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First off I need to apologize for the lack of updates, the summer has been really bad for blog posting. The last month has been pretty much the worst too. A week of preparing, followed by a week in San Francisco (which is more meetings than “work”), then Sarah’s wedding, followed by a week of being sick. All the while trying to fit in a  massive back log of actual work. Well here we are, things are sane again and I am no longer plague ridden. It’s actually been a really good summer, lots of projects have moved forward and I’ve got a lot of back logged blog posts to finish and publish.

I figured I’d knock a quickie one out just to post the above update. While sitting at home sick this week I started and finished Cave Story + on the Mac. For those not familiar, Cave Story is an indie freeware platformer/run & gun in the modern Castlevania / classic Metroid sense. It is a fantastic deep game (storywise) with awesome gameplay and music. Developed (scored and illustrated) single handedly by Daisuke Amaya (aka Pixel) over 5 years and released in 2004, the original is a treasured classic and as of the last year or two it’s finally gotten the attention it deserves. It saw an updated version released on the Wii last year with updated graphics and music.

Well as of last week, that updated version was released on the Mac AppStore. In fact there is an additional level (and bit of story) making the Mac version the most complete way to play Cave Story currently. (There is even additional new content promised in updates!) While it will be coming back to the PC-world via Steam eventually, this is truly an impressive moment for Mac gamers! We actually have something really awesome FIRST! (Who would gloat about that though, ha) Anyone who says $10 is a lot to spend on an updated version of a free game really needs to realize how impressive this game is, and that it is a bargain of a monetization for the blood, sweat and tears that went into it. The re-arranged music in this version is freakin’ fantastic and the graphical updates are just beautiful (and that is coming from a pixel-addict), check out this side by side I threw together:

Buy it now and enjoy it, seriously awesome. (Just make sure you don’t play it on the easy difficulty, normal is actually pretty easy, though hard is pretty nasty. ) It’s worth your time and 10 bucks.

I know I’m WAY behind on blogging. I really hope I’ll find some time ASAP. I wanna talk really quickly about Mac OS X 10.7.

First the good. The UI changes are great. I have always been a fan of tiny widgets and maximizing screen real-estate. In 10.6 and prior, I went to great lengths to shrink every font and widget. In 10.7 theres no need. Scroll bars are tiny and automatically fade out, you can full screen most apps, fonts and widgets are just smaller. Fantastic. New UI animations and transitions are everywhere and delay things a bit, hopefully there will be a TinkerTool or similar to disable them. They’re short and tolerable but as an example, I am typing a character or two into the ether when switching spaces during the animation.  I’m not really into the LaunchPad paradigm, but the MasterControl look works for me. Mail.app’s new UI is fantastic, iCal’s is a bit over the top. Mail.app’s performance (specifically around large operations and anything RSS related) is a complete train wreck. I expect a patch soon. Reverse scrolling took less than a day to adjust to (I am an iPad/iPhone user though). Autocorrect is a nice addition. The new Finder is great, Safari updates seem good, heck even the Terminal.app updates are nice! Grab an updated version of TerminalCopyOnSelect and away you go.

10.7 is a huge update, in the way 10.5 was to 10.4, and at $29. If Mail.app’s performance is fixed I’ll likely be very happy.

Here’s a very WTF bug though. I ran into it last night and figured it was just me, or I’d boned something up. I have a bunch of shell scripts that do SSH port forwards for accessing network appliances and infrastructure behind lock and key. Half of them stopped working on me, failing to resolve their respective hosts. How strange. Amusingly Brandon was complaining of basically the same problem this morning so we decided to take a look.

Some how OS X’s resolver library is no longer checking any hostname with a dot in it against the /etc/resolv.conf search directive in 10.7. Seriously. Let’s say I have a server called admin.omghi2u.com. My /etc/resolv.conf (and OS X network control panel) contain omghi2u.com in the search field. Surely, we can resolve (ping, ssh, web browse, whatever) to ‘admin’ since it can match that as admin.omghi2u.com. Cool. Now normally, in UNIX (heck even Windows land!) if I had admin.tor.omghi2u.com and admin.chi.omghi2u.com, simply hitting ‘admin.tor’ or ‘admin.chi’ would match the omghi2u.com hostnames. Not the case in 10.7. Something is clearly broken in the resolver in libSystem. Oddly despite being linked to the same library, the host command still functions properly… Maybe the search logic is handled by the command itself…

While it’s a simple bug fix, its an annoying oversight on Apples part. Breaking basic UNIX networking functionality is kinda shameful.

UPDATE (JULY 26th): Head over to Brandon’s site for a fix!

The deli experience, at home!

Tonights nights dinner was a real easy one, and one any lovers of deli food give a go! Nothing beats a good corned beef sandwich, a strong mustard, flavourful rye bread and a garlicy pickle. I admit I didn’t beat any of my favourite delis, but it was good (and simple!) enough that I intend to repeat this as often as my health allows!

So I bought a brisket that was brine soaked and rubbed with a bit of garlic, thyme, rosemary and bay leaves. The directions on the packet recommend a 2-3 hour boil and serve, but I felt like improving upon that.

Step one was to fill the crock pot with a little water and quarter four cooking onions. The onions will give our roast a nice flavour, and will provide a nice side of onions we can serve as well.

Searing the brisket

Next we need to sear the meat. A stainless steel or cast iron pan, a tiny bit of cooking oil to prevent it from sticking, medium-high heat. You really want it to smoke and char a bit on each side, to seal in the delicious juices. Once you’ve covered all the sides, toss it into the crock pot fat cap up.

Thats basically it. Not a lot of prep work since this bad-boy came pre-rubbed. Top it up with water so the top of the brisket is covered. Set the crock pot to low-heat and 10 hours. Goto work or similarly kill time, I personally couldn’t sit around smelling a roast cook all day…

Falls apart!

Upon returning to work I fired up my vegetable steamer and loaded up a variety of cute little squashes, low water, 15 minutes.

I took the brisket out using two wooden spoons and plopped it onto my cutting board. Using a sharp knife I made many cuts across it, sorta mashing it up as I go.  The 10 hours of cooking will make it pretty much collagen free, there won’t be any toughness to speak of, it’ll basically fall apart. Plop it on your favourite fresh rye and slater on a strong enough mustard to put hair on your chest, French’s mustard need not apply. Dress the plate with a few garlicy pickles, and add on a serving of our squash and beef flavoured onions. Sauerkraut on the side would have worked well too!

I wouldn’t normally document such a simple recipe, but it really turned out excellent. The brisket is definitely one of my favourite cuts, and corned beef deli sandwiches are a treat! Enjoy and eat more beef!

BMW of the 70s was a much different company than the BMW of 2011. BMW had two platforms, the ‘New class’ including the famous 1600 sedan and 2002 coupe and the ‘New six’ which featured the larger 3.0 sedan and 3.0CSi coupes. Basically four product lines, with different engines, equipment and suspension gear within the model range. BMW didn’t even have any dealers in North America until sales of the independently imported 2002 were far better than expected. Apparently people loved the idea of sporty four seaters!

By the end of the 70s BMW had renumbered to their now iconic schema: the New class was forked into the 3-series and 5-series, the New six forked into the 6-series and 7-series. Starting with the E21 3-series compact coupes and sedans, the E12 5-series mid-sized sedan, the E24 6-series coupe, and the E23 7-series full sized sedan. The BMW brand began to grow.

Things changed over times. Everything grew. The 6-series was once a 7-series coupe, but when it was reintroduced in 2004, it was a 5-series coupe. BMW released a few sports cars, the M1 at the end of the 70s, the Z1 at the end of the 80s, the 8-series (a 7-series coupe again) in the 90s, the Z3 at the end of the 90s, and the Z4 in the early 2000s. BMW remained true to its target market the entire time, the best handling and thusly most enjoyable drives in their markets. The 3-series sedan and coupe was always BMWs bread and butter, the popularity and sales of BMW was at an all time high.

The BMW brand is one of the most valuable brands in the world, automotive or otherwise, so you can’t blame BMW for wanting to expand their brand. It began in the early 2000s with the X5, the least sporty car BMW had ever built. It sold gangbusters. Go forward 10 years and BMW sells an X1, an X3, an X5 and an X6 and a 5-series GT (yet another crossover thing) all cars panned by BMW’s original driver centric market. The X6 is a “sports coupe” that weighs as much as a small bus with a center of gravity to match, they even make an M model (remember when the M badge represented a car built, even just engineered by BMW M and not just shit bolted on?), what a joke… As of 2011 BMW now sells 11 distinct lines in our market…

Things looked good when BMW released the 1-series coupe in the North American market. A smaller (though not nearly light enough) sportier car at a lower price point, and as of 2011 BMW even has a 1-series M coupe. Perhaps there is hope after all? Perhaps not. Seems BMW wants to redefine the 1-series brand already. They intend to fork the 1-series coupe we know as the 2-series (more on that later) by 2013, and relaunch the 1-series as a front-wheel drive car (i.e. a stretched Mini platform) to be better aligned with the Audi A3. Thats right BMW is going to sell a front wheel drive car under the BMW brand. Why? Because the BMW brand is worth its weight in platinum, and a BMW badged Mini will sell better and for a higher price than a Mini badged one.

Next up is BMW’s decision to rebrand the 3-series coupe as the 4-series… That’s right, the car known as the 3-series coupe since 1975 will now be called the 4-series. Why? Not entirely sure. The 3-series coupe has always demanded a premium price over the sedan, and maybe BMW wants to give warm fuzzies to the brainless luxury target market they so love for spending an extra $10k to lose 2 doors and gain a better suspension… This action will ruin any residuals on existing 3-series coupes, confuse customers and obliterates 35+ years of heritage.

BMW? Do you remember what made your cars better than the cheaper, more reliable Lexus of the 90s? They were fun to drive. Why are so many 3, 5, 7 and all the X cars 4WD now?

BMW? Do you remember what made your cars better than the cheaper and faster Infiniti’s of the 2000s? They were more fun to drive. Why are you releasing a FWD 1-series and telling my the X6 is the evolution of the sports car?

Here’s the thing BMW, you are losing what made your brand awesome. I know things are doing great now, BMWs are selling better than ever. I can’t blame a company trying to obtain more money, that is their obligation to their shareholders. The problem is, the further you get away from what made you awesome, the closer you get to the competition. Look at cars up until the 200s, Audi made the most utterly boring cars on the planet, but have you seen the new S5? Gorgeous! Merc made slushy luxury cars, but look at the current C-class, and of course C63 AMG and SLS AMG, I mean come on! Fantastic cars. Look at Lexus, king of the sofas on wheels, they even have an M3 fighter in the IS-F… Infiniti is slowly eating out the bottom of the 3/C/A4 segment too, offering near 335i performance at 128i prices.

The further BMW gets away from its roots, the closer the competition seems to get to BMWs roots. The brand won’t stay strong on its own forever. This current obsession with 10+ distinct product lines has been tried before, look at what happened to all the American brands… Amusingly of all of the current 11 product lines, there isn’t a single car I like as much as the BMW I have and the one I had before that… Sure you can blame the fuel economy movement for the boring-up of the new M5 and M6 and surely the next M3s… How long before a 4WD M5 or even M3… Might as well buy an RS5 at that point, it certainly looks better!

Enough with the rant, I’ll leave you this video of Chris Harris slinging the new 1-series M and the Cayman R around.  Enjoy!

Bunapi mushrooms wrapped with sirloin, delicious!

I was out taking my mom grocery shopping at her favourite local organic market (Organic Garage) one Saturday aftertoon, and we came upon this cute package of mushrooms labeled as ‘bunapi’ mushrooms. They looked to be similar to enokis but a bit bigger, and a brief iPhone googling lead me to believe they would be delicious, so into the shopping cart they went. They grow in clusters and like enokis you discard the tough flavourless base and eat the stocks and heads.

One of my favourite recipes is enoki mushrooms wrapped in beef, so I set out to replicate this using these slightly larger, more flavoursome mushrooms. I hit up the supermarket in the morning and perused the beef section. There are lots of different types of thinly sliced beef readily available, but I chose sirloin for its extremely tender texture instead of a more flavoursome but potentially tougher cut.  I also picked up purple asparagus and fresh yellow potatoes. Had I not had fresh baby garlic and chives (optional) from the garden I would have picked these up too. Regular garlic would work too, but don’t go overboard, you don’t want to overpower the rather delicate mushrooms.

An epic combination in the making

I began by boiling my quartered potatoes, and steaming my purple asparagus in the same pot. This is a technique I like mostly to save stove space, and thankfully unlike many purple vegetables, purple asparagus is color-fast and doesn’t stain the potatoes below it. Purple asparagus does not need as much cooking time as regular asparagus as it is already more tender to begin with, and excessive cooking will remove the purple color. As an aside, white asparagus requires special preparation and almost 2x the cooking of green asparagus, where as purple is the exact opposite. Definitely the best asparagus if you can get it when it’s in season! The asparagus will be done before the potatoes, just test it with a fork, but both will be done before everything else.

Sautéing our bunapis

We begin by cutting away the base of the mushroom cluster off and throwing it away. Separate all the little mushrooms and put them in our pan. Next we can start sautéing our bunapis in a bit of cooking oil like canola or sunflower, nothing too flavoursome though. Medium-high heat (6/10) but not too long, just a couple minutes. We don’t want to over cook them, they should wilt a bit without destroying their texture. Add in your garlic and chives and continue to sauté for another couple minutes. Again you want the mushrooms soft but not overcooked, eat one and test :) Take them off the heat and put them in a bowl to cool for later.

Fryin' steaks... many steaks...

Next I fried my sirloins on the stove, and I think that this is the weak point of this recipe. Had I had access to a barbecue, or better yet a hibachi grill, I think the crispy texture of the meat would have aided the overall dish. (That’s high rise living for ya) Either way you cook them, high heat (8/10 on the stove) and just a minute on each side, you don’t want to dry the meat out. I rubbed them down with paper towel when they were done to remove any excess oil, the sirloin is a pretty lean meat on its own. It wont be pleasant to eat (since it is finger food!) if the outside is too greasy after all… I didn’t season the meat at all, again we don’t want to overpower our delicate filling.

Roll one up homie!

Once our steaks are cook enough to touch, we can begin rolling our wraps. Put a decent amount of the filling inside, and arrange some mushroom heads to point out at least one (if not both) of the sides. Roll the meat tightly and then tooth pick them closed and you’re done! Put a couple on a plate with some potatoes and asparagus and serve while its all still warm.

It’s delicious, easy and quick! The bunapis are sweet and delicate, you don’t want to over season them. I would definitely recommend using a grill instead of a frying pan, but either way it was a hit. Roll some up today, you’ll love ‘em!

Epic win!