Rant 123 2/5/12 Subject: Pointless updates

Rant number 123


I have been a member of Blogger, the blogging site that you are reading this upon (original name that isn't it, a blogging site called blogger... I wonder where the ger bit comes from though) for exactly 123 days. I know this, because today is just past the 1/3 marker of my mission.

Much to my surprise, blogger a couple of days ago decided to move me from their classic interface (the one in used to) to the new interface.
To the best of my knowledge, there is nothing particularly new to the new interface. It just looks well, different.

So why bother? why bother at all?

The answer I presume that Blogger would give me is that it adds functionality in areas that I don't use.
That's fine I suppose, but that being in mind - can I not stick to what I like for now until one of those features I want present themselves? Surely that is not a problem?

Facebook is a prime example of this - in fact far more so than Blogger (who are currently still allowing me to use the interface... for now.)

Since I started using Facebook, it's gone through multiple iterations. First they tinker with one part, then another one, then another (and so on ad nauseum.)
Each time people complain and complain and protest, but to no avail.
Why do it? i hear you cry... Who knows, not this man certainly.

Now, to be fair to the Facebook pixies, it's a free service - so they can do whatever they want. I must admit though it's lost on me.

Fundamentally, the question lies:
Have they made Facebook better.
The answer is: no

Why fix it if its not broken?

Rant over

Rant 105 14/4/12 Subject: Recipes

Rant number 105

Today, as a treat for the wife for having to work overtime on a Saturday, I thought I would cook her something new as a treat.

Having watched 'Man Vs Food' earlier on, I decided to make her some American Style pancakes.

The problem with this of course was that I didn't know how - so I set about finding a recipe.

Now when I was a kid and me and my mum were to want to make something we would choose from her modest collection of cookbooks - professionally written and generally trustworthy.

These days though, things are a bit more complex. If you want a recipe and you (like me) don't have many recipe books you only have two choices : phone your mum or go online.

I chose the latter.

A quick google search brought up about 50,000 versions of the recipe I needed - I felt like I was on the home straight - I really did.

I wasn't though.

Firstly, I needed to choose one of them from all the options available.

Which is the thing about Internet recipes: everyone can do it better than everyone else. How the hell do you choose from the thousands of iterations? The best picture, the best write up, the one with the silliest name? There are endless options.

Then, once you've chosen one, you've got to work out how to follow the recipe properly.

Even something simple like quantities can be confusing. Milk for instance can be measured in cups, fluid ounces and millilitres to name a few.

Then there are ambiguous instructions such as 'melt some butter, allow to to cool then mix in.' Cool how much, heat how much? It's a minefield.

Then, there is the fact that you never know if you've really done it right. My result today was very yummy, but I'm not sure if it was as it should have been. What a pain.

Bloody recipes

Rant over