While I'm thinking of it, I should also mention that I (finally) got around to creating an RSS feed for Goats. It was an interesting process. I've vaguely followed the history/process of this for the past few years, but since I didn't use an aggregator, and we weren't really a "news" site,I didn't sweat it too much.

Additionally, one requirement I had for myself was that I really wanted it to be a flat text file, and not created dynamically at each request. Aggregators use a polling model, and while bandwidth isn't really an issue for us, I didn't feel like wasting the memory/CPU cycles to create a dynamic file for each request when I know that we only update once or twice a day...if that. Most times, aggregators only want to check the last-modified date on a file, and there's no point in collecting all the info from the database for just that one piece of data. (Never mind that re-implementing E-Tags, etc. would be a hassle). The problem with a flat file is that we have multiple web servers, so when I create a file on our back end machine I need to get it out to the ones the world sees before its actually useful.

You may wonder, of course, how we're using Movable Type for these personal blogs then, since it would cause the same problems. Which is exactly what spurred me to finally solve them and create a Perl module that runs inside a daemon checking for some specific sets of changes every minute so that it knows to rsync them to the live machines. Once I had that, it all finally was workable.

I commented on some of the further issues,and why I chose to use "funky" RSS instead of vanilla 2.0 in the news post announcing this.

Friday's decision will also impose a substantial surcharge on hard drive-based music players such as Apple Computer's iPod or the new Samsung Napster player for the first time. MP3 players with up to 10GB of memory will have an added levy of $15 added to their price, while larger players will see $25 added on top of the wholesale price.

MP3 players with less than 1GB of memory will have only a $2 surcharge added to their cost.

However, it also mentions that they specifically don't want to tax computer hard drives.

Now, if I were Apple,or some other MP3 player manufacturer, I would be starting to look at designing a device with swappable memory. Wouldn't it be nifty if all iPods were suddenly priced at $200 with 256MB of memory, but I could purchase a separate hard drive that could replace the internal memory easily...or even swap out multiple hard drives (with my current 60G of music, I could kind of use that anyway). What does Canada propose to do with multi-purpose generic storage devices?

In reality, while the $25 fee is a pretty significant percentage of even a large iPods price, I expect Apple to be the last to adopt this kind of system. They've (read: Steve Jobs) never been big on expansion, and they probably wouldn't be able to competitively price the hard drives. Toshiba would pretty much own that market, taking a lot of Apple's current pricing power away.

People think I'm a good cook.

They're wrong.

One of the shows I really enjoy watching is Alton Brown's Good Eats. Other shows on the Food Network tend to focus on recipes and putting together meals. While that's all fine and good, it's like being a contractor to the Good Eats architect. Alton tends to focus on techniques and the qualities that specific foods have. Instead of just following a blueprint that you're given, he gives you the theory and techniques behind that blueprint so that eventually you can do (some of) your own design as well.

While I'm nowhere near that point, even when I'm just following recipes, it helps me understand why I do things instead of just blindly following the recipe. That means that I know where to be a slacker, and where to pay attention. The programmer within me appreciates that.

The most useful companion to his show and the recipes therein is the Good Eats Fan Page. Reading the transcript associated with a recipe is like reading the novel associated with Cliff's Notes. The Food Network,or Alton, should pay this guy for the invaluable service he provides.

This year I helped my brother to make the Good Eats Roast Turkey (transcript). I brought a Sour Cream Cheesecake (transcript) (although it really needs to have cinnamon graham crackers instead of plain...but that might be just me).

However, what I enjoyed best was bringing the oatmeal chocolate chip cookies that I make. This is where Good Eats really shines. The basis for the recipe was originally off the back of a package of Nestlés milk chocolate chips. While the cookies were tasty, they were flat and uninspiring. I used the principles he talked about in his cookie episode to make them puffier and chewier. I wouldn't have even known how to start doing that if it wasn't for him. At some point I should actually post what I came up with so that those with more talent can improve them even more.