‘Fresh Gordon’
26/04/2009 – in: food
How would Gordon Ramsay react if a team would cook using pre-packed food in Hell’s Kitchen? He would probably use the F word, many times…
I have never liked the way Gordon is bullying people in his show, shouting at them when the food is not meeting his expectations.
“Using fresh ingredients is the only way to guarantee a great taste and I can’t understand how on earth people can ignore fresh food.” said Ramsey in an interview for Channel 4.
The reality is that Foxtrot Oscar in Chelsea and 3 other pubs owned by Ramsay, serves pre-packed food from his factory in Wandsworth. The food is sold with a mark-up of 586 per cent. When you pay £11.25 for fish cakes , you expect it to be fresh so this is pretty much the same as lying to your customers. It might be a good lesson to Gordon, to feel how is it like to be bullied for not meeting your customers expectations.
Does anyone understand what this ‘CAPTCHA’ is saying?
20/04/2009 – in: Interaction Design
‘CAPTCHA’ is an interface element, designed to distinguish between human and a computer programme. A typical ‘CAPTCHA’ will ask the user to type in a word displayed in a distorted form. While I completely understand the fight against SPAM, some of these ‘CAPTCHAS’ are even getting difficult for humans to decipher. Trying to create a new account for Gmail will present you with a middle-heavyweight ‘CAPTCHA’ challenge which you can see in this post’s photo.
3 Comments | Tags: captha, challenge, gmailLa Crêperie de Hampstead
20/04/2009 – in: food
This crepe kiosk is quite a rare find in posh Hampstead. The crepes are great and it might be the best place to eat crepes in London. Now here is the challenge: try to get a smile from the staff… They work in a small booth and I can’t blame them for being impatient while having to serve a usually very long queue of people. I thought that Nutella and Banana is the deal until I tried the chocolate and banana and was enlightened by the power of crepe. They also serve savory crepes which makes the choice a bit harder. There is also a second branch in South Kensington, where you can order crepe and sit next to a table.
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The day I stopped watching ‘Lost’ (Lost.S05E13)
18/04/2009 – in: TV
There used to be times when I really liked watching ‘Lost’. This Television series follows the lives of plane crash survivors on a mysterious tropical island. The main message, in my opinion, is the way people deal with being ‘lost’. Some of us need religion to establish the framework for our existence while others try to work out the logic.
On the second and third seasons, I really liked the flashbacks to the characters’ past. My favorite episode was “The 23rd Psalm” when the Nigerian militia tries to force Mr. Eko’s brother, Yemi, to kill a man. Yemi can’t do it and Mr. Eko as a child, saves the life of his brother by shooting the man instead of him. Read more>>
Google Street View is here to stay.
14/04/2009 – in: Services
Google street view is a revolutionary service which enables you to see panoramic photos of streets in the United States, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, France, Italy, Spain, Australia, New Zealand and Japan (and the list is growing as this article is being written…)
Many people has raised their concerns over Google Street view, mainly because of privacy issues. Some embarrassing photos, captured by this service included a woman urinating next to a car, a man vomiting and individuals entering a sex shop. Read more>>
A Banana story
07/04/2009 – in: Art
I’ve come a long way from the sunny shores of my native land. Plucked, packed, snap, frozen…
Shipped away to a place where my colour is so foreign. Yet, I have become so commonplace.
Once exotic, I am now ubiquitous… Overlooked, underrated.
Yes, you can think about what it means to have me in your hand now, here, off-season but not too hard for I taste good of that I am proud.
I am a banana so eat me!
Puppetry courses at the Little Angel Theatre
05/04/2009 – in: Art
One of my friends is attending a puppetry course at the Little Angel Theatre and I was invited to see some work in progress. It was really amazing what can be done with simple techniques like silhouettes and paper cuts. My friend’s story was about an old woman who often goes to Harrods and can’t understand how the fruits are so fresh until she sneaks in to a private room and discover the secret…My favorite part was when tea bags were used as a time metaphor before each one of the journeys to Harrods as you can see in the picture.
Ruby is a wonder (Close to Old Street)
25/03/2009 – in: Restaurants
Ruby is a tiny cafe/takeaway which can get very busy during lunch time. It is one of a kind and I hope it will survive the competition with the chains like EAT and Pret who can offer lower prices but not the authentic taste. The food is made from simple ingredients and prepared in front of you. So what is cooking? Sandwiches with Chorizo, Chicken breast or steak, Pasta, Grilled haloumi with roasted vegetables, soups and more… The staff is working efficiently, helping each other and the food arrives quickly. The prices are very reasonable, around 5-7 pounds for a dish.
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One good thing about the iPhone…
23/03/2009 – in: Interaction Design
One good thing about the iPhone is the hard key for silence mode. This is such a highly used feature that it’s quite shocking that Nokia didn’t think about this before… On a Nokia phone you will have to select ‘Menu’ then ‘Profile’ and then ‘Silence’ – not so quick… Hard keys on mobiles are usually used for volume controls, taking a picture, on/off switch etc. The logic is that if you need to do something very frequently and quick, it should be available on the top level interface. There is a limit on how many hard keys you can put on a device so it is very important to prioritize what are the most likely to be used features.
The Paper Cinema
15/03/2009 – in: Art, Uncategorized
A cast of hand-drawn marionettes are magically brought to life by the Paper Cinema.It is amazing to see what can be done by using simple techniques like illustrated moon on a stick animated in real-time. It is quite an unusual way of viewing cinema which makes you think that there are unlimited possibilities without the need for stuntman and computer generated animation. This experience is very charming because of its simplicity. The characters movements are very basic but understandable and funny at times. The crowd applauded resoundingly, as if they were saying ‘Thank you for showing us something we haven’t seen for a long time’