One and Only Chili (Also Known As "Loser Chili")

One and Only Chili was painstakingly created to include every ingredient measured in a 1, as you will see by the recipe. The third iteration of the chili was so good that we foolhardily entered it in a Chili Cook Off contest, which resulted in the additional epiithet, "Loser Chili." Any, this chili is really good, is only mildly spicey, has a smooth feel on the palate, and happily is welcomed for leftovers.
Ingredients for Step 1 1 tbsp olive oil 1 medium onion, diced 1 tbsp minced garlic Ingredients for Step 2 1 pound ground beef, crumbled Ingredients for Step 3 1 28 ounce can of diced tomatoes 1 8 ounce can of tomato sauce 1 6 ounce can tomato paste 1 cup beef broth 1 tbsp chili powder 1 tsp ground cumin 1 tsp paprika 1 tsp oregano 1 tsp coriander 1 tsp fish sauce 1 tsp cocoa powder 1 tsp granulated sugar 1 tsp salt 1 tsp ground pepper 1 tsp hot pepper sauce 1 15 oz can kidney beans, drained and rinsed 1 15 oz can pinto beans, drained and rinsed Step 1 Put olive oil, diced onion, and minced garlic into InstantPot and sauté. Step 2 Add ground beef to InstantPot and sauté, mixing with onions and garlic Step 3 Add all ingredients to InstantPot and stir together thoroughly. Close the lid on the InstantPot, make sure pressure relief valve is closed. Press the Beans/Chili button, setting the cooker to cook on High for 20 minutes. When cooking is completed, allow the steam pressure to go down on its own. SERVE, garnished with green, red, and yellow bell pepper pieces, and a dollop of sour cream. Robert Harris November 11, 2021

Tonor TC30 USB Condenser Microphone

 The Tonor TC30 USB condenser microphone has finally met all of my requirements for a good computer microphone. In the past I have purchased half a dozen microphones for use with my software--headset with mic, phantom power condenser, Webcam mic, and so on. My requirements were:

1. It must be easy to hook up and not require a bunch of elaborate equipment such as a phantom power supply. The TC 30 USB mic is, as its name says, connected to a USB port. Simple plug-and-play.

2. It should be quiet and  not include a bunch of background noise on recordings. The TC30 comes with a shock mounting and a pop filter, and the signal to noise ratio is 68dB. Frequency response is 50Hz to 20kHz. If you wonder how adequate that is, do a sound test (there are lots them on  YouTube) and see how  good your frequency range is. I can hear from about 69Hz to 7500 kHz.  

3. It should include a pop filter because I tend to pop my Ps into the microphone all the time. The Tonor TC30 has a very sturdy pop filter, approximately 3.5 by 3.5 inches. The mounting to the mic is very sturdy, eliminating the possibility of slipping during use. (Yes, I've had more than one droopy pop  filter.)

4. It must be compatible with and work well with the software I use most. My programs are Audacity, Zoom, and Dragon NaturallySpeaking 15. Working with Audacity is excellent, with Zoom is very good, and with Dragon is functional (I think my PC, even though new, is running slow.)

5. It must be reasonably priced. I'm rather stingy, so I looked for a new mic in the $30 range, and found the Tonor30 USB.

6. It should come with good documentation, related to performance specs. Yes, it does.

Things I like about the TC 30

1. If you like to make unboxing videos for YouTube, The TC30 is a great choice. The microphone is packaged in a beautiful box using high density foam like an expensive camera would be.

2. There is a web site and an email address right on the box--and on the instruction manual--if you need customer support.

3. There is a two-year warranty.

4. Included at no extra charge are the pop filter and desktop tripod.

5. The microphone includes a shock mounting that attaches to the tripod, keeping out much extraneous noise. 

6. The Tonor TC30 is rugged looking and appears to be solidly built. If you are looking for a mic for podcasts, this one has very impressive gravitas (it looks great). 

Bottom  Line: If  you want a very nice mic for $30 or so, check this one out.  I am very pleased with it.

Clean  Hands Declaration: I have not received any payment or incentive to write this review or to express favorable opinions about  the product. If you click on the ad for this product and purchase it from Amazon, I will be paid a small fee.

The Twelve Days of Christmas Get Real

 

The Twelve Days of Christmas Get Real

 

Hearing the “Twelve Days of Christmas” song recently, I thought at once that it is a bit dated. No modern young woman will agree to marry an established young man who offers her only a few animals and some fruit as a dowry. Here is the song upgraded to match the needs and expectations of the 21^st century young woman.          

 

On the first day of Christmas, my true love gave to me

An island in the South Seas.

 

On the second day  of Christmas, my true love gave to me

Two private jets,,

And an island in the South Seas.

 

On the third day  of Christmas, my true love gave to me

Three large yachts,

Two private jets,

And an island in the South Seas.

 

On the fourth day  of Christmas, my true love gave to me

Four fancy cars,

Three large yachts,

Two private jets,

And an island in the South Seas.

 

On the fifth day  of Christmas, my true love gave to me

Five tons of gold,

Four fancy cars,

Three large yachts,

Two private jets,

And an island in the South Seas.

 

On the sixth day  of Christmas, my true love gave to me

Six sprawling mansions,

Five tons of gold,

Four fancy cars,

Three large yachts,

Two private jets,

And an island in the South Seas.

 

On the seventh day of Christmas, my true love gave to me

Seven New York banks,,

Six sprawling mansions,

Five tons of gold,

Four fancy cars,

Three large yachts,

Two private jets,

And an island in the South Seas.

 

On the eighth day of Christmas, my true love gave to me

Eight Eastern Kingdoms,

Seven New York banks,

Six sprawling mansions,

Five tons of gold,

Four fancy cars,

Three large yachts,

Two private jets,

And an island in the South Seas.

      On the ninth day of Christmas, my true love gave to me

Nine diamond mines,

Eight Eastern Kingdoms,

Seven New York banks,

Six sprawling mansions,

Five tons of gold,

Four fancy cars,

Three large yachts,

Two private jets,

And an island in the South Seas.

 

On the tenth day of Christmas, my true love gave to me

Ten forest castles,

Nine diamond mines,

Eight Eastern Kingdoms,

Seven New York banks,

Six sprawling mansions,

Five tons of gold,

Four fancy cars,

Three large yachts,

Two private jets,

And an island in the South Seas.

 

On the eleventh day of Christmas, my true love gave to me

Eleven oil leases,

Ten forest castles,

Nine diamond mines,

Eight Eastern Kingdoms,

Seven New York banks,

Six sprawling mansions,

Five tons of gold,

Four fancy cars,

Three large yachts,

Two private jets,

And an island in the South Seas.

 

On the twelfth day of Christmas, my true love gave to me

Twelve billion dollars,

Eleven oil leases,

Ten forest castles,

Nine diamond mines,

Eight Eastern Kingdoms,

Seven New York banks,

Six sprawling mansions,

Five tons of gold,

Four fancy cars,

Three large yachts,

Two private jets,

And an island in the South Seas.

 

—© 2020 Robert Harris. Copy, share, and use freely, but don’t steal, alter, or charge for it.

Waterdrop Plus DA29-00020B Refrigerator Water Filter, Replacement for Samsung DA29-00020B

 I have been using Waterdrop Plus filters in my Samsung refrigerator for about three years now, and they have always been reliable. I am impressed by the solid feel of the cartridges and by the ease of installation. (Some instructions on other feathered tell the user to disconnect the water supply to the refrigerator before installing the new cartridge. This is not necessary with the Waterdrop Plus DA29-00020B Refrigerator Water Filter, Replacement for Samsung DA29-00020B. The refrigerator has a spring loaded valve which keeps any water from leaking out with your removing or installing the new filter.)

What really impresses me about the water pump plus is the number of pollutants the filter removes or reduces and the degree to which it  reduces them. According to the company's product description, the Waterdrop Plus is 

+NSF 401 certified, reducing 99.2% of BPA, 96.6% of estrone, 95.2% of phenytoin, 94.4% of ibuprofen, 96.2% of naproxen, 97.2% of nonyl phenol.

+NSF 53 certified, reducing 99.6% of lead, 99.99% of cysts, 96.6% of benzene, 98.4% of carbofuran, 96.6% of endrin.

+NSF 42 certified, reducing 97% of chlorine taste and odor.

+NSF 372 certified for lead-free material.

Installation instructions tell the user to run many gallons of water to rinse away loose carbon particles on filter before using the water. On all my Waterdrop Plus filters I found this to be unnecessary, because I never seen any loose carbon particle and the water tastes great from the first squirt out of the refrigerator water dispenser down to the end of the life of the filter.

You might be able to go cheaper for a water filter replacement, but I don't think you'll get a better one than this.

The company warns you to select the right replacement filter carefully, matching the part number of the original. Would you have done that, you can relax and enjoy the satisfying piece of high-technology makes your life better safer.

Beware of Verizon Cellular Exploit

 About a month ago, I decided my old smart phone needed to be replaced. Because I was already a Verizon customer with my phone connected to a family plan, I steered around those tempting "free phone" offers that have (almost) hidden requirements to upgrade to new services at prices that help Verizon offer such "good deals."

I was looking through the phone offers and found one that included a very cheap phone and something like only $24 a month service. Well, of course, that turned out to mean "$24 a month PER PHONE for 4 phones." I should have suspected that Verizon might pull a fast one on me, but I decided to ask a sales rep to sort things out and give me my options. 

So, I clicked on "Chat" and talked to a rep for a few minutes. She couldn't answer some of my questions (Verizon's plans are fairly complex--the Web site at one point said my old phone could be traded in for $300, then the chat person later said $150, then finally $15.)

Okay, long to short. I picked a phone and added it to our service plan, and deleted my old phone. In a day or two the new phone arrived and all seemed well.

THEN, a month later, my credit card showed a charge for VERIZON*DIGITAL CHAT for $49.45. I searched all over the Web site to find a customer service link, but all the contacts had phone trees  with no option relevant.

FINALLY, I called the 800 number on the bill and asked what was going on. The answer is that VERIZON CH ARGES YOU TO CHAT WITH A SALESMAN TO ANSWER YOUR QUESTIONS ABOUT THEIR PHONES AND PLANS.

There was no warning or statement that Chat cost money. I've never paid for Chat for any company before. So be forewarned. 

To Verizon I say, "Start being honest about doing this before someone sues you."

Intelius Background Check Product Review

A major disappointment. Or to be more narrative:

I was creating a lesson on the persistence of information on the Web, and I thought some info from a background check company would make a revealing slide. So I typed in a name and the service at the Intelius Web site provide a reasonable presence. Like several of the other background check companies on the Web, Intelius apparently uses trained gerbils with abacuses to find information, because the user must sit through screen after screen of growing completion lines, while the screen says something like, "Gathering information on possible arrest records."  I must have wasted five minutes waiting for these gimmicks to play out.

'

Finally, I was offered the report for $20 or so for a month of unlimited additional reports. I was a sucker, so I chose that. Then a screen pops up, saying that if I wanted to print or download a copy of this report, i would have to pay a few more dollars. This ploy turned out to be a major method of upping the cost of the report. For more details on criminal records, for example, please pay extra.

The basic report is pathetic. Here is what I got:

1. Name and birth  date, accurate

2. Possible Aliases, three listed, none correct

3. Possible Jobs, 9 listed, 6 correct, 3 incorrect, including owning a termite control company

4. Educational degrees: 3 listed, all correct (impressive)

5. Social Security Number: number not provided; location issued (California), correct

6. Possible Marriage Records: 6 listed, 0 correct.

7. Possible Divorce Records: 7 listed, 0 correct

8. Possible relatives: 6 listed, 4 correct

9. Related URLs: 10 listed, 4 correct

10. Possible P)hone numbers: 1 out of 6 correct

11. Possible email addresses:  1 out of  5 correct

12. A list of sex offenders living near previous addresses.

13. List of neighbors near various previous addresses.

14. Possible criminal records: incorrect traffic violation

15. Unlikely criminal records: About 12 criminal records none attributable to me, mostly  traffic violations, but a  couple burglary

16. 28 sex offenders near addresses

17. list of 6 web pages or connections, 6 listed, 3 incorrect

and a few more pages of the same junk.

A purchaser could have gleaned a former address and a former phone number  if  he had been looking for it. Otherwise,  every correct note is buried and confused by incorrect junk.

I didn't spring for any of the "extra details." I felt somewhat cheated by the ploy of withholding info, especially after saying how thorough it was going to be (and that I had better prepared to be shocked at what I was about to learn).

Bottom line: for me, Intelius is a waste of time and money.

The Best Computer Speakers, Ever

When you bought your latest PC,  did you also get a pair of plastic-enclosed, cheap speakers so that your Zoom calls would have better audio than the tinfoil emitters built in to your new pride and joy? If so, I think you might have made a mistake. Over time, I've bought a number of "computer speakers," and since I'm cheap, they have all been under, say, about $75, usually more like $29. And they sounded like it. But that was before YouTube. I like to listen to music--of various kinds.

For years, I had two Maranz floor speakers sitting on my desk on either side of my PC monitor. They were impressive and good, what with a near flat frequency response and   12-inch woofers in an unported three way system. I had them so long as my main stereo speakers that the foam mounting on the woofers crumbled. I liked them so much I had the foam replaced.

But more recently circumstances so occurred (that is, my wife "commented" on them) that I was encouraged to give them to a housekeeper making his start in the world. So, I  had a pair of hand-me-down Pioneer bookshelf speakers, two-way ported jobs, with 6 1/2 inch bass drivers. To power them, I bought a tiny amplifier Lepai LP 2020A+ which produces about 15 or 20 watts per channel. That little amp is great. I liked its performance so much that I bought another for my room with the treadmill, so I could listen to YouTube while exercising.

Long story a bit longer, I saw an ad for some bookshelf speakers by Dayton Audio, for sale by Parts Express. These were the B652, with a 6-inch bass driver. But they were still  just a tad large (and they were sold out, too) so I looked at Dayton's other offerings. And there they were. Our eyes met, the room grew warmer, excitement filled  the air.

So now, my "computer speakers," my musical sound while I am computing, comes from two Dayton Audio B452 speakers, driven by the newest little, cute as ever, Lepai LP2020TI amplifier. Yes, as the secret code hidden in the model number deciphers, these speakers are two-way (4 1/2-inch bass drivers and a tweeter). Not ported.

The speakers are about 9 1/2 inches high and 6 inches wide, so they don't take up much real estate.
The current (May 2, 2020)  price is about $28 for the pair of speakers and about the same for the amp. So, for under $60, you can get a surprisingly wonderful audio system for  your PC. I've tried several kinds of music with them, from vocal like "Be Thou My Vision" to EDM (electronic dance music). Crank up the amp and the bass will stun the termites in  your walls.

Both the speakers and the amp are from Parts Express (who paid me nothing for this plug).

I'm just sayin'.