Working with swype

Ok, I'm sure that for the rest of the cool world this is nothing new, but I'm trying to rediscover swype. I'm doing a blog post from my nexus s, in the official blogger app, using swype. I gotta say that so far I'm pretty impressed. It isn't always accurate, but really it's just about as close as thumb typing. The biggest issue I'm having, in fact, is that right now swype requires me to be concious of the location of the letters on the keyboard. I have to spell out the letters rather than just typing the words. I suppose that typing like this will become more reflexive as time goes on and if I choose to keep using swype. I can really see the value of this type of input on a tablet where the keyboard is really too big for thumbs, and a little too small for two handed typing. I've especially noticed a difference when switching from portrait mode on my phone where thumb typing is very convenient, to landscape where the screen is easier to read, but the keys are just a little too far apart for quick typing. I may keep using this for a while.

Afternoon at the zoo

This post accomplishes two things. First, making a blog post from my nexus s, an opportunity to see how well I can type with my thumbs, and testing keyboard response. Both are good. And second, share a video recorded on my phone of a giraffe licking a wall. Recorded and uploaded on my phone. This thing kicks iPhone's ass.
Enjoy.

Published with Blogger-droid v1.6.6

Sourdough Rice Pancakes

I'll get back to the other blog the first chance I get. I've got an article waiting for review and proofreading, I just haven't taken the time to do it yet. In the mean time, I've got another project going on. First, a little background. Years ago I baked bread for a living. Primarily I was a baker of classic sourdough, and after about eight years I came to hate it. I stopped and moved in to a technology career path ten or so years ago, and I seem to have gotten over my hatred of sourdough bread. Recently I started experimenting with trying to grow a starter, and after a few weeks of failed attempts I finally produced an active happy sponge. After a couple of more experiments I'm producing tasty and consistent loaves. Simple, straight forward: flour, water, and a little salt.
Now, we're moving on to a new experiment. My wife has a friend who's daughter has a wheat allergy, but she would like to share some of my work with her. The sponge is made from flour and water, so I'm sure you can figure out the problem. These days it's often popular to substitute brown rice flour for wheat flour in recipes, but personally I'm skeptical. Non-gluten bread is very similar to a brick, and often tastes weird, and brown rice flour is gluten free, so it's the perfect ingredient for making a brick. With this in mind, I'm going to experiment first with flavor, and work backward to making a base product with the rice. The first step is going to be making sourdough pancakes. I've taken about half a cup of the sour sponge, diluted that in water, and simply replaced the white flour with brown rice flour in the batter base. I'll let that sit out overnight to ferment a bit, mix the rest the rest of the batter (using egg whites which is another story), and see how that goes. If it works, the project next week will be moving on to a sourdough loaf using rice flour. If you have any suggestions on how to go about that, I'd like to hear them.
I'll try to come around tomorrow and give an update on the pancakes.