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Sarah Gilbert is a freelance financial writer; she keeps chickens; and she's a beginning urban farmer. She lives with her three small boys and husband in Portland, Oregon, and keeps her own blog, Cafe Mama.
It wasn't the fault of Rachael Ray's paisley scarf. I had given her up before the brouhaha even began. In fact, it had nothing to do with any scandals or raves involving the Food Network's roster (I enjoy Ray and adore Ina Garten, and have a typical foodie crush on Alton Brown, though I confess Sandra Lee makes me want to scream). It was my son Everett, for whom the presence of a television as the focal point of our living room was causing enormous issues.
One day, he and I had a huge blowup that ended with me calling Comcast and cutting our television services off entirely. As I waited on hold, I bit my lip and thought, "Iron Chef"? "30-Minute Meals"? "Barefoot Contessa"? What will I do without you? It wasn't meant as a punishment, but for my husband and me, it felt very much like one.
Two nights later (I'll allow that the first night was a disaster, as Everett was holding a widescreen grudge), I sat down on my couch with a couple of cookbooks, enjoying the quiet lists of ingredients as the baby nursed to sleep. I was thinking about crème fraîche, so I got out the cookbook that taught me the beauty of the French sour cream. I'd bought the book in college, when I was a sophomore and waiting for my scholarship monies to hit my account; my living expenses could only be collected as cash from the business office several weeks after the term began. In the meantime, I could only spend money on credit at the bookstore, and one day happened upon Sweet Basil, Garlic, Tomatoes, and Chives, by Diana Shaw.
I wasn't a vegetarian even in college (vegetarianism goes together with college students like steak au poivre goes with pommes Anna). But due to the aforementioned financial pressures, meat was a luxury, and I read and re-read every word Shaw wrote. Her stories about Provence and Tuscany marked my awakening as a foodie. Under "crème fraîche," Shaw had written, "It's my belief the French have attained culinary distinction largely by adding crème fraîche to dishes that would be unremarkable without it."
Now in my living room, some 15 years later, every page was the memory of a meal, a discovery, a passion. Creme Pesto — a sauce of four ingredients, one of which is crème fraîche — was so delicious, even on 79-cents-a-pound supermarket pasta, I made it every night until I'd used up all the Parmesan I could afford. I had cooked a frittata with potatoes and rosemary in my one very good pan.
Revisiting Shaw's anecdotes about her time as a young food writer traveling alone in France and Italy, again, connected me to the beauty and simplicity of authentic food.
Will I want to make Rachael Ray's sassy take on a croque-monsieur in 15 years? How timeless is her way with EVOO and a can of roasted red peppers? Why does she persist in bringing expensive, but ultimately bland, cuts of meat in their plastic-wrapped shells out of her fridge, modeling such a flawed model of eating?
Despite Ray's approachability and my general agreement with the concept that People Should Cook, she really represents much of what is wrong with American home cuisine. It's simplified, but not in the right ways; it's broken down into neat bits, so you can cook meals in 30 minutes without learning anything artful, and without really knowing anything about the ingredients.
In Ray's kitchen, the conversation isn't about what your chicken ate or how your tomatoes were grown or whether lettuce is actually in season. It's about how well can you approximate authentic food, how much can you balance, how quickly can you get it on the table, how cute can you be.
Shaw's food is not cute. Her food is life-altering, foundation-shaking, but quiet, almost lonely in its real-ness. She writes of how pronouncing "cece" (Italian for "chickpea") could mean life or death in 13th-century Sicily (the French supporters of Charles I couldn't get the hang of the "ch" sound). She writes of mushrooms as a symbol for the fate of a new marriage.
She writes, mostly, about taking pride in ingredients, in the things you make with your hands. She does not write about shortcuts. She writes about love, and food, and how those are just two ways of saying the same thing. "I love you," and "Here is my baked spinach with eggs and béchamel, my asparagus frittata, my ricotta cheesecake, here, for you" — these are identical phrases.
As I am reading about the couple on their honeymoon, the girl who would not eat her mushrooms, I cry, again. I have a baby sleeping on my lap and it is late, too late to find fresh local mushrooms and parsley to pair with the season's first garlic, my own cultured butter for Les Champignons a l'Ail; it is too early in the season to buy four pounds of ripe tomatoes for Sauce Tomate Crue; I do not have basil for that Creme Pesto.
But I have cream and I have buttermilk culture, and I lie the baby down in the bed and I pour a cup of cream into a bowl, a tablespoon of culture, I stir and cover it with a scrap of cotton cloth and I know that this meal will take far, far longer than 30 minutes. I must start now, tonight, I must travel back to the 13th century in my dreams, I must dive into this world in which the ages are fused into simple truths, in which sauces are mixed in a mortar and pestle, in which every ingredient has a story that cannot be told in a television set.
No, these stories must unfold slowly, over hours and days and generations, we must entwine our own history with someone who is not a brand, who could be nameless and faceless, the woman who said with conviction that her lentil soup was the best in town.
My crème fraîche is ready the next day, and I make a simple frittata of potatoes and greens and chèvre, in that same pan I used 15 years ago, stirring in a bit of of the rich sour cream. I eat it slowly, offering a bit on a fork to Monroe. He takes it between his thumb and finger, considers it, then pokes it between his lips. Yum-O.
Bravo! You have so eloquently captured the gist of the RR syndrome -- thank goodness someone finally had the chops to do it -- and with grace.
I agree with your sentiment on Ray and why do we want to take tradition out of dinnertime. We rush through life; why do we have to rush through dinner? I do not enjoy watching her anymore because of what she says and the phrases she's trying to coin. It's not some effortless attempt either to just throw a word out there as she would probably say it is. For instance ... When she says EVOO she says it so it will catch on (It did) and never did she say it as a shortcut. Most of the time she says "EVOO ... Extra Virgin Olive Oil" and it just makes me want to scream. Why use the initials if you are going to say what it is anyway!?! Did Emeril ever stop after saying BAM! to explain that he was saying BAM! as a form of excitement about pepping up his food? Of course not; he said it and just moved on. Also we get ridiculous things like Spoonula, Stoup, Delish, Yummers, Put it in the GB (Garbage Bowl), or just her simply saying MMMMMMMMMM after tasting everything. We also have to watch her carry the stuff from the counter without dropping it. I guess she thinks this will impress us. Why not just turn around and set the stuff on the counter by the stove. The kitchen can be unsafe enough already; we do not need to be showing our kids the wrong way to carry stuff in the kitchen. What if they tried to copy her and they were also carrying a knife? It could happen.
BTW: In closing, please don't deprive your child of the interaction of TV. I'm not talking about letting them spend hours in front of it. I speak from experience; if they are deprived of that interaction then it'll be like being deprived of sugar at home. The second they get old enough they will go to a friends and just binge on it. Getting rid of cable does not solve a problem and while I applaud you as a parent; life is hard enough for children as it is. If they do not have some level of familiarity with what their peers know about (nice) TV shows ... It's going to set them apart in a bad way. I'm not talking about conformity either. I'm talking about them having their own sense of belonging. Please reconsider and just use the parental controls to limit what they watch. That's just my 2 cents as a parent.
Anonymous, please, "the interaction of tv"? Not having a tv will set your children apart "in a bad way" and jeopardize "their own sense of belonging"?
My parents got rid of our television when we were kids and it was all good — we read, listened to music, played with the animals and each other, and spent a lot of time outdoors. Sure we watched tv at our friends house, even binged, but believe me I didn't feel like an outsider (then or now) when friends talked about Star Trek or Green Acres — I saw enough to get the references. And what would I have learned, really, from a steady diet of Bewitched? As an adult I've never seen Sex & The City, but I still have friends and don't suffer from feeling like an outsider.
Good for you, Sarah, for making such a bold move. Your writing made me hungry to put my hands on a copy of Diana Shaw's book and to try my hand at making creme fraiche.
I agree 100% Carrie ... but only for when you and I grew up. Things are so different now and it truly makes it an issue of Apples to Oranges. I won't make anymore parenting comments; I'm just giving my opinion based on what I've seen (as of lately) in regards to this and the ostracizing I've witnessed firsthand. You know there is one part of this equation I left out. It's the part where the kid could quite possibly feel some anger towards their parent. We talk about things like giving our children choices and on the flipside we talk about taking away the right to make a choice ... Who is right? ... Well I think it is safe to say we'll both agree to disagree. That maybe in some way we are both right.
I still say that we were all given the most important parental ability there is … The ability to apply limitations. Extremism won't solve a problem; it might make one worse. Suppose you needed the cable to get news about an impending natural disaster? Suppose there was a truly triumphant or heartbreakingly important moment caught on video. Suppose it was something momentous that changes life whether it is happy or sad. Without a connection such as the TV you'd have to rely on much dangerous forms of communication ... Computer for example. I embrace computing; but I approach it the same way I approach TV for my children; by exercising my judgment in a way that allows me to decide what is appropriate. Teaching them at the same time what is inappropriate. Will they ever truly get it before they in turn have children of their own? I can only hope.
Now back on subject ... I too will try to obtain a copy of that book. Thank you for opening another dialogue you never intended to open. It's nice to communicate with others and even disagree; and to be able to do it in such a mature fashion. Thanks Sarah ... And please do not take my advice in the wrong way. I'm just sharing my own experience and hope you do not see it as me questioning how good of a parent you are. These are your children; and you should always make the choices that your heart tells you to make. If it is always done with their best interest at heart then I have absolutely no doubt that any and everything will work out perfectly.
anonymous, I've written for two parenting blogs, believe me, I've had far more than my share of advice and learned to always take it the right way -- in other words, glean from it anything that works for me and let the rest lie. this is what works for our household right now. food is only part of my struggle for a life that's more "sustainable" or whatever buzzword you want to use; NPR will clue us into national disasters and after all I work for AOL, I get multiple daily emails that inform me of all the most salacious news :) I'll never miss a thing! but sometimes I think we rely too much on TV for our cultural context these days. I'd far rather my children have a rich understanding of the language of C.S. Lewis' England, the poetry of Wordsworth, how chickens and eggs really work, the existence of wild yeast in the air that we can catch and turn into bread, the wonder of how cream becomes butter, how salt is extracted from the sea, how sunflowers grow -- than how the theme to 'Speed Racer' goes (one I hear every day). sometimes -- or often in my life -- a shearing is required, a return to nakedness, so that we can recapture what's real, so we are forced to soak up the ancient sun and look up into the sky and discover there is a cherry tree, right there, in our yard and we do not need a corporation to tell us how to get a snack, all we need is to reach up and grasp it and put it in our mouths.
I loved reading this post and the comments. I need to check out that book. I'm not a parent, but here's a middle ground suggestion: some of us get by just fine with antenna TV rather than cable. Fewer choices limits the time spent as well as much of smut and violence (and it's free!). The digital converter box brings cable quality reception and even the "Create" channel here in Oregon, with tons of cooking shows (alas, no Rachel). Good luck to all the parents who are faced with these kinds of choices. And, cafemama, I loved your words about the "shearing."
i agree completely! i look forward to watching the cooking shows saturday's on my local PBS stations rather than paying for cable to watch terrible programming on food network. i learn so much about food and cooking when reading through cookbooks/memoir and enjoy that immensely!
I've never liked Rachel Ray, because to me it was never cooking but more of "look what I can mix together". Which creativity in cooking is great, but I wouldn't really call RR a chef.
I used to actually watch a lot more cooking shows than I do now. Now I find that cooking shows are only useful if they're making something from scratch that I have absolutely no idea what to do with, or what it is.. like taro root, or artichokes, or something.
Otherwise, A good cookbook is much much more useful, plus you don't get inundated with commercials for useless or unhealthy mass produced salt laden fat laden crud. :)
We still have cable, and we still watch it (on the DVR - aka skipping commercials), but if it came down to a choice between healthy ingredients or affording cable.. the cable will loose. (besides most of the good shows are on the internet anyway). :)
Wow. I've never read my love of cooking expressed so well. Thank you. The love of slow food, homemade food is why I love my barbecue so much.
I swear, this is the first time food writing brought tears to my eyes.
Are there other real cooks out there who don't watch Food TV (or any TV)? I've never seen Ina or Alton or Iron Chef or Top Chef. I've seen Rachel Ray without sound because she is always on when I go to the gym. Even without sound, she turns my stomach.
I run a small cooking school and my students are always surprised when I can't tell they what I think about the last episode of Top Chef.
Everything I've seen my students pick up from Food TV is wrong stuff. It's all the non-sense and trendiness that doesn't matter. No matter how many episodes they watch, they still can't sharpen a knife or slice an onion quickly or add enough salt to the dish to make it taste good.
If only we spent as much time cooking as watching TV -- what a food nation we would be.
Thank you for this fabulous post, Sarah!
Extremely well written Sarah!
It was such a refreshing read, and more so to read someone who thinks the way I feel... I am only too glad to know from the other comments that there are a good many of us!!
Now, as I contemplate what you have written, I realize that I didn't really learn anything at all from the food network shows, except for Alton Brown (but again, I have a crush on him, so he shouldn't count). But seriously, I would sit and watch food network for hours, and not feel in the least inspired to go in the kitchen and make what I just saw! On the contrary, public television shows like PBS or WLRN or Create (I have lived in many places) have made me really want to do it. Reading about you cookbook re-visitation, I remember that I used to love collecting recipes as a child, and could only imagine what it tasted like. Making them would then take on a whole new dimension, and all my efforts (both successful and others not so much) are I now realize what memories are truly made of. Many a conversation in my family these days begin with a "Remember the time when you made..." The happiness and satisfaction I got from them were immeasurable. I would perhaps not have as much food inclined as I am today if I left it to television. So now when I have children of my own, I can only hope to live and bond with them as I did with my family over the meals we shared.
As a cooking professional (Personal Chef) I have analyzed the RR effect and determined that for the most part she has made a positive one. She has gotten more people to think about, talk about and consider food cooked at home. She doesn't only rely on prepacked, preprepped or processed foods. There are a lot of busy parents out there needing to get a meal on the table and she simply shows them how to do it without just popping frozen things into the microwave and/or bringing home bags of unhealthy fast food! No, if you have lots of time and/or enjoy cooking she's not for you and personally her voice grates my nerves. That being said I have adapted many of her recipes for my clients to their enjoyment. And from a business point of view she certainly has taken advantage of her popularity and expanded it into a brand, understanding that her 15 minutes could be up at any moment!
Yes, RR is pretty much a waste of space and time for me, also.
With the exception of two shows, Guy Fieri's Diner's Drive-Ins and Dives, and the Cake and Pastry Challenges, I stay away from FN altogether. Between the road trips and the merchandising, FN has gone the way of MTV - it's everywhere but where it's supposed to be - in the kitchen.
Sarah: Hang in there through the TV withdrawal period. I turned off cable the day after my ex moved out. The sound of actual silence in the house was so sweet, after years on non-stop B-grade movies in the background...I never really regretted it, and my son (6 then) got enough TV at his dad's to stay "in touch" with his generation, and plenty of Sponge Bob and Rug Rats and Disney on VHS. We watch "TV" now when it comes out on DVD - only a few series, when we want, no commercials. (Except Gray's Anatomy, which we get on the internet as soon as it's available). It's been 10 years without cable a cable bill.
I love cookbooks that are rich in information on ingredients...Joy of Cooking, Green on Greens, Diane Kennedy's wonderful books on Mexican food, Diet for a Small Planet and now I have CULINATE as my first resource for good food info. What do you do with lemon sorrel? Maybe it's on Culinate.(Results on this one, by the way, were disappointing, since my budget doesn't include spring salmon.)
Stick it out. Keep reading. Rent a DVD. Invite me over for frittata (and share the recipe).
We haven't had cable TV for several years and haven't missed it as much as we thought we would. With our high-speed Internet connection, we can usually catch clips from cable shows that interest us. Now we have an HD TV that we watch with an antenna. For cooking shows, as mentioned, there's a lot of good stuff on PBS on Saturdays. We also get an extra PBS channel with the HD called "Create" that has several good cooking shows.
This essay was a joy to read. The first cookbook I bought when I moved out on my own was also a Diana Shaw cookbook, her Almost Vegetarian, a book I still refer to often and one that invites rereads often. It's not a glossy cookbook, but it's comforting and genuine. I'm going to track down the one you mentioned.
I haven't had cable since 2000. I take cookbooks out from the library, and I work with them for twelve weeks while I decide whether I want to buy them (and I almost always do). I much prefer to follow recipes from a book than trying to copy something down from television, and I get great photography on the food blogs and sites I read online. I'm living without food television just fine.
Sarah, that was so beautiful. Your son will never remember most of the junk he watches on cable, but he will remember the times you spend together, cooking and eating wonderful food and enjoying the love you share as a family. I never had cable when my kids were growing up, and though sometimes they complained about it, mostly they never missed it.
My daughter and her new husband recently moved a thousand miles away, and last week I made my first visit to them. One of their first purchases was a swanky plasma tv, and of course they have hundreds of cable channels. We were sitting around on Sunday afternoon watching some inane Food TV show when I decided to cook. We turned off the tv, moved into the kitchen and put together a wonderful meal from the fresh meat and produce we bought that morning at the local farmer's market. It was a beautiful moment in both of our lives, coming together as women have for centuries, sharing knowledge,stories, and food. You won't ever have that experience passively watching RR, Alton, or Ina.
To this day I don't have cable in my home -- I much prefer to curl up with a cookbook and learn about the heart and soul of good cooking, and then go do it on my own.
Thanks to all of you for sharing, and Sarah, thanks for the moving words.
What a beautiful way to think of food! Thanks,
I've never watched the food channel. I don't watch TV at all, haven't for about 20 years. This leaves a lot more time for cooking, reading, being with friends and all the other Good Stuff of life.
It drives me nuts that everyone thinks that somehow no one ever cooked anything homemade before Rachael Annoying as Nails on a Chalkboard Ray came along. She has zero talent either as a cook or a performer and yet she has convinced everyone that despite being a millionaire with a love of booze and ciggies, she is a loveable girl next door who is the only person who can teach those busy moms how to cook.
There are a hundred quick cooking meals in cookbooks that existed before Rachael Ray and they will continue to exist after her 15 minutes are up. There is a middle ground between long-cooking culinary masterworks and Rachael Ray slop.
Rachael Ray is a bizarre period piece. She is to this generation what the Galloping Gourmet and his "lovely wife Tish" was to ours -- odd and faintly informative. Graham Greene (I think the GG's name) showed up again recently as a born again christian having given up the sauce once he and his lovely wife started looking like Burton and Taylor. But, he still is annoying. So not to worry, even if you shut Rachael down for a while my suspicion is she'll pop up again in twenty years should your son want to watch her.
And I share the sentiment of that very little of what is being shown is in anyway new. It is just new eyes that is upon them. Go back to the classics (which is your point) and learn all that you need to know. Leave the wizz bang and hoo hah to those who forgot how simply astounding a perfect peach can be.
Yeah to a "return to nakedness".
Bravo to you!
Boy you hit a nerve here! In a good way, I think. :-) Add me to the RR intolerators, and the TV abstainers. Like the commentor above, my ex was on a constant IV of televised garbage. He would watch infomercials as if they were hard-hitting news broadcasts.
When I moved in with my current husband, he asked if I would mind if he cancelled the cable service--we have no antenna on the house, so that would mean no TV, period, and no shows other than what we brought into it. I said absolutely not; that was two years ago and neither of us have missed it.
Rachel Ray's a liar, anyway--ever notice how many of her "30 minute recipes" rely on foods that are already prepared, like cooked chicken breast or cold mashed potatoes?
My Chinese chef/tai chi teacher put it well when he said, "It doesn't take any longer to cook good food than to cook bad."
Happily, I just added Sarah's recipes for Creme Pesto, Rich Vegetable Frittata, and Crème Fraîche, adapted from Diana Shaw's book. Look for the sidebar within the story — "Featured Recipes."
You've got a choice ... You can delete my comment because you don't like what I have to say or you can leave it and allow others to judge for themselves if my logic makes better sense than yours.
Let's face it, you seem to be missing the point ... These Food Network shows are there for entertainment purposes. Sure it's not true cooking in the sense that everything is made from scratch like they do it in all time bestseller "Sweet Basil, Garlic, Tomatoes, and Chives" (Obviously the best seller currently resting on every cook's kitchen counter across this great nation). But stop for a second and stop having an elitist attitude towards the individuals who look to the Food Network for some culinary inspiration. If a show brings one more person into the kitchen; and gets them thinking about preparing a meal instead of just pulling a box out of the freezer and tossing it into a microwave ... Then it's importance outweighs the fact that they didn't spend 12 hours preparing a special sauce that you might make once every 2 years from an obscure cookbook.
This article got sidetracked into territory that makes every one of you sound like you are better than the lowly individual who relies on TV for info and instruction. As I said earlier it's an elitist attitude. The sort of thing you'd expect to hear from someone who just has to carry their baby around in a papoose while at Williams-Sonoma because Dr. Jaques Know-it-all reached into the brain of a baby and told all of you that the baby wants to be close to your heart to hear the rhythm ... If any of you believe that to be true (That anyone can begin to know what a baby likes or doesn't like) then there's a bridge in New York for sale.
Say what you want to defend yourself, I could care less. But when you go out of your way to knock what someone is doing to promote an activity like cooking, because they look to provide a good meal in the shortest amount of time, then aren't you just compounding the problem. Aren't you just saying to the world ... Look I'm glad you want to learn how to cook, but you are a complete idiot if you take shortcuts. Now run out and buy "Guiseppe Rothschild's Meaningless Italian Sauces" from 1951. "Oh yeah ... You also need to have it translated, better yet, why not take an Italian language course so you can get the true feel of the book. But do not take it at a Junior College, be sure it's an Ivy League School. One where you can have the luxury of waiting on your scholarship money or just put it on credit"
Sarah ... You write really well, but consider this. Why do you suppose my comment is only number 25 in 15 days since you posted your column? Could it be that you are speaking to a very very very small group of people that are like you in the way they turn their noses up at anything they don't feel lives up to their high standards. The truth is this, and you know it. You don't make every one of your meals from scratch and I'd be willing to bet you take shortcuts. Neither does the majority that sided with you. They, like you, have to spend their time spewing hatred towards the individuals who are trying to prepare decent meals for their family with the often limited amount of time available. They do this without relying on boxes of processed foods. Yet somehow that's not good enough for you. You like to sit back and talk about simpler times; times when we were all going to change the world. But with you, it seems to be an attack on the individuals who sadly don't have that extra minute to spare. Are you suggesting they should give up the hectic life and just let their families starve to death. Because affording more time to most of us means not affording to live.
Get mad if you want ... but take a moment and view what I have to say with an open mind. Surely you can see that your comments speak to us non-traditional cooks in a very condescending and hurtful way. Shame on you for trying to turn people away from something that could serve as a great starter to their journey into the world of cooking. Shame on you.
Since I made my first comment supporting the things RR has done I've been reading the comments of the nay-sayers feeling exactly what anonymous has stated that this thread is missing the point. Choosing not to watch TV and/or making things from scratch has nothing to do with RR's accomplishments and the people who have been inspired to cook better food for their families. Thank you anonymous for responding and clarifying that point.
"Good meal in the shortest amount of time"? I have another suggestion. Go out to the garden. But then that opens up a whole other debate which is really at the heart of this one.
Let us be willing to understand why RR, or Martha or Betty Crocker (fictional) every showed up in the first place. They stood in for those things that went away -- local mentors and local foods. In one capacity or another they became icons of the new world, the industrialized world, the world of lost wisdom that invited the glitzy, gussying up of something that never needed to be.
That few of us has access to really local and really fresh can be seen as a political and social consequence of a decades-long march toward food system centralization and the ever burgeoning global food distribution system not to mention the growth of urban centers. That we are all looking to the grocery store instead of our gardens or RR instead of our mothers or grandmothers (or fathers) for insight is something else to think about. In the end, I believe that is the real heart of this conversation.
That the logic of eating fresh, cooking simply, starting with the best ingredients and avoiding all the silly wiz bang posturing (there I said it) is being seen as an elitist might be the best indicator of how far off the mark we have gotten.
I think it is hopeful that folks are trying to make their way back to something simpler and decidedly less self aware. Sharing the evolution of an a-ha moments is helpful to others on the search. And that Sarah is doing it through the considered revaluation of the devotion to celebrity cooking is certainly valid. Again, RR is a metaphor, a projection holder, a mirror to something else in our society. At least that is how I see it.
If, in the end, RR helps folks find their way back to the fold then more power to them. That Sarah and many others find it through other ways is honest but certainly not elitist.
And whether Sarah has received one or 1000 responses to her piece, she is still speaking from personal experience that I know to be honest and serious in it's pursuit. I applaud her and will leave the T.V. audience to keep RR afloat. Evidently she has enough supporters.
It's funny how you come to the defense of an idea that has no business being shared. Elitist is the word and elitism is what is going on here. How many of us have access to a garden? How many of us have access to a butcher or fish monger? You don't have to be rich to get access to those things but you do have to have resources to do it on the level that Sarah speaks of and that you imply. It's funny how this has become a debate on TV and everyone applauds Sarah for taking the easy way out. Oh my gosh! Newspapers are bad! Books are bad! Let's burn them both! Let's embrace simplicity but talk about making complex sauces! Isn't that a contradiction. Sarah chose to write about taking TV away from her kids so 2 things can be known. That she's in full control and that she's a quirky person because she chooses to get rid of TV. I see it as a way for her to establish an audience. Unfortunately, the Amish don't read many blogs do they?
It's good to know that AOL Financial Experts have become the voice of food reason on Culinate. Maybe next week Mario Andretti can share Gardening Tips.
I can't believe the venom in all this. Good lord. Is it really necessary to be so judgmental about Sarah? especially anonymously? I hope you don't scare Sarah off... I, for one, simply enjoy her writing. That doesn't mean I have to do everything her way or agree with everything she says. But I do enjoy her perspective. She ain't boring.
Dear Anonymous,
I had no idea your comment was private. Sorry. I sent my own out in response assuming you were open to it. And I'm with donaleen. The less venom the better. I'll leave it there.
Over and Out
My dear departed grandmothers are rolling in their graves at the thought that growing and cooking your own food could be considered elitist. I feel eternally blessed that they, my mother and my aunts were all around to share the joy of cooking and eating together, and that I have been able to pass that along to my kids.
To me, it seems that this whole discussion centers around the idea of choice. There are those of us who choose to spend our time cooking and experimenting in the kitchen rather than watching someone else do it. Some of us prefer to entertain ourselves with books rather than tv. There are those who take what they learn by watching celebrity chefs and adapt the ideas for their own use. None of those choices is wrong or elitist, nor is it wrong to choose to throw a quick meal together because you want to do other things. What works for me may not work for you, and there doesn't need to be any judgment about that on either side.
I enjoy Sarah's lyrical and honest writing and the exchange of ideas and perspective on this blog. I don't appreciate anonymous comments trashing everyone else. That's really uncalled for. If you want others to consider your point of view, try presenting it without such rancor.
I am only glad that there is at least one great defender of the disenfranchised, misbegotten and "least of these" on this site.
Who knew we were all only interested in designer baby names?
I, for one, am thankful for all the measured and thoughtful posting.
Let us all turn the TV back on, open up a brick of Velveta and, once again, be returned to reason.
I hope you will be able to ignore "anonymous," because she is clearly in a minority among your readers.
Yep Sarah ... I'm a minority amongst your 25 avid readers. Hopefully within the next year or two you'll double the size of your group of lemmings. Hey! ... Do you guys hear it? ... Listen closely ... There's a tree in the park in serious need of some hugging!!!
Now as fasenfest will obviously say about me ... Excuse me while I go eat a Spam-wich.
BTW: If Sarah is that thin skinned she needs to head out and do something else. As they say, "If she can't stand the heat, she needs to get out of the room that houses her Viking Range and Sub-Zero walk-in refrigerator."
Mmmmm, spam-wich. But why stop there? There are all sorts of choices for you to dine on and all sorts of places for you to go - some sub-zero and some not.
We at Culinate know that Sarah is a thick skinned gal, so we've been trying to let this conversation continue despite the spite this topic seems to engender. Personal attacks, however, are not a positive form of discourse, and we will remove any comments that go there.
I've been reading these comments with interest. There seems to be two camps here. One says that Sarah is being smart to give up TV and it's untalented chefs. The other says this in an elitest standpoint.
I have often attacked Culinate in the past for elitism. One of the biggest issues associated with the "green" and "sustainable" and "local" movement, is that it is not a movement that is universally accessible. Being a "peasant" and growing your own food would require ownership of property on which to do so. Many of us, including me, are not that lucky. Farmer's markets have quirky schedules and locations, which working people (particularly working poor who often work more than one job) do not have time for or are not conveniently located. If you can take a drive in the country where every farm has a stand, that's great, but what if you can't do that?
TV and Rachael Ray are a separate issue. We would all be a lot better off without both. I'm sick of the whole "Rachael Ray brings people back to the kitchen spiel." One would think no one ever cooked anything before she came along. The "30 Mintue Meal" concept has been around for decades. Many cookbook authors have done it before and have done it much better. All Rachael Ray teaches her viewers is to throw a big, expensive hunk of meat on a plate (after burning it on the grill), cover it with expensive cheese, and then some cooked, expensive pre-cut vegetables covered with some sugary, fatty dressing. Rachael Ray is no more accessible to the masses than farmer's markets (which she herself would enver use because they don't cut your vegetables for you.)
To clarify some points:
1. Culinate is not written to appeal to the masses. It is for foddies of several ilks of social status.
2. Sarah's comments on giving up TV and along with it chef's preaching to the masses is not a problem for most who have read her article.
3. Originally I tried only to point out that RR is preaching to the masses and feel as though she has contributed to bringing people back to the kitchen from eating a diet of Fast Food.
4. RR is not for everyone, and certainly the 30 minute meal concept is not new and can be interpreted at several different income levels utilizing those products that one has ability to procure. Be it Greenmarkets, farm stands, Whole Foods, the corner produce market or a Food Bank!
5. Elitism comes into the picture when others have commented that RR has no value. I'm simply saying that she has value for some, not for all and I'll go out on a limb here and say that most people who enjoy Culinate are not exclusively her fans!
6. Also Elitism is prevalent when one wears blinders and doesn't realize that their methods for providing healthy, nutritious, fast or slow, meals for their families are not the only methods employed by everyone. The world is a big place and we need to embrace the fact that others are making strides at doing the "right" thing. In our nation alone we are battling obesity which is more prevalent than any scourge that we've overcome ie: plagues, polio, small pox, etc. Everytime someone chooses fresh or frozen ingredients (not prepared processed) from the grocery store over a drive-thru meal, we've made another positive step in improving our nation's health.
7. So in conclusion there's nothing wrong with Sarah giving up TV and TV Chef's and expressing her views on the subject. Just as there's nothing wrong with recognizing the effect some of these chef's have had on the general public. After all, if RR were not successful at TV and book promoting many here would not have had her to complain about!
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subset: commoncrawl


text:
US State Dept. workers beg Clinton for Firefox
US State Department workers have begged Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to let them use Firefox. "Can you please let the staff use an alternative web browser called Firefox?" worker bee Jim Finkle asked Clinton during Friday's State Department town hall meeting. "I just moved to the State Department from the National …
"Nothing is free"
Nothing is free if you wear a suit.
I have noticed a mixture of ignorance, incomprehension and terror at the thought of not having to pay for software. At least, that is the case with the entrenched Microsoft enthusiasts and with those who believe everything that FAST and other criminals tell them.
gotta love the freetards
Here's a list of things that Firefox developers need to get their idealistic minds around:
Patches need to be deployable remotely from a management server like WSUS.
It needs to obey group policy (and not some half baked policy engine of its own using config files and rubbish like that, I mean group policy in active directory).
It needs to do something better than IE.
Do those three things and I'll welcome it with open arms. If I can't patch all of them locally without downloading 10,000 copies of the updates or if I can't change the proxy settings for 10,000 of them overnight without leaving my desk then Firefox can get the hell out of my office.
And it's also not going to happen if I can't install it on 10,000 machines without getting off my fat ass.
@Scott 7
You don't work for a big company do you? Any software costs, if it needs to be packaged, rolled out, patched, administered (who can run it, who can't, who can administer it, who can't etc.)
Also, most companies/organisations take a single piece of software to do a single job, if you add to that, you add to your support overheads. This sort of decision is nothing to do with free software, or FAST, or Microsoft, it's just down to financial considerations and support quality.
I wonder??
I Wonder just how much of that US $1tn budget deficit ends up in a M$ bank account.
Mine is the one with M$ on the back and a extra large pocket to hold my wallet.
I'd like to thank the Academy...
I thought that the look on the Big Hill's face when she was asked about Firefox was priceless.
As for the suit and the 'nothing is free' comment... the fact that he didn't say no right off is encouraging, and the fact that others in the government (even if they are rather smaller than the Giant Monolith which is the State Department) use it is also encouraging. Who knows? Sometime in the next two-three years the State Department may actually get around to installing Firefox 3.
Oh My God...
This is why the government doesn't like to talk about how it does things without making it sound too complicated to tolerate. They have NO idea what they are doing, and seem completely unwilling to consult ANYONE who might know what they are doing... not to mention completely ignore those in the know, who are basically giving them the consultancy advice for free. AAAARGH!!! Unbelievable. Someone should forward this article to Clinton as it seems to put enough high level facts together for her without having to spend a huge amount of cash to an outside firm that charges out the ass. Apparently mindless government/corporate drones are the only ones who make decisions with bullet points only. How did stupid people take over anyway? How did no one notice?
I bet she would have listened to the guy if he drew up his suggestion in a power point presentation...
Our government at "work"
Why use something quick and clean (oh, yeah, and free!) when you can have an obsolete, buggy, insecure, crash prone resource hog and pay lots of money for multiple licenses? No problem, it is only tax money, so who cares - the peasants will pay, they have no choice.
This is the Microsoft tax on the US Government - turnabout is fair play!
Get Microsoft out of government - WE are paying for this crap!
He's right that nothing is free, but he's not telling the truth...
""Nothing is free," Kennedy responded. "It's a question of the resources to manage multiple systems. It is something we're looking at...It has to be administered. The patches have to be loaded. It may seem small, but when you're running a worldwide operation and trying to push, as the Secretary rightly said, out FOBs [for remote log-ins] and other devices, you're caught in the terrible bind of triage of trying to get the most out that you can, but knowing you can't do everything at once.""
Unfortunately the sad truth is that more than likely their websites are designed for IE6 and doesn't offer cross browser support. This means that they will have to do a lot of upgrade/maintenance work on their websites.
That's the real problem...
Fail the government's IT programs.
you've got to laugh
when one of the richest women in the world tells you to 'shop in your closet'. Hint: this is good advice for people who've got more money than they know what to do with.
Redouble this for people who are spending other people's money.
Cost, government, tech illiterate politicos, invasion!
The only cost is the lazy techs making regular images for users disks, including the latest Firefox, at trivial extra cost. Firefox can download it's own updates, so they don't even have to be rolled out updates from an update server.
As for saving money, much smaller government would help in the USA, and on this side of the Atlantic.
It a real pity our immigration wasn't more competent at ejecting fraudulent immigrants, instead we have these frauds sucking as gatekeepers, politicians, and in other sensitive positions!
Very little. MS has to get inline behind things like the banks.
Freetards is right
I actually see little wrong with the answers given to the people asking about Firefox at the US State Dept.
"The Vociferous Time Waster" made some excellent points. Firefox is no "freer" than IE, and in a large organization, the costs of deploying any technology are only slightly influenced by what you pay for it in currency. The cost of deploying, managing, supporting, updating and so on BY FAR trump the acquisition costs - many studies have been done on this. It was actually the impetus for coining that ugly term/acronym "TCO" - "Total Cost of Ownership".
Historically I've been not particularly enamored of using FF in a large setting because Mozilla never seemed to give a leap about making it centrally-manageable or easily locked-down. Only recently, after many years, are they making a tiny effort in this regard. I sure as hell don't need users installing a bunch of crappy add-ons whenever they want to, many of which may be designed to circumvent I.T. policies, for example.
Another problem is that FF add-ons are installed on a PER-USER basis, which is a really craptastic thing in an organization where you have to support lots of users.
Lastly - don't for a minute think that FF is automatically "safer" than IE. As FF's marketshare goes up, so do the exploits for it.
Just last week as I was in the middle of installing updates on a laptop for a staff-member, I needed to look up something online, and stupidly (because I was in a hurry and didn't want to go to a different machine) did it with the old version of FF on there. So - did a quick Google search, clicked a couple of links, BLAMMO - machine got hit with a drive-by iFrame exploit, followed by download of a malicious PDF file (exploiting older version of Adobe Reader), and a trojan.
I always prefer to avoid IE whenever possible myself - and sometimes even disable it on user systems I manage - but FF is not the be-all/end-all to all the world's browser problems either.
@Scott 7
The cost of using a piece of software is not just the price of a license: it is also the cost of supporting it and verifying your apps will work with it. You have to pay the techs and sysadmins to support it and you have to qualify your existing systems to run on it. If you are an IE shop then you must account for the time and therefore cost of training your techs on FF.
So, sure the browser is free, but implementing it is not. If State has in house web apps designed for IE then in all likelyhood those apps must be modified to work properly on Firefox. This is because IE and FF do some things differently - ever try writing cross browser CSS and DOM-scripted apps? There are lots of pitfalls in the differences of implementation between the two browsers - and since State has never used FF you can take it as given that it's web apps need some changes for FF. If some web app craps out on a shiny new FF roll-out you still have to pay people to fix the web app - that takes time and money, probably at overtime rates.
If you have a small shop, then switching, or supporting both browsers, may be pretty simple. The bigger an organization gets the more work is involved in this kind of thing. State is a very big organization!
This stuff is obvious to anyone who's worked as a LAN admin, sysadmin, network manager, CIO, what-have-you. It may not be obvious to people running small shops or to home users.
Case in point!
I'm using FF 3.5 on Fedora Linux and I do have Flash installed correctly.
The video noted in the article refuses to run!
Now then, Scott 7, I suppose if you were State's CIO you would fix that for me and the rest of State single handedly and at no charge, wouldn't you? You'd work over night if required too.
No, I thought not.
Motion pictures
The crowd goes wild at 26:30
Frontmotion Firefox
It's not official, but someone's making it easier to manage.
Frontmotion's version of Firefox has proper Group Policy support (and System Policy if you're using Samba or NT4 domains), and they package it up as MSIs that support silent installation. It's working for me in a school with around 100 computers.
So to those who think managing the install is too hard, go and have a look.
Of course if the issue is badly designed internal web systems, then there's no one to blame but themselves, and to be honest, they should fix it because even IE is moving away from those dodgy hacks.
@Phil Koenig
Quote: "Just last week as I was in the middle of installing updates on a laptop for a staff-member, I needed to look up something online, and stupidly (because I was in a hurry and didn't want to go to a different machine) did it with the old version of FF on there. So - did a quick Google search, clicked a couple of links, BLAMMO - machine got hit with a drive-by iFrame exploit, followed by download of a malicious PDF file (exploiting older version of Adobe Reader), and a trojan."
Let's see: a) you used an old version of FF, b) you clicked on a malicious link, and c) you hadn't updated Reader, is that right? What OS was this on and what anti-malware was installed?
1) How would this have been different if you'd used IE?
2) Please tell us that you don't hold a position of authority in your IT dept.
It's the PoS Factor
In addition to the costs of ownership and the costs of deployment, there's what might be called the "Price of Staying". When the PoS is more expensive than the price of something newer and better, then you have a case for moving. In the case of IE6, I would imagine the PoS is pretty costly.
Cost of Change
In 1900 when everything on the roads was horse drawn, it would have looked expensive to start using that strange contraption called a horseless carriage.
Eventually even Government Depts. creep up to do what the rest of the world is doing.
Don't let Phil Koenig near your computer
He claims to be an expert but gets duped into installing trojans, probably thinking he was clever looking for cracks or password generators.
" Firefox can download it's own updates, so they don't even have to be rolled out updates from an update server"
That is the point you muppet!
Say the latest FF downloads an update that then cripples 30,000 pc's (not a pissy little 100). Which poor bastards then has to go around and remove the latest version and reinstall an older version. oh look it's just decided to do an update.
An what's the point of comparing i.e with the latest version of FF. At least compare it to i.e8.
And as for FF being free. you stupid dumb asses. Hands up all those people that have payed for i.e.? If they are running windows then the stupid arguement that FF is free is pointless, so is i.e.
And before the rants that I'm a fanboi, nope looking at my pc I have i.e & FF. I use what I need to use, end of.
ignore them!
They should just update to IE8 and ignore the freetards who don't understand IT system administration!
FF is "free"
And in this place it's free to the company as well, but then I work in a software house and we kinda know how to keep our own stuff up to date (and how to really break it, ahem). We're also small-ish, so I can wander over to internal support and grab the CD of drivers (or whatever I need) in an informal manner.
This simply does not work in a large company, you have to retain control for the sake of sanity. Almost no one in the State Dept will be a geek-nerd-techie. They'll be analysts etc who see the PC as an appliance, nothing more. FF might be "better", but rolling that out, training people (trust me, there are people who will need it), controlling plugins etc costs.
Then there are upgrades. AFAIK there is no central way to control FF upgrades, so quite quickly you'll have people running different versions and that could cause problems. Also, there are some security flaws in FF that still need to be addressed (e.g. silent install of plugins for all users).
I use FF as I prefer it to IE, but I can understand completely why it might be expensive to switch in a controlled environment. Many freetards are simply bedroom geeks who don't understand the realities of real-world computing. You cannot simply let the end suer install what they like, or hack around as they like.
Untill the open source community gets a grip and starts offering some kind of OS/network integrated patch control, then it is going to remain in the home and on the fringe. I am perfectly aware of repositories etc on Linux distros, but I still would not call that "controlled" in the internal IT sense of the word (being able to force roll-outs etc).
I think that was exectly the point, if the software had been standard software, it would have been packaged, it would have been up to date and gone on without any problems at all, there would have been no room for user (well, administrator) error. This is an example of where non-standard software (non-standard within a company, that is) can cause problems.
Fraser. "You don't work for a big company do you" Unless were talking FTSE 100 company you can keep schtum. What you go on to say is technically correct, but there is no need to be such a monumental dick to begin with. It's horses for courses. By the sounds of things, you're not in management are you. I'd discuss policy making but you wouldn't understand.
Phil Koenig. Lets get one thing straight. What happened to you was down to your lackadaisical approach to securely in fixing the laptop. This would have happened if you were useing MSIE or FF. What site were you on to be clicking on malicious links to download infected PDF files? It cannot have been legit site. If it were, did you at least let them know? Believe me, if you had been working for me, we would have had a rather long and serious discussion about the future of your employment.
E 2 "Case in point!" You are talking about a 3rd party plugin on a different OS platform that doesn't really have anything to do with the browser in the way you are implying. I've personally had flash videos not work in Internet Explorer on Windows XP. It highlighs nothing other than flash support on Linux can be patchy and that you haven't managed to grasp the simple fundaments of what is being discussed - for the record, the perceived difficulty in a mass roll out and maintenance of Firefox installed on a Windows network at the request of the majority of users. Feel free to publish a real world example of a real issue. Flash not working well on Linux isn't one.
This story is a bit of flame bait, and a justified dig at HC and the State Department. The response of Pat Kennedy answered the initial question adequately and responsibly, although it is clear that other govenment departments are using Firefox. All that it required to move this proposal forward, other than a lot of man hours(!), is a little bit of common sence and communication between government departments. It'll never happen!
@ The Vociferous Time Waster
No it does nto need to conform to AD policies. Otherwise I would need to find another browser that allows me to change basic settings because retard MIS staff think its a great ieda to change my home page at random times and other stupidities.
it is telling that they all use firefox so as to avoid their own policies as well.
The Wintards are using the 'lack of exploits is because of low market share' line again. So how come IIS is constantly getting knocked over, while Apache soldiers on with a decent security record?
Also: Vociferous Time Waster: Basically what you're saying is that because you lack the skills to administer multiple systems without a point-and-drool interface, you will continue to use inferior software because such an interface has been supplied (restricted for purposes of monopoly protection) by an incompetent vendor. In other words, your users would get a better browser, but unfortunately you're a charlatan.
Not so funny if you have to work with the POS yourself
Be Aware .... Animals Feeding
"Eventually even Government Depts. creep up to do what the rest of the world is doing." ... Cost of Change By elderlybloke Posted Tuesday 14th July 2009 04:45 GMT
To delay in the Virtual Environment has One Exponentially Always Behind Lead with Controls in ITs Powers. And One Requires a Prodigious Mentor in those Perfect Circumstances 42 Guarantee Success in the Most Chaotic of Silent and New World Order Programs, Sub-Prime Mimics of Magic MoJo Circles.
And much More JuJu than Wall Street can Imagine and that Provides the Force Stealth for Invisible Invasive Pervasive Action/Systems Infection.
They should just update to IE8 and ignore the freetards who don't understand IT system administration!
Except, of course, that IE8 is more akin to Firefox than it is to IE6 - if they're jumping from IE6 to IE8 and their intranet systems are all full of shonky hacks that won't work in IE8 (compatibility mode isn't 100%) then they'd be just as stuffed as they would be should they have moved to FF in the first place.
However, when managing a huge install base it may be better to force an IE8 roll-out (intranet issues notwithstanding), at least it's less crap than IE6 and can be centrally managed.
@ Paul 135
Upgrading to IE8 isn't necessarily the best idea, a friend of mine works for a major software company which attempted that and it caused chaos! Took a strong dislike to most of their standard webapp front ends (which were fully compliant and working fine under IE7), wouldn't retain crucial settings, and was a pain to uninstall too. They're back on IE7 and not planning a second go in the immediate future.
As for my (also major) company, we're only just about to upgrade to IE7...
@ac 0853
Abrupt, yes I admit, monumental dick not really... Also my point isn't just technically correct (the best kind of correct), if your company is running more than a handfull of desktops they should be using proper packaging, distribution and management techniques, this is not something that is limited to major companies. Think about how long it will take to get a workstation back after it's died then think about what happens if your office goes and you have to get them all back. That is why even small companies need proper IT, in fact it can be quite easily argued that a small company needs it more due to their general lack of more than one or two IT guys.
I don't work in management, but I have worked in DR/storage long enough to know what I'm talking about.
Script the install
There's a surprising number of people here who apparently manage tens of thousands of desktops yet, astonishingly, seem unable to script a firefox install.
I manage nothing like that number of desktops, but I install Firefox and its updates by script without ever visiting a physical client machine.
Sure the additional costs of supporting a second browser are valid, but the idea that Firefox is difficult to deploy is tosh. It could be easier. Group Policy support would be nice, but even without that, it's trivial to get it and its patches as they are released onto user desktops.
@AC 14th July 2009 07:19 GMT Re: Hands up if you've paid for IE
By my count, probably $500, possibly more for IE. Firefox on the other hand I've never paid a cent for. See, I don't count IE as free just because MS says it is, I figure I'm paying for it every time I pay for the browser.
Oh, and for all you whiners complaining about not being able to mass deploy FF, somehow or another we seem to be managing, including plug-ins we expect to be standard. No Group Policy or SMS required. And if an update were to "hoseify" a bunch of user systems, I'm reasonably confident I could get the browser removed from them in about 15 minutes.
Typed from my 3.x Firefox browser.
One last thing. While it is technically true that no software is free because they all cost something to support, Firefox has always struck me as a non-brainer for deployment. All those IE-only sites will still work. You just have to open IE for those sites instead, while Firefox can be used for the rest of the web. And you'll always be supporting IE, because even the EU isn't going to manage to force MS to build their OS the way it should have been built and therefore be browser agnostic. Until Opera put the web server component in, I would have classed Opera the same way. My preference is Firefox, but as a support worker I prefer, within reason, to deploy whatever tools make the rest of the company more efficient.
@ Phil Koenig.
as has already been picked up on, how can you possibly blame Firefox for your own incompetency ?
On the ball
"Nothing is free," Kennedy responded. "It's a question of the resources to manage multiple systems. It is something we're looking at...It has to be administered. The patches have to be loaded. It may seem small, but when you're running a worldwide operation and trying to push, as the Secretary rightly said, out FOBs [for remote log-ins] and other devices, you're caught in the terrible bind of triage of trying to get the most out that you can, but knowing you can't do everything at once."
I have to say, I'm pleasantly surprised by the technical knowledge displayed in this answer.
Re: Cost, government, tech illiterate politicos, invasion!
Sure, if you give your users local admin rights you can let them update FF themselves. What could possibly go wrong...
On the other hand, a proper software deployment tool will have no problems handling FF as well as the dozens of other idiosyncratic stuff from crack-addled vendors it undoubtedly already does.
FF too expensive?
@AC 7:19 "And as for FF being free. you stupid dumb asses. Hands up all those people that have payed for i.e.? If they are running windows then the stupid arguement that FF is free is pointless, so is i.e."
I reckon I've paid for ie many times over. Don't get us started estimating the real cost of ie.
OK. Monumental was an overstatement. Frankly, I don't care about the technical accuracy, that goes out the window with the arrogance. Proper packaging and management techniques does not mean Microsoft's way is the only way. If you are a big corporation, you should have adequate planning and policy for the type of contingency that you mention. If it happens consistently or concurrently over multiple machines, get in touch with the software or hardware partner/reseller or manufacturer and get them to investigate it - or at least help - because something is seriously wrong. With news like http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/07/14/unpatched_activex_bug/, properly managed updates won't save you and more secure software, irrespective of whether or not it takes a bit more effort to administer, is the best *business* option - after all it's what you are paid to do.
As usual - selfcentered arrogance is not limited to some badly adviced and uninformed users but can easily be found among IT managers and IT "experts".
I find it amazing that so many of us within the IT area are so blatantly arrogant that we would on one hand set oursevles to dictate our end-users software selection (and limit this to IE for example) - while at the same time not hesitate to install FF (or whatever we fancy) on our own computer. This "I know better then the dumb end-user I support" attitude is unfortunately not all that unusual...
It does not seem to occur to many IT support "experts" that those (other) end-users (whos work they both support and interfere in) are usually the ones who are core to the business of the company they are working in... As most companies do not have IT support their core business...
MoD no better
I work for the MoD and we're running XP machines with IE6. That level of crapness gets in the way of your work to quite a large degree. IE7 (and now 8) have been around for a while, and while FF may be hard to install easily, IE7 and 8 will have been designed by MS to be as easy to deploy as IE6.
How compatible is FF with IIS?
Being a real weirdo, I still use Opera as my everyday browser. But I have issues with a number of web pages which don't render properly or sometimes complete lack of funtionality with anything other than IE. I am assuming this is because a certain (growing?) amount of html code is now non-standard and since this is being driven by people running IIS, is FF able to handle this?
I'm not suggesting the SD should go for Opera, but if FF has the same issues then I can see a reluctance on the part of big agencies.
Yup, FF is so much safer...
"An unpatched memory corruption flaw in the latest version of Firefox creates a means for hackers to drop malware onto vulnerable systems. Security notification firm Secunia reports that the security bug (which it describes as extremely critical) stems from errors in handling JavaScript code. The flaw has been confirmed in the latest 3.5 version of Firefox, released in late June."
The way I see it... every browser sucks... and blows... at the same time!
Technical accuracy being the best kind of accuracy is a joke, it comes from Futurama. I was trying to make light of being called a dick.
Anyway, the point I was trying to make was: If you need for whatever reason to build a lot of machines (usually a disaster of some sort, or rollout to a new building.), you need everything to be packaged and run from an automated system of some sort. I don't care if it's Windows, Linux, Unix, Apple etc, it's just common sense. If you let you end users have everything they want, you need to have it all packaged, not manually installed ad hoc.
I don't really care about individual bugs (you'll see a new FF bug has just been announced), if a company has standardised on one package for X when that package is as rooted into a company as a browser, it's not really a cost effective idea to roll out another. If the business want it, understand any potential limitations and can afford the cost, fine. Although I have been in IT long enough to see several business 1off requirements like this go tits up and the IT department be saddled with the blame when all risk was clearly explained to the business beforehand.
The only safe computer...
..is one that is switched off, at the bottom of a pit and then that pit backfilled with reinforced concrete. Every other computer is vulnerable. *EVERY* single one.
The question is just; how vulnerable and how hard do the bad guys wanna try?
FF used to be a fringe browser, so it was safe as the bad guys didn't want to try too hard. But now it is mainstream, the bad guys really wanna get in. So if FF up to the job?
No, not really. Not without AdBlock and NoScript (can they be centrally controlled? Nup)
IE, of course, is not any better really. But sometimes the devil you know.....
Civil Servants
Apparently some of the posters have never tried to support Civil Servants. It has taken some of them half their adult lives to learn to use MS WIndows and IE. Procedural handbooks that look like children's pop-up books are sometimes necessary. The IT folks at State are likely well aware and supportive of FireFox but they also know from experience what it would take to support the change.
for the slow learners
This is why the US DOJ refused to enforce US Antitrust law upon Microsoft.
The truth is that the US Appellate courts decided that commingling code between the OS and IE was in fact illegal. But, the US DOJ refused to enforce that decision in the DOJ vs. Microsoft case simply because it mandates another monopoly for Microsoft.
Just look how difficult and expensive it is for any government department to not use Microsoft's browser exclusively.
It is called precluding competition by forcing the use of a monopoly product. And the US DOJ is guilty of violating the very laws they swore to uphold.
If you are ignorant you do not know that.
@AC / Paytards
The point of my case in point is that the end users will call support and they don't care or perhaps even know that Flash and FF are really two different products. Support still has to deal with it. Obviously State is not talking about running Linux, but my example still illustrates that a new browser may have issues, and support still has to deal with them.
As for dismissing my example: I work in a Linux shop - several hundred people using Linux on the desktop. Don't tell me that Flash/FF just *did* work properly for me, I clearly observed that it did not. But... I never have problems with YouTube or Google video on the very same machine. I suspect you will now dismiss me as a luser - but the fact remains that support in State would still have to deal with the problem.
"The point of my case in point is that the end users will call support and they don't care or perhaps even know that Flash and FF are really two different products. Support still has to deal with it. Obviously State is not talking about running Linux, but my example still illustrates that a new browser may have issues, and support still has to deal with them."
As stated, I've had the same problem with Internet Explorer, which would also have to be supported. I didn't say that you were wrong. It still doesn't change the fact that your 'point' has no relevance to the 'debate'. It's a 3rd party plug-in that is commonly known to have flaky support and reliability on a completely different OS by those that use and support it. It's the same as saying Safari runs really well on OS X, let use that on Windows. It bares no relevance to the conversation. Besides, from a security point of view, I'd be disappointed if the State Department, or for that matter any serious IT department deployed Flash unless absolutely necessary.
Well, all I really care to says is this: (1) if you (AC) arrogate defining what the debate is about then you can use that to make anyone's point that you disagree with irrelevant; (2) granted many people here are talking about roll-outs, packaging and the like, doesn't mean I can't say something about web app compatibility - for which see my first post on this thread, my case in point was a follow-up to my initial post.
Have a nice day, and do try to engage with people who do not see things all your way - it will broaden your mind, ans this is something you would likely benefit from.
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text:
Pedestrian flown to hospital after being hit by vehicle
Published On: Nov 18 2013 11:06:27 PM CST
A man is flown to Vidant Medical Center after being hit by a vehicle, according to state troopers.
Troopers said it happened around 9:45 Monday night on Highway 70 West in Newport at the intersection of Sam Garner Rd.
The pedestrian, John Bruder, was intoxicated when he walked out in front of the vehicle, according to state troopers. Bruder is expected to be okay.
Troopers said the driver was not at fault and won't be charged with anything.
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This state fair pie contest entry wows with coconut, pineapple and macadamia nuts, for a taste as fresh as the islands themselves!
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For a special touch, dollop each slice with whipped cream and sprinkle lightly with chopped, toasted macadamia nuts.
Luscious Artichoke Heart Pizza
Chutney Pizza with Turkey, Spinach and Gorgonzola
Tropical Sunshine Flatcakes with Orange Cream
Raspberry-Mango Shortcakes
Strawberries and Cream Pie
Margarita Pie


text:
"Great quality, beautiful look, and was delivered super fast. It helped a lot that I was able to have them print the return address on the envelope!"
"It was a perfect card to announce my new bambino. Cute, clasy, and very well made. It was hard to decide on which design. A little pricey but have had so many compliments!"
"I loved the colors used and the modern design. The paper quality was nice--I did get the double thickness which had a very substantive weight, but I think the standard thickness would have been great as well."
"perfect card- after long contemplating and getting help from tiny prints this turned out to be the perfect card. Tiny prints was also able to add the design on the back. Beyond wonderful service!"
"I loved the design (owls have always been my favorite and will continue to be once they're unpopular again!) but wasn't keen on the main font. I love how customisable these are! I was able to choose the font that best fit the overall aesthetic I was going for, which made it that much more special! As I mentioned above, I loved the design although not necessarily the postcard medium, but that didn't matter... I ended up making envelopes for them and mailing them out that way. I ended up needing to order another set because I underestimated how many I was going to need on my first order. Both times, I received the order sooner than the date on the invoice, which was really convenient. I will definitely be using Tiny Prints again for anything I can't (or don't have time to) make myself in the future."


text: I would like to attend, but I haven't made it up there yet this year. Would this be a good class to offer at AOB? Geof . > > OK, serious question here. Level 1 certification classes are weekend long. > All day Saturday and until late afternoon Sunday. If I setup a weekend > class for Level 1 certification in the North Houston area how many of you > would do your best to attend? > > Regards, > > > H.L. Eadric Anstapa > Ansteorra > eadric at scabrewer.com >


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Wednesday 18 April 2012: Hydraulic Overload
The bike shop bought a fully hydraulic shifting system (front and rear derailleurs and shifters). It costs more than I can pay for a whole bike. It's pretty and it's light, but maybe this is going a little too far?
If you must know, this the ACROS A-GE. Crazy Germans.
Than again, there is always this sub 15 pound craziness.
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201420132012201120102009 2008 2007 2006 2005 2004 2003 2002 2001 2000 1999
Valerie BeaudraultVisitor Services Representative
LOUISiana Digital Library (LDL)
The LOUISiana Digital Library (LDL) is an online library containing photographs, maps, manuscript materials, books, and oral histories documenting history and culture. Its purpose is "to make unique historical treasures from the Louisiana institutions' archives, libraries, museums, and other repositories in the state electronically accessible to Louisiana residents and to students, researchers, and the general public in other states and countries." Twenty-two libraries, archives, museums, and historical centers contribute digital items from their collections to the online library. Currently LDL contains more than 144,000 items. The participating institutions include: Amistad Research Center, Louisiana State Archives, Louisiana State Museum, Louisiana State University (LSU), Loyola University New Orleans, New Orleans City Archives, New Orleans Public Library, State Library of Louisiana, The Historic New Orleans Collection, Tulane University, and University of New Orleans.
The collections in the LOUISiana Digital Library can be browsed or searched. You can browse by Topic, Institution, Media Format, Geographic Focus, Time Period, and Collection Name. If you want to browse by institution, click on Institution in the collections list on the left side of the page. This will open a new page with links to the participating institutions' collections. Click on the institution's name to access its collections.
To search the collections you can enter keywords in the search box, which is located in the upper-right side of the page, or you can run an advanced search by clicking on the Search All Collections link in the menu bar at the top of the homepage. With Advanced Search you can search across all fields, selected fields, by proximity or by date. You can also search specific collections from this page.
Louisiana State University contributed forty-six collections, which include photographs, oral histories, newspapers, maps, and letters that could be of interest to family history researchers. They include the following:
Civil War Photograph Album
This album contains portraits of military personnel who fought during the American Civil War, 1861–1865. Most of the photographs are cartes-de-visite of Confederate enlisted men and officers.
George C. Strong Photograph Album
This album contains two photographs of sites around the United States Military Academy, West Point, New York, and forty-two photographic portraits of cadets in the classes of 1857 and 1858.
Hermann Moyse Sr. World War I Collection This collection contains letters written by Hermann Moyse, Sr. (1891–1985), a native of St. Gabriel, Louisiana, when he was a soldier in World War I.
The Louisiana Newspaper Access Program
This collection contains digitized images of select regional Louisiana newspapers from the 19th and early 20th centuries. Click on the View All Items in the Collection link to access them. There are seventy-one different newspapers in this collection.
LSU Libraries Civil War Collection
This collection "represents the cultural and political aspects of the conflict, and life in antebellum Louisiana."
Maps of Louisiana Collection
This collection consists of important original maps associated with the French colonization of the territory of Louisiana, and the Louisiana Purchase.
Marshall Dunham Photograph Album, ca. 1861–1865
This photograph album, which contains photographs taken in Louisiana during the Civil War, was compiled by Sgt. Marshall Dunham of the 159th New York regiment.
Posted by Jean Powers at 11/14/2011 07:10:00 AM |


text: On March 19, 2011, about 1750 central daylight time, an experimental, amateur-built, Burr Rotorway Exec 162F helicopter, N192AB, owned and operated by a private individual, was substantially damaged during a forced landing, following a total loss of engine power during cruise flight near Lincoln, Alabama. The instructional flight was conducted under the provisions of 14 Code of Federal Regulations Part 91. Visual meteorological conditions prevailed and no flight plan was filed for the planned flight to Talladega Municipal Airport (ASN), Talladega, Alabama. The flight originated from Saint Clair County Airport (PLR), Pell City, Alabama, about 1745. The pilot reported that he had recently purchased the helicopter. He and his instructor had completed about 1.7 hours of dual instruction and landed uneventfully at PLR. They then decided to conduct a short flight to ASN. Shortly after departure, about 600 feet above ground level, the helicopter experienced a total loss of engine power. The instructor took control of the helicopter and performed a 180-degree autorotation to a field. The helicopter touched down in the field about 15 knots; however, the skids were not perfectly straight and subsequently collapsed during the skid. The helicopter rolled over and the main rotor blades struck the ground, resulting in substantial damage to the helicopter. The pilot added that the helicopter held 16 gallons of fuel and they departed with approximately 6 gallons of fuel for the short flight. Some fuel spilled after the accident, but they were able to recover an additional 3.5 gallons of fuel from the wreckage and no contamination was noted in the fuel or fuel filter. Additionally, under the supervision of a Federal Aviation Administration inspector, the instructor started the engine on the wreckage and ran it for approximately 10 minutes with no anomalies noted. The inspector also confirmed adequate fuel on board and no evidence of contamination. The pilot further stated that although Rotorway offered a 150-horsepower engine for the helicopter kit, his completed helicopter was equipped with an experimental Vertical Performance Systems (VPS) 190-horsepower, four cylinder, fuel injected engine. The engine was equipped with two digital engine control units (DECUs). The DECUs were forwarded to the NTSB Vehicle Recorder Laboratory, Washington, DC, for data download; however, no data was recovered from the units. According to the owner of VPS, he used Rotorway's engine case and crankshaft, but achieved an additional 40 horsepower with the use of modified cylinders, valves, and DECUs. The owner further stated that he believed the engine did not lose all power during the accident sequence. It was possible that a disruption in fuel flow caused the DECUs to reduce power to 1,500 rpm. When adequate fuel flow was restored, the DECUs increased engine power/rpm.According to the pilot, the fuel line was routed next to a hot water line and a radiator hose was used to separate the two lines. During the accident flight, a few minutes prior to the loss of engine power, the pilot remarked to the instructor that he could "really feel the heat off the engine." At that time, the water temperature cockpit indication was 210 degrees Fahrenheit (F) and the oil temperature cockpit indication 165 degrees F. The pilot added that the water temperature should usually only be about 10 degrees F hotter than the oil temperature. He believed that heat from the water line caused a vapor lock in the fuel line. Subsequently, when the DECUs sensed a disruption of fuel flow, they reduced engine power to idle.According to maintenance records, the helicopter's most recent condition inspection was completed on October 9, 2010. At that time, the helicopter had accumulated 152.5 total hours of operation. The 1753 recorded weather, at an airport located about 15 miles east of the accident site, included calm wind, clear sky and temperature 81 degrees F.


text:
2007 OPEN FORUM Abstracts
K. W. Wright1, P. Evans2, M. E. Anders3
Background: Preventable medical errors are a leading cause of death in the U.S. In 2002, the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations (JCAHO) issued a Sentinel Event Alert summarizing the results of a root cause analysis of 23 ventilator-related deaths in the USA. JCAHO's findings underscore the problem of human error, and emphasize the need for hospitals and other healthcare facilities to implement a rigorous program of staff training and ventilator maintenance. Thus, we developed a simple taxonomy of mechanical ventilator errors. Ultimately, this taxonomy will be used to create an orientation program for ventilator troubleshooting.
Method: We conducted a retrospective review of biomedical engineering service requests related to mechanical ventilators, and then developed a taxonomy of errors. An explanation letter and survey was sent to nine area health care facilities in Arkansas, Louisiana, and Texas requesting data for total number of beds, ICU beds, full time therapists and service requests for each ventilator in present use by the facility. Service requests from January 1, 2003 to September 31, 2006, identified specific ventilator-related problems associated with biomedical service calls. Information from the service requests were sorted and classified according to type, preventability of error, and potential of user correction prior to generating a biomedical service call.
Results: A total of 549 service requests from nine biomedical departments provided data and service requests. From this review, four primary categories for error classification were developed: Setup, Power, Patient Circuit and Setting. Of these, 145; or 26 percent, were deemed "preventable" and classified in their respective category.
Conclusions: The development of a taxonomy for the classification of mechanical ventilator errors is an important initial step toward the prevention of errors. This taxonomy will be useful in classifying errors, and understanding the training needs of respiratory therapists. Reduction in ventilator error will benefit patients, as well as decrease time and costs associated with reprocessing equipment, use of disposables, unnecessary repairs, and possible litigation.
|Number of Participating Hospitals
|Total Number of Ventilators
|Total Service Requests
|Total user correctable Service Requests
|Total Percent Correctable (Average)
|Errors Involving Setup Issues
|Errors Involving Power Issues
|Errors Involving Pt. Circuit Issues
|Errors Involving Settings Issues


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According to the pilot, he had landed on Runway 19, a 2,500-foot long grass runway. During the rollout, at about 25-mph, as the brakes were applied, the airplane veered sharply to the left side of the runway. The pilot attempted to respond by adding left rudder, but the airplane nosed over. Examined of the wreckage revealed that the right main wheel and tire exhibited grass and mud on the outboard side. Evidence of grass and dirt were also jammed into the tire bead area of the tire. All tires on the airplane were inflated. No defects with the tires, wheels, or brakes, were noted.
The National Transportation Safety Board determines the probable cause(s) of this accident to be:
Index for Sep1999 | Index of months


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(2.4 Miles)
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(2.4 Miles)
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1:00 p.m. - 11:00 p.m.
(2.4 Miles)
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(2.4 Miles)
Open today
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(2.4 Miles)
Open today
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Today closed
AMF York Lanes offers traditional bowling on 40 lanes with plenty of concourse seating and a separate enclosed bar where you can relax and watch your favorite sports and entertainment programs on our flat-screen TVs. Try your hand at some arcade games or challenge your friends to a game of pool. Come join one of our various leagues offered for all skill sets and ages or visit us at our on-site Pro Shop available for all your equipment needs. This center is non smoking.
The camaraderie. The competition. The high-fives. The beer frames. The cool shirts. Can't wait to get started? Let's get the ball rolling.
Bowl a Strike This Thanksgiving Eve and Help Feed Americans In Need Visit AMF this Thanksgiving Eve (11/26) and help solve hunger in the US with our "Strike Out Hunger" Fundraiser to benefit Feeding America. For every strike you bowl, AMF will donate $1 to Feeding America's hunger-relief efforts, resulting in a total of up to $30,000!
More Bowling. More Pizza.
More Like It.
AMF is serving up all-you-can-eat pizza AND unlimited
bowling, for parties of 3 or more. Enjoy a deal of unlimited
proportions. Monday - Thursday ALL DAY & Sunday AFTER 5PM for
$13.95 per person. Friday ALL DAY for $19.25 per person. Offer
subject to lane availability.
Get Carded & Actually Like It
For a Change
Bring you, your friends, and your University ID to AMF every
Wednesday and save big on games, pizza, and PBR beer from 8 pm 'til
close. Unlimited bowling and shoe rental all for a very
college-friendly cover charge of $6.99. Plus, enjoy $2 PBR beers
and $10 pizzas.


text: Someone is forced to lick the foot of her mistress, someone else, instead, is going to taste the foot of her goddess all inside his mouth and taste it like an icecream (we are talking about the first pic). All mistresses lock their slaves in several holds and we like much more our last image where the head's guy is pressed under the Silvia's feet and he has to smell them and kiss them until Silvia wants. We have many scenes of foot fetish inside our area where slaves have to take care of the amazon's feet.


text:
Wednesday in Lakewood, Ruben Amaro Jr. told the Philadelphia Daily News that "in this day and age, depth is important," as he explained the reason for dealing Wilson Valdez for left-handed pitcher Jeremy Horst. If that's the case, than why would he subtract from the infield, where all four regulars have trouble staying on the field?
Beerleaguer: The biggest problem, as the Phils count down the days until spring training, is an infield that can't stay healthy and will not have Ryan Howard to begin the season. Period. Forget fifth outfielder, the eighth inning or all the other noodling on the fringes of the roster, which would certainly include a minor league loogy like Jeremy Horst. Without an intact infield, the offense will sputter. And it will sputter because the stand-ins will be at replacement level or worse. Yeah, I bolded that.
This is infield armageddon. (13 pt. type)
Remember Valdez's 19th-inning heroics all you want, but his real legacy came as the cardboard cutout who stood in place of Placido Polanco, Jimmy Rollins and Chase Utley for two years and produced a 0.0 WAR in 2011, a Sabermetrician's way of saying the Phils would do just as well summoning "any old body" from Triple-A (Pete "any old body" Orr produced a comparable -0.2 WAR).
Improving utility should have been a priority this winter. Even if they'd kept Valdez, the fragility of the infield makes for a scary situation. This move implies almost total faith in Michael Martinez, who is a terrible hitter (.196/.258/.282). According to the Daily News, Amaro listed Martinez and prospect Freddy Galvis as the top two utility candidates, then suggested that Galvis would ideally begin the season in Triple-A. In other words, we have every reason to expect Martinez to break camp with a spot on the roster, just as he did a year ago.


text:
Update on the Illinois Crib Bumper Ban
On April 8th, the bill to ban the sale of crib bumper pads in Illinois passed through the House of Representatives by a vote of 64-46. The bill (HB5348) now has to pass through the Illinois Senate. This is a major victory for the safety of our children and we are asking your help to ensure that the bill passes through the Senate.
How can you help? If you are a resident of Illinois, please contact your state senator and urge them to support the bill.
To find out who your state senator are visit this website, type in your address, and click "confirm address" button. A list of your reps should pop up with contact information. Select the information for your state senator.
Below is draft language you can use in a letter to your state senate.
Dear Senator [Senator's Name],
I am writing as a constituent to encourage you to support HB 5348 which would ban the sale of crib bumper pads in Illinois. This is important for child safety as crib bumper pads pose a suffocation risk to children, while providing no protection from injury.
As a parent/responsible citizen, I would not want parents or caregivers to endanger the lives of our little ones by buying an unsafe crib bumper pad that is still available due to a lack of awareness. [Share a personal story, if any]. There are many such stories and you can get more details on http://www.kidsindanger.org/.
A ban on the sale of crib bumper pads will be helpful in ensuring a safe environment for our children. I believe this will make many parents more confident that their children are safe in their cribs. It also reinforces the safe sleep message that soft bedding has no place in a child's crib. Maryland and Chicago have already taken this important step.
Therefore, I ask you to support HR 5348 to ban the sale of crib bumper pads I also would appreciate it if you would let me know of the action that you take on this matter.
Your name
Contact information
If you have any questions or concerns email KID.
Thank you for your support on this very important issue.
General State Information
While product safety is regulated on a national level, there are many actions states can take to increase the protection of their children.
In 1999, through the efforts of Linda Ginzel, Boaz Keysar and KID, Illinois enacted the first Children's Product Safety Act. Since that time, Michigan, Vermont, Louisiana, Arkansas, Oregon, Missouri, New Jersey, and Rhode Island have passed similar legislation.
The Children's Product Safety Act protects children from dangerous and recalled products on the state-wide level. This Act makes it illegal to sell or lease recalled or dangerous children's products or to use those products in licensed childcare facilities. While the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act (CPSIA) of 2008 banned all sale of recalled items and cribs that don't meet the current standard, the provision keeping recalled products out of childcare is still a vital safety measure.
In addition, Illinois has added tough reporting requirements. This will make it easier for parents and caregivers to learn about dangerous products. The Illinois Attorney General's office has information for consumers on product safety.
California, Oregon, Washington, Arizona, Colorado and Pennsylvania have passed the Infant Crib Safety Act that includes similar language but only applies to cribs.
Urge your state to adopt the Children's Product Safety Act. Read the Model Legislation: Children's Product Safety Act (PDF).
Contact Your State Elected Officials
Write or email your state representative and senator and urge them to make children's product safety a priority.
Learn More
Progress Check New!
Has your state enacted the Children's Product Safety Act?


text:
Play The Shoe Stylist #3
The challenge set last week on Play The Shoe Stylist over at Shoewawa proved very popular and the results were difficult to judge. I would have liked to have put every single outfit up, because they were all great choices but I eventually managed to draw the line and come up with seven contrasting outfits using the retro red courts from Steve Madden. Check Shoewawa later today for this week's challenge if you fancy having a go at styling.
- Loved the 80s influence and the use of vintage accessories. Great beret!
- A really nice use of a print instead of going purely for black. Great accessories, too!
- Great tip of using the red belt in the shorts and the fabric belt as a hairband!
- Lulu Guinness would be proud! An absolutely gorgeous vintage find.
- Loved the unexpected use of colour, mixing blue and red. Great shades, too!
- Again, uses blue and red to great effect. Nice mix of low and high end, too.
- The flash of green is unusual. I think this would look better in reality than it does on screen.
If you want to know where to buy any of the items featured, check out the original comments at Shoewawa.


text:
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