50 beans | first encounter: francis! francis! Y1

A few years ago, illy came out with this new “iperespresso” machine that they dubbed the Y1 Touch (the first iteration had a manual button). The machine uses a capsule that was developed by illy, one that is supposed to extract the perfect amount of crema and deliver the “perfect” espresso. Of course, I do have lingering questions regarding freshness as the beans are pre-ground and tamped into the capsules before being sealed in cans and shipped out. These would be similar questions I would have for any Keurig or Nespresso system that also use pods. Eager to promote its new machine and espresso product, illy came out with the francis! francis! Y1 touch machine at a steeply discounted price of $75, with a multi-year subscription to their iperespresso capsules.

Although I was eager to test out the new machine, I couldn’t justify making such a large commitment to test out something that I had doubts about in the first place. Plus I had already committed to the Saeco Jura fully-automatic espresso machine a few years ago, so I wouldn’t be able to get another one. Well, this weekend while I was in Miami, the hotel I was staying at had a Y1 touch in the room. Alas, my chance had come to test this bad-boy out.

The design is pretty simple and easy to understand. The little tower is where the pod goes, and where the pressure is presumably generated. The overall look and appeal is nice, the brushed aluminum look with just the right amount of illy-red accents in the right places. For a subsidized $75 machine, this is pretty nice, especially when you consider that most machines like this run in the $200-500 range (I think the entry level nespresso might be $99, but it sure doesn’t look this nice). The one thing I did notice, was the lack of a cup-warmer. I know, this might not be a sticking point for most people, but the other illy machines come with it, so I would’ve expected this machine to include the same.

The machine is pretty self-explanatory, but just in case, an easy-to-understand instruction manual was provided to guide you through the process. The first step of course, is to turn on the machine and fill the tank with water. Of course, it was suggested to use bottled water (I like the fact that the coffee is free, but the bottle of water sitting next to the coffee is $10) – fortunately I had an extra bottle I picked up in the lobby at breakfast. I filled it up and got it ready to go.

My first impression was the ease of use – of course, any espresso pod system would pretty much have to have the same ease of use in order for it to be convenient enough to justify paying more for pods. This system was no other than the keurig or nespresso. Put in the pod, push a button, and once the espresso finished extraction, the pod disposes of itself. In this case, the pod is disposed upon opening it for the next one (similar to the nespresso).

The espresso itself was pretty tasty, it mitigated my concerns about freshness; however, the roast was a bit dark, especially compared to the lighter roasts that I’ve been getting accustomed to at some of the 3rd-waved cafés, though, still way better than any shot I’ve seen pulled at starbucks though. The crema is just right, which makes me think the capsule is probably rigged in a way that will generate the foam when it comes in contact with the oils (not 100% sure though). Overall pretty decent considering it was probably roasted and ground 3-5 months ago.

the closest i'll get to a new laptop for under $150...

Have you ever been in the situation where you like your trusty old laptop, but it kinda stopped being trusty? I would imagine most laptops get replaced after a few years as new technology comes out and things start acting funny on the older ones. Anyways, my (sometimes) trusty laptop started acting up about 6 months ago, and I was reluctant to replace it, mostly because I didn't really feel like shelling out the $$ for a new one.

I'm not entirely sure what an average lifetime is for a laptop, but my thinkpad x61s was in the 5-year-old range when it started acting up. It took the better part of 10min to boot-up (it used to take 5-7min – vista was never all that fast...), 25min in, the computer will want to restart and install some updates, then the update would fail for some reason, and it would revert back. It also didn't help that I had the laptop plugged in all the time with the battery in, so the battery life went from 6hrs average down to roughly 40min. Not to mention 80gb isn't really that big for a laptop anymore. Yep...this badboy was due for an upgrade.

This crackpot scheme started two weeks ago when fry's had a sale on laptop hard drives – 500gb SATA (5400rpm) for $39, which i guess is a good price? I picked it up, thinking at the very least i could swap out the drive. A quick peek at ebay confirmed that windows 7 goes for a decent price, and I hear good things about it (compared to vista – many things are said about vista too, none of which are repeatable in polite conversation), so i picked that up as well. Since i was on an upgrade roll, I got my hands on a few gb's of memory and ebayed a new laptop battery to boot.

Now here's the tricky part, actually opening things up. Oddly enough, there were two 1gb memory sticks in the laptop. Only one can be removed, so i swapped that one out. The drive was easy to remove, and the windows installation went in without a hitch. Here's the aggravating part. I spent the better part of 3 hours doing the upgrading part. Parts swapped, new OS installed, no problem. Then windows updater kicked in. =( 36 hours of updates later, and the laptop was finally ready to use.

The rest of the hardware couldn't really be upgraded (read: i was either inept or too lazy to look into how to do it), so even though the upgrades went in, the windows baseline performance indicator was still at a pedestrian 3.1 out of 7.9 (btw who the heck makes a scale from 1-7.9??). I can say that it runs much faster and with the new OS/drive/memory/battery, it's functioning better than it ever would have when I first got it. Hopefully it doesn't crap out for another 5 years... **fingers crossed**

50 beans | the canister

Hario's done it again: a new manual coffee mill. I came across this today on amazon while searching for a v60 pour-over dripper. The Hario coffee mill Canister C features the same recognizable Hario mill on the top (ceramic burr) mounted over a classic flip-lid glass container for storage. While the internal guts are probably the same as the lower-priced and more modern looking Hario Skerton (the mill I have), this mill does come with a decidedly classier look. While I haven't tried the Canister C, I'm almost sure that in addition to the amped up aesthetics, this is sure to feature some cool under-appreciated features like the skerton has, including being compatible with existing easy to find containers (the skerton is compatible with pint-sized mason jars). While the Canister C is priced considerable higher than the Skerton (considering the functionality is the same), the enhanced look does make it more appealing for some people who care about how their mill looks.

shaken awake

At work, we used to have this thing called Rewarding Action, which allowed managers to give out "points" for performance, which you can then use on the website to get prizes and stuff. Since the program recently got phased out, I had to use up all the points I had received over the last few years and buy random stuff before they closed down the site. One of the items I claimed was this thing called the iLuv, which is a pretty cool alarmclock ipod dock thing (though it seemed kinda sketchy since it started at 75pts and dropped down to 20). The coolest thing about this alarm, aside from the fact that the face doubles as a night light (which I don't need, cuz real men sleep in the pitch dark - so I'm told), is this little feature called the bed shaker.

Now, you may roll your eyes and say pshh, that's just a marketing ploy, that's not really gonna work. Wrong. It may be a marketing ploy, but it shook my jetlagged butt out of bed in a jiffy. See, this alarm comes with an attachment that you can put under your pillow or next to your face (probably not advised), and at the designated time, the alarm on the nightstand will blast 107.3 at the same time that your bed-shaker beeps and shakes the wrinkles out of your pillow (or your face - again, not advised). The shake (albeit slightly violent) helps motivate you to whack the snooze button with a little extra zip, and the speaker/shaker provide a little bit of david crowder to wake you up slowly (or Bublé, whatever floats your boat).

Weird? Sure. But I guess whatever gets me out of bed in the morning eh?

kindles, airborne.

apparently they now have kindle mounts for pilots

Taxi, take-offs, and landings. Those are pretty much the only time I spend on flights where the skymall magazine is ever relevant for me (skymall offers no good deals, ever). Well, relevant is a loosely applied term. Those are the only times when I ever flip open the pages of skymall. This is in part because of the FAA rule that bans electronics from the first and last 10 minutes of flights where you're taking off and landing. Oh, taxiing too. For some odd reason, it's believed that electronics can mess with the navigation system of an airplane. Personally I think it's a bit hoky to think that an ipod purchased from best buy could flummox a state-of-the-art avionics system on an airplane.

Well, now it looks like there's going to be some give on that policy. Recently, the FAA has allowed the use of ipads in the cockpit, as airlines are putting all flight manuals on ipads to save space in the cockpit. The NYT reports that the FAA is taking the initiative to look into relaxing the rule and allowing ipads and kindles for passengers to use. Of course, this will take some time, as apparently they have to actually test each individual device separately on a plane with no people, which could be kind of a waste of gas (although being able to bust this myth would be nice).

So, hopefully within the next few years, we'd have the option to listen to music while we peer out the window or read something other than skymall (if we're in the aisle seat). Hmm, maybe by the time this rule is relaxed, we'd be on the ipad 6 where you can track your plane's progress live while using the in-flight app on the airplane's free (yea right) wifi. Or maybe by then they'll have developed a system where it remotely controls our  approved electronics devices so that we'll only have the option of perusing the skymall magazine on kindles and ipads during taxi, take-offs, and landings.

Sadly, the second option seems more likely.

the supermechanical twine

My friend sent me this kickstarter link to this gadget this afternoon called the Twine. It’s a pretty cool idea, one that basically takes little things you wish you could do, and gives you the ability to do it. For instance, have you ever wondered if the FedEx guy really knocked on your door before just deciding to leave your package on the front porch? Well you simply attached the Twine to your door, and a sensor in the little device will sense knocking at the door, and send you an email saying that someone just knocked at the door. This way, you basically know when the FedEx guy actually came to your house instead of stalking your package online.

This device, created and peddled by two guys from MIT, has the ability to effectively link ordinary things to the internet. It’s pretty much the size of a post-it note pad, and syncs wirelessly to allow objects in your life to communicate with you. You can attach the Twine to your laundry machine so that when the accelerometer detects the vibration has stopped, it’ll send you an email saying your laundry is done. If you have a mouse at home, you can mount the Twine to the bottom of the mousetrap, so that the vibration of the spring trap will trigger an email message so you know exactly when something happened. The device syncs wireless to a web app that lets you set the parameters and the alerts that this generates. This thing can output anything from emails, twitter, and text to even more complicated http applications.



I suppose the possibilities are endless, and the Twine features an internal temperature sensor, an accelerometer, a magnetic switch, a moisture sensor, and a breakout board for plugging in any additional sensor you feel you may want. The practical applications for this could be anything! I have a funny feeling that eventually, production scales will help drive the price of these gadgets down so that people will be able to mount them on various things in our ever increasing desire for information. This gives you access to info you couldn’t really access before, things like knowing if someone knocked on your door when you were out at work or knowing if your kid opened the door to the pantry (magnetic switch sensor) after you told him no more cookies.

Right now the kickstarter no longer needs backers, but they have the twine on preorder, with an estimate ship date of March 2012. I know that early adopters always have to deal with the glitches and stuff, but this is actually one gadget that I’m definitely curious about checking out. I guess $99 is a bit steep for a gadget, but I have a feeling this is the start of something big.

the beast.

This is one of the craziest watches I’ve ever seen. The Casio Protrek is for the guy who tackles the outdoors every day and needs a tool that will keep him alive and moving. This watch not only looks awesome, it comes with every feature possible for a wrist watch. That includes a watch with world-time, compass, altimeter, barometer, thermometer, moon data, tide graph, stopwatch, 5 daily alarms, etc. It’ll go down to -10C or and has a high/low altitude memory. It’s 100m water resistant and will also auto-correct when you cross time zones. Oh, and it’s solar powered, and has a 6 month battery reserve in case you’re stuck at the bottom of the ocean or in some cave for 6 months or so. Of course…if you find yourself in that type of situation, being able to know the time in Hong Kong is kind of the least of your worries. Although it doesn’t say it, I’m going to assume it’s got some kind of shock resistance as well.

For a guy like me, that shock resistance probably isn’t going to matter that much. The only damage I’d ever do to this thing would be the occasional desk-diving scratches. Nevertheless, it’s pretty cool to see this watch in action. I can’t actually justify getting this, as I would feel embarrassed in the checkout line, seeing as I’m not exactly giving off the outdoorsy vibe. This is like the watch equivalent of the Swiss Army Champ pocket knife/beast, in which case, I would really be only using the screwdriver functionality.

All in all this is a crazy cool looking watch. No way would I get it as I wouldn’t know how to use it…but it’s pretty fun to see what kind of tool you can strap to your wrist now-a-days. Also, I guess the fact that owning a casio watch could be cause for detention at Guantanamo Bay doesn’t make this watch any more appealing to me either. So I suppose if you like it…get it at your own risk haha.

50 beans | new toy =)

Yess…it arrived today. As I carefully tore through the packaging, the box emerged amid a pool of Styrofoam peanuts and cotton balls (leave it up to the Japanese to devise weird packaging ideas…)

The Hario Skerton.

A 1lb amalgamation of glass, plastic, steel, and most important of all, a ceramic mill that grinds the beans to the perfect consistency. I had been on the market for a grinder for quite some time now, and wasn’t really sure which kind to get. I’ve been all over reviews from CoffeeGeek.com, coffeegrindersreviews.com, etc. and have pretty much narrowed it down to a conical ceramic burr, but I didn’t want to pay 200+ for an electric coffee grinder. Luckily, the Japanese have perfected a hand-cranked conical burr with ceramic parts and just about every coffee blog and reviewer has been raving about it. Time to see what all the fuss is about…