5 Thoughts for August 6, 2015

1. I got my Bonavita BV1500TS, which I had ordered two weeks ago, today. Although Woot had a delay in sending it out to me, perhaps because I sent an email asking if they were planning to mail it to me anytime soon, they sent it overnight, which made me a happy customer. I ran it through the cleaning process (three brewings of water to pull out chemicals from manufacturing), ground up some 100% Kona coffee beans, and brewed me a full batch. So, you know how the first time you taste french press you realize that coffee can taste very different depending on how it is brewed? Well, I had the same "wow" moment when I took that first sip. When I pulled the brew basket off, I could see that the process was very different from my drip coffee -- with the drip coffee maker, water fills the basket and grind, and the grind ends up climbing the sides of the filter, when done, whereas this pour-over model leaves the grind in place, but is fully saturated with water nonetheless (no dry grind). Via Woot, it was $90, which was a big savings from the normal $128 price tag. Max brew is 25 ounces, which is either (2) Starbucks tall cups or (3) Starbucks short cups.
2. People are heaping praise onto Microsoft's Edge browser that is included with Windows 10. I don't care for it, and here's why: It remains selectively supportive of CSS3 and HTML5, preventing it from running many websites with rich media coding. That's a complicated way of saying that Edge doesn't work with Google Music, or Google Drive. It doesn't work with some Apple-related sites, too. If they want to stub their own toe, that's their choice I suppose.
3. Sticking with Microsoft, I saw that Microsoft does not include native support for DVD playback in Windows 10 -- you need to pay $15 for an app via Microsoft, that essentially pays for all of the patent royalties required. The thing about this, is that if it hadn't come out in the news, I wouldn't have known about it, because I haven't used any OEM software to play DVDs since 2006 or so -- I strictly only use VLC. VLC handles just about every audio and video format that you can think of, which was never true of anything Microsoft pushed out (think Media Player). Just about every tech website will recommend VLC.
4. Last week I rushed in to get my DEQ certificate and renew my vehicle's registration. I drove out to the westside location at NW Cornelius Pass Road and HWY 26, and was about to drive into the line when I realized that I forgot to bring my credit card; I'd popped in my Google Wallet debit card, but not my CC. The thing is, I keep my Google Wallet balance low, so as to limit any stolen money, were something to happen. I pulled to the side, pulled my phone out, added money to my debit card via the Wallet app, drove back into the line, waited, got the test completed, and paid with my Wallet card. Not a bad way to go.
5. Trump won the debate, but not in the way I expected. I thought that someone from the middle tier would attempt to do a frontal assault on Trump, allowing him to break out and create a scene. Instead, it was Fox News that was responsible. Start with the first question, on whether each candidate was willing to pledge to support the GOP nominee and not run as an independent. That question allowed Trump to show that rather than blindly follow the party line, he would make a decision based on his principles while making everyone else look like lemmings. Then, through the course of the debate the Fox News moderators did Trump a favor by repeatedly questioning the validity of his opinions. You don't question the validity of a person's opinion, when he has become the lightning rod for those who hate having their own opinions questioned. What you do is... (sorry, I'm not revealing this for another six months).