At any rate, some coffee related stuff:

1) The nuptial gift was a Capresso MT500 with reusable gold cone filter.  This is a pretty nice coffee making machine.  The advantages over the MT600 glass model, from my research include: 1) a stainless thermal carafe, 2) fully stainless heating element system, & 3) a Portuguese temperament

I’m not actually sure if the  MT500 model vs the Chinese constructed MG600 makes much of a difference, but according to Amazon reviews it does, and there’s over 300 reviews between them so I figure better to go with the older Portuguese made model.

Capresso MT500 Coffee Maker

I finally ordered my Hario Mini Mill Slim hand grinder.  The nice old Pe De C’ bought me for nuptials has worked well but basically the burrs are not tight enough except for certain blends of espresso, I needed more leeway and precision on the finer burr settings.  I usually don’t make more than a couple of double shots a day so I figure the Mini Mill and its ceramic burr set should be perfect and as a bonus I can travel with it.

Hario Mini Mill Slim Hand Grinder

I’ve been measuring the shots on the Gaggia Classic with an instant read thermometer.  About 30 seconds after the right hand brew temp light comes back on gives the highest brew temperatures, usually in the 180’s °F.  I need to either PID the machine or buy a new higher temp thermostat if I want 192 °F in my demitasse. Though the PID may get my starting brew temperature more consistent, supposedly the problem with these small single boiler machines is that they don’t have enough volume @n temperature to maintain a full 30″ shot at 201 °F (or @whatever you’re dialing in your espresso). A Swedish fellow from Stockholm managed to build his own heat exchanger / pre-heating coil using aluminum billet, to help the Gaggia maintain the temperature throughout the shot, you can read about it on Home-Barista.com.  I am not sure to what lengths I’ll go for that perfect shot.

DIY Gaggia Classic Heat Exchanger

Gaggia Classic PID @ Auberins

PS Audio PerfectWave DAC

]]> http://www.marybicycles.com/quick-thoughts/feed/ 0 http://www.marybicycles.com/os-x-and-the-cat-command-for-appending-sequential-zip-files/ http://www.marybicycles.com/os-x-and-the-cat-command-for-appending-sequential-zip-files/#comments Thu, 03 Jun 2010 02:12:37 +0000 Mark Beattie http://www.marybicycles.com/?p=753 For whatever reason there is certain a level of incompatibility between various .zip (archive) file formats among various operating systems today.  It’s certainly not that you won’t be able to access any file type on any given system, as there are many tools to do so, mostly it’s a question of how many hoops you have to jump through.

Specifically, I had a sequential .zip file that was in multiple chunks where the first file ends in something like:

zzzzzz.zip.001.zip

And the next files in sequence look like this:

zzzzzz.002
zzzzzz.003

OS X comes with a couple of utilities for archives but neither seem to be able to handle this particular sequence (especially if it is AES256 encoded with a password).  There is a $20 piece of software called BetterZip that has no problem with any type I gave it, however, I found a free utility called The Unarchiver which seems to be an excellent replacement for the OS X native ‘BOMArchiveHelper.app‘ and if you use the *nix ‘cat‘ command (see: Concatenation) you can append the sequential files all into one and The Unarchiver will work fine.

Open the Terminal in OS X, red is what you type, assuming all the files you want to append are in your home directory:

computer:~user$ cat zzzzzz.zip.001.zip zzzzzz.002 zzzzzz.003 > onebigfile.zip

Where onebigfile.zip is your new appended file, ready to be unarchived.  I’m sure they teach this to preschoolers in *nix 101, in fact I think there is a book out now called Linux For Lilliputian Lads, but I found it useful.

I’ll be doing a writeup soon of the re-foaming process of my Advent Heritage speakers, they sound better now.

To get to the beaches, you must take a long tail boat from either Krabi town or the beach town of Ao Nang. The boats are so named because they have externally mounted vintage car engines with no mufflers (ie they’re very loud) welded to an exceedingly long propeller which allows the boat to be propelled and turned in extremely shallow tides and shoals.

Usually you can fit eight or ten or twelve passengers in these smaller longtails and during normal hours with the nominal six riders it’s 80 Baht per person. We paid 100 TB each our first night when arriving after sunset as it does become more troublesome at night with no lights or channel markers.

Tonight getting back from Ao Nang (the only ATM on the peninsula was out of service and we needed more cash, plus we were taking a rest day from climbing after too many pumpy overhanging routes) just before sunset it was low tide, so we had an epic 400 meter wade out into the Andaman Sea, well over knee high, before flinging ourselves into the low bottomed boat while the Thai operator pulled anchor. Pulling into Tonsai beach, the low tide exposed hundreds of meters of rocky bottom jutting up. The boat operators had dredged a channel but it was still a long muddy walk to get to shore. The Australian in our boat with the rollig suitcase did not look pleased; nor did the couple with a giant baby stroller getting out of another boat. Given that there are no paved roads or sidewalks on Tonsai, it will likely prove less than useful.

Hong Kong: escalators, Prada, Swiss watches, green hills, pedestrian skyways, luxury cars, century egg congee, pork in everything, multi-modal public transport, double decker trams (street cars) aka “ding dings”, and ever more shopping malls

Macao: Christmas decorations, corrugated aluminum roofs, many Chinese tourists with large Digital SLRs who don’t speak Portuguese, tasty egg custard tarts, gaudy Vegas style Casinos, and high speed hydrofoil ferries

Kuala Lumpur: Scooters, heat and sweat, delicious street food, spicy street food, dangerous traffic patterns, lack of pedestrian rights, multi-ethnicity and religious co-existence, no shoes indoors, cheeky monkeys, and iced coconut juice

View from Stanley pier, HK

Christmas decorations at St. Paul's ruins, Macao

Staircase, Macao

Grand Lisboa hotel & casino, Macao

Zoe in purple at the Masjid Negara

Malaysian street food in KL

Hindu vendor, Batu Caves

View of KL from Batu Caves

As far as I can tell these do not exist on the internet and I think they are an older version of the Bodum Assam 2oz shot glass.  The glass I’d been searching for was from a specialty coffee distributor called Rattleware who make a 3oz mini shot pitcher, but these insulated Bodums (with a silicone pressure regulation seal at the bottom, no less) appear perfect for pulling up to 3oz shots and are certainly nicer to drink espresso out of.

Bodum Assam 2oz: the version I bought has parallel straight glass walls and two 1oz interval markings, allowing up to 3oz total volume

Rattleware 3oz Mini Shot Pitcher