide a town hall. I ate my way up to the corner of the map and hid out for quite awhile. I started feeling kind of bad though when they got mad at me. I was about to let them know where I was, but they did find me...

Low Rider...?

2009-02-09T20:41:00.000-08:00

I think this person couldn't decide if they wanted a low rider or a lift kit. I guess this was the compromise.

Unemployment By State

2009-01-27T22:10:00.000-08:00

As of December 2008, the US unemployment rate is 7.2 percent. However, some states are better off than others. MSNBC has a nice interactive graph that shows the unemployment for each state over the course of the last year. Take a look here.

Advertisement Fail

2008-11-25T20:33:00.000-08:00

Its almost Black Friday and the ads are coming in droves, such as this one...

Maybe I'll stop by when the sale is over.

They're Alive!

2008-10-17T10:18:00.001-07:00

Found these on the street near my work. Posted about the middle one awhile back, then found more!

Trying Out Wordle

2008-10-08T22:00:00.000-07:00

I decided to try out wordle on my blog. The resulting word cloud below. Pretty cool tool, will make a word cloud from any text or feed (RSS or ATOM).

Word Cloud of Debate Tweets

2008-10-08T21:20:00.000-07:00

Twitter made a word cloud of debate tweets. Its pretty cool. I guess they used a service called wordle that will make a word cloud from text. May have to try that out sometime.

Netflx Ups Price For Blu-ray

2008-10-08T20:06:00.000-07:00

Netflix has announced that it will start charging unlimited plan subscribers an extra $1 a month if they want access to blu-ray movies. Seems well worth it for those with blu-ray players. I am still undecided as to whether or not to buy a blu-ray player. It is beginning to seem clear that video disks (DVD and blu-ray) are eventually heading in the same direction as audio CDs, that is towards extinction. I believe iTunes-like movie rentals or simply buying and downloading a movie in HD will be the ultimate winner of the HD format war. The question is, how long will it take. If takes too long, buying a blu-ray may be worth it.

Read more about the Netflix price hike.

Click To Buy - YouTube's New Helpful Ads

2008-10-07T21:17:00.000-07:00

Google has released a new YouTube "Click To Buy" feature. This will help people find songs from videos in iTunes as well as buy games when watching a game trailer. As an example this Spore video contains a link to buy Spore from Amazon.com right above the comments. I like this method of monetizing a website, as the ads are very targeted and therefore can be more helpful and less in the way from the user's prospective.

Bose Companion 2 Series II Review

2008-10-06T19:34:00.000-07:00

I purchased the Bose Companion 2 Series II speaker set about a year ago for my home computer. The main reason was to have good sound while watching shows over the Internet. They sound quality far exceeded my expectations and the amount of bass produced by such small speakers is amazing. My roommate liked them so much he went out and bought his own.

I highly recommend these and would say they are well worth their price of around $99.

Bose Around Ear Headphone Review

2008-10-04T14:53:00.000-07:00

Bose Around Ear Headphones are awesome. At around $130 they are a bit pricey, but well worth it! The one problem they have in that the bit that goes over your head is a bit flimsy. Mine broke right after the warranty, but they were nice enough to send me a new pair for only $30.

Also, as a bonus the newer ones have a small headphone jack and plug right into the older iPhones without an adaptor.

Most Expensive Car To Insure

2008-10-04T11:16:00.000-07:00

I just read that the Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution is associated with the highest collision loss according to data ranging from 2002 through 2004 from the Highway Loss Data Institute. Now this doesn't necessarily mean they are the most expensive to insure, but it is a good indication auto insurance costs.

Somehow, I don't find this surprising as the scariest car ride I have ever been in was in one of these cars. I don't think its the cars so much as the drivers, though why you need a car that accelerates 0-60 in 4.9 seconds is beyond me.

What's New With Netflix

2008-10-04T10:58:00.000-07:00

First off, I should mention that netflix is one of the greatest ideas. I've had netflix for a couple years now and I don't think there has been a single month where I have not gotten my moneys worth. If you do the math, the 3 DVD a month plan pays off even if you only watch a movie a week. 4 weeks x 5 bucks a rental = $20 and the monthly plan is roughly 18 dollars. And if you watch 3 dvds a week then the savings can go up tremendously. Anyhow, onto netflix news:

Netflix API

Netflix has released an API. This is something they should have done a long time ago and will no doubt lead to many great applications. I have already seen an iPhone app for netflix. I haven't downloaded this yet, but I plan on doing it soon. More on their API can be found on their blog.

Streaming Via XBox 360

Netflx has announced that streaming watch now over the XBox 360 will be available this fall. Next we need netflix streaming over the Wii and Playstation 3.

How To Prepare Peppermint Tea

2008-10-02T20:48:00.000-07:00

One way to prepare peppermint tea is known as the infusion method:

Poor boiling water over tea leaf
Brew for 2-3 minutes

And that is it! Recommended ratio of 1-2 tsp peppermint to 8oz boiling water. Now there are a few ways to keep the peppermint leaf separated from the water for steeping:

Use pre-packaged tea bags.
Use a tea infuser - these are devices for holding loose tea leaf.
Use a tea strainer - like a tea infuser, but open at the top. Loose leaf is place in strainer and water is poured through. The strainer then rests in the water so the tea can steep.
All sorts of other fancy tea makers.

Me, I prefer plain old tea bags.

Posts on this topic:

Previous | Next... (coming soon)

References:

http://www.umm.edu/altmed/articles/peppermint-000269.htm

http://wikipedia.org/

Peppermint Tea: The Best Herbal Tea

2008-10-01T20:54:00.001-07:00

I am a big fan of tea. Until a few years ago, black tea was the only king of tea that I drank. While I still drink black tea, I now limit it to one cup a day in an attempt to keep my caffeine intake low. The problem lies in the fact that I still want to drink around 3 cups a day. This is how I started trying different herbal teas.

My search for a great caffeine free tea ended when I discovered peppermint tea. Peppermint tea is great. So great, in fact, that I am going to do a series of posts on peppermint tea covering topics from how to brew it, to the health benefits.

Before you go drinking 5 cups a day I should mention that the University of Maryland recommends avoiding peppermint tea if you have Gastroesophogeal reflux disease. The reason being, that peppermint can loosen the upper stomach sphincter and worsen the symptoms. This makes me sad as I am prone to heartburn. However like with black tea, I will simply limit my intake and not go overboard.

Next...

You may also want to check out Ladies Historical Tea Society where peppermint tea is the tea of the week!

New Google Blog Search Home Page

2008-10-01T19:29:00.000-07:00

Google has launched a new blog search page. This groups blogs by subject much as its news search already did. I think this is a great improvement and makes the tool much more usable. You can check it out hereor read Google's blog post about it.

C-SPAN Debate Hub

2008-09-30T19:49:00.000-07:00

I got an email today from a reader telling me about C-SPAN Debate Hub. I checked it out and takes the concept of live debate coverage to a whole new level. Not only do you get the C-SPAN debate video coverage, you also get streams of the latest tweets, blog posts, and youtube videos about the debates. After each debate is over the video is linked with the debate transcript and can be navigated using a pretty nifty timeline.

I think I'll give this site a shot during the first Vice President debate this Thursday (I have a feeling this one will be extra interesting). Visit the C-SPAN Debate Hub or read more on Gizmodo.

Joining The Ranks of Twitter

Analyzing The Debate

How To Display HTML Tags In a Blogger Post

2008-09-29T20:07:00.000-07:00

To actually display a tag you need to HTML encode all of the the '<'s. This is done by replacing '<' with '<'. And that's it!

as a side note if you want to display '<'. as I just did you need to encode the '&' by replacing it with '&'. This continues recursively.

I have foud that bloggers spell check can mess this up by HTML encoding it again (it did this to me once), so you may want to enter these after spellcheck.

ABC Video Player Blank Screen Issue

2008-09-29T20:00:00.000-07:00

I have been getting search hits on a post I did awhile back about the ABC blank screen issue. That post did answer the question, but it was kind of an afterthought so I thought I'd bring it to the forefront.

I had this same problem.

Solution:

Install flash player 9 and restart browser.

Hope that helps!