Comments on: Stuff

By: Bryan

Bryan — Sun, 31 Mar 2013 05:33:42 +0000

That’s strange, because I don’t specifically remember doing anything other than installing Ubuntu. I must have specified the language at some point, but that may have been when I downloaded the CD image. It has always worked properly for me.

Ghosts in the machine…

By: Steve Bates

Steve Bates — Sun, 31 Mar 2013 05:05:29 +0000

Bryan, FWIW, this Firefox for Linux did come with the UK dictionary as the default, but I made a point of going to the Mozilla site and downloading the only American English dictionary available, and installing it manually and pointing Firefox to it… and I could see by users’ comments on the Mozilla site that I am not the only one who thinks the maker of that dictionary never spent a day in America, or at least not at an American school.

By: Bryan

Bryan — Sat, 30 Mar 2013 21:56:19 +0000

You can get something called Moon pies, but only around Mardi Gras and they aren’t the same as we remember. Everything has been polluted by high-fructose corn syrup replacing cane sugar.

We have a few Mexican markets opening, but you still can’t get a decent burrito or taco in this town.

Yes, most cultures won’t put up with what has been done to ‘food’ in this country. They want the real thing so they can flavor it the way they want and not accept what a company has decided it should taste like.

Bad food is bad, no matter where it’s cooked, but if your only experience with the food of a particular culture is badly cooked dishes, you aren’t apt to want to try it again.

By: Badtux

Badtux — Sat, 30 Mar 2013 05:34:12 +0000

One of the things I like about living where I am is the wide variety of ethnic groceries where you can still buy “real” food. For example, if I want “real” Coca Cola, made with real cane sugar to the old recipe, I can go to the local Mexican grocer and… gosh darn it, there it is, in the classic *glass* bottle like Coke is supposed to come in!

Unfortunately I’m not a big fan of Indian food (probably comes from being roomies with an Indian dude who was a really bad cook back during my college days, to this day the smell of curry powder literally makes me as nauseous as his food did, did I mention that he was a *really* bad cook?!) but the closest ethnic grocers are Indian grocers. Oh well. At least they are a good source of rice, and with the “Big Lots” store next door to them that sells beans in big lots, well.

Bryan, two words for something that I can’t get out here, and that you probably can’t get there anymore either: Moon pies. Sigh.

By: Bryan

Bryan — Fri, 29 Mar 2013 02:38:56 +0000

You can get straight cocoa powder from Hershey’s, which is generally used in cooking. That is all you will find in most of Latin America, no sugar included, just like coffee, if you order it in a restaurant or food stall. Some version have various peppers in them to ‘heat’ them up fo r local tastes.

By: Kryten42

Kryten42 — Thu, 28 Mar 2013 22:21:38 +0000

I much prefer dark chocolate (REAL cacao based chocolate I mean). Mmmm! Especially being a diabetic since the standard Cadbury type *chocolate* is 50-60% sugar!

Actually, I just had a piece of one of my favorites. Lindt & Sprungli’s Strawberry Intense. Sooooo good! It’s 50% cocoa, 5% freeze-dried strawberry, & 12% sugar. I usually have the 75% or 80% cocoa chocolate, and like the bitter taste. But now and then I like something a little sweeter. 🙂

Took me awhile to find the perfect drinking *chocolate*! Droste Cacao from Holland. The ingredients on the label state: cocoa powder. That’s it! 0% sugar. Yumm! Not 60-70% sugar like Nestle or Cadbury!

By: Bryan

Bryan — Thu, 28 Mar 2013 21:21:42 +0000

Steve, this is the Linux version and it doesn’t exhibit the problem you mention. If you right click in a text field and select Languages you may find that the English UK dictionary is the default, instead of the English US. The UK version comes first on the list.

By: Bryan

Bryan — Thu, 28 Mar 2013 21:03:49 +0000

Actually the problem is that Kraft foods took over Cadbury and has been turning it into an undifferentiated blah since the seizure. Efficient food processing costs everything thing it touches a loss of nuance, and eventually the traditional corporate cardboard flavor.

After the emphasis is placed on corporate profits and the stock market is of more interest than the market for their products, the products and customers lose. New Coke is the clearest example of this corporate Alzheimer’s.

PJ, it is a curse to be a ‘brat’ living in South Fundistan. We got used to things that most of the country didn’t know existed, and then they disappeared during corporate take-overs.

Kryten, I didn’t say it was good chocolate, but it was good milk chocolate before Kraft took over.

Steve, the Russians have to keep things simple as they don’t have the technology to make things efficiently … yet. Shokolad [Шоколад] is normally semisweet and dark. They do make milk chocolate [Молочный Шоколад] but it is usually overly sweet and designed for children. Actually, if there is a child on the label it is almost guaranteed to be milk chocolate, and you shouldn’t even smell it. [think sweetened condensed milk with Hershey’s syrup in it.] [There must have been a mistake, because my version of the FF spelling checker doesn’t do that. I’ll check the Linux version and let you know.]

By: Steve Bates

Steve Bates — Thu, 28 Mar 2013 20:14:13 +0000

Fortunately, Houston has the Russian General Store. If I ignore the fact that I can’t make heads or tails of the Cyrillic labels and just buy the stuff (there are several brands), I often end up with very respectable chocolate at a very reasonable price. Those who like milk chocolate need not apply; this stuff is all dark and very intense.

(Did the guy who constructed the US English spell checker for Firefox even attend school in the US? You wouldn’t think so: flavour, tumour, rumour, etc. all pass; their American equivalents don’t. Some free s/w is junk s/w.)

By: Kryten42

Kryten42 — Thu, 28 Mar 2013 17:41:43 +0000

I went to the local discount supermarket last week to get some Easter chockies for the kids, and was appalled at the insane prices Cadbury’s have for their garbage! They were charging $10 for (what they laughingly call chocolate) Easter products, that when you look at the equivalent *normal* garbage range (comparing by weight) is about $2.50 (still too high IMHO)! Talk about pillaging! I think they have decided that Easter is when they get payback for their lousy Xmas sales.

Thankfully though, Aldi opened a store nearby in October, and their Easter range is much more reasonably priced, and tastes better too! Too bad most of the money goes to Germany… (though, all their products are made using Aus suppliers and manufacturers at least, but they pay a pittance for them!). *shrug*