Considered the crossroads of the Far East, Malaysia assimilated cultures and cuisines from China, India, Thailand and the Middle East. Peanut Satay, Malaysia's signature dish, delicately blends exotic spices, coconut milk, tamarind and fruit and crunchy peanuts into a robust sauce for Hokkien noodles.

[ Amazon.com: Ka-Me Noodle Box, Peanut Satay ]

Not sure how authentic these are, but I do love Hokkien noodles and peanuts, so as far as I'm concerned it's authentically yummy!

In Rockville I had the fastest connection Comcast would sell me, and in Bethesda I now have the fastest connection Verizon (FiOS) will sell me. I am going to say that Fiber allows for more speed than Cable, though this is clearly not scientific in any way...

Results provided by ZD Net Australia.

This How-To provides step-by-step instructions for creating a Universal Wireless Repeater appliance: a device that you can place anywhere and it will wirelessly repeat the strongest signal, onto another wireless network (with or without security). This functionality is also known as Wireless Client Bridge, or Range Expander. Unlike WDS, once you have this appliance setup, it will work with any open network.

[ Universal Wireless Repeater - DD-WRT Wiki ]

Since the FiOS router they give you does the WiFi for you, I can flash my old Linksys and turn it into a repeater to help get the signal upstairs to my wife's PC. Just have to figure out where I packed it first...

Update: the Linksys that I had would only allow for the "micro" version that can't be a repeater. However, I was able to set it up as a Wireless Bridge which allows it to replace the WiFi dongle that Yaty had been using. Since you can boost the signal of the Linksys, it can much more easily reach the FiOS router and she reports that the speed is much improved. Once again, thank you Linux.

After helping to persuade the House of Representatives to pass a bill to protect our national parks from mining pollution we're asking the Senate to do the same. But the mining industry is mounting a powerful lobbying effort. You can help protect the Grand Canyon and other national parks from toxic mining waste by signing our petition.

[ Home - Environment America ]

Must remember to read this in depth later...

Volkswagen will unveil a diesel-electric hybrid version of their Golf hatchback (known as the Rabbit in North-America) at the Geneva Motor Show. The information that has filtered out so far is promising: Fuel economy of 83.1 mpg imperial, 69.9 mpg US. Only 89 grams of carbon dioxide per kilometer (for comparison, the Toyota Prius hybrid emits 104 g/km).

[  Volkswagen to Introduce 70 mpg Diesel-Electric Hybrid Golf : TreeHugger ]

Honda has announced plans for a diesel hybrid too. The race is on!

I think it's been decided:

After all, a bunch of young hot celebrities, plus Karim Abdul Jabbar and an old guy playing the piano all say that we can...

Now can someone please tell me where I can get that Cherry Ice Cream!?!?!

There were complaints about Super Paper Mario and it's 2D/3D gimmick. You can only do it while playing Mario, and the other dimension was pretty boring. Kokoromi studio in Montreal has done it up right:

Not only does the flipping dimensions go a full 360° but each 2D view is interesting and playable. I hope this finds its way onto the Wii, DS, PSP, or PS3, I don't want to have to buy an XBox 360 just for this...

The founders of Ben & Jerry's endorsed Barack Obama on Monday, and lent his Vermont campaign two "ObamaMobiles" that will tour the state and give away scoops of "Cherries for Change" ice cream.

[ Ben & Jerry's founders endorse Obama - Yahoo! News ]

This is what is wrong with the press, there are dozens of stories across the Internets about this publicity stunt. As far as I can tell not one mentions what the flavor is. Nor do any mention if this is a one-up publicity flavor or if it is going to be available nation-wide. No story mentions the availability, or the ObamaMobile routes, or existence of the flavor outside Vermont, or even why cherries would be for change.

I like cherries. I like Chery Garcia. I like premium ice cream with cherries. Blah blah blah Obama, what about the real story here, it's all about the Cherries! Next time, press, ask what is in the frick'n ice cream already.

Toshiba Corporation today announced that it has undertaken a thorough review of its overall strategy for HD DVD and has decided it will no longer develop, manufacture and market HD DVD players and recorders. This decision has been made following recent major changes in the market.

[ Toshiba Announces Discontinuation of HD DVD Businesses ]

This leaves BluRay as the only High Def on a Disc format left in the game. I'm a bit surprised how quickly that went. I'm rather sure that there are still some Super Beta people out there who refuse to give up the ghost. What is the actually market condition that hammered the nail in HD DVD's grave?

• Apple rumors?
• XBox rumors?
• Universal and Paramount rumors?
• WB facts?
• Wal*Mart cruelty?
• Netflix joining Blockbuster in support of BluRay?

Who really knows. What I do know is this means that Universal, Dreamworks, and Paramount will all be changing their tune to BluRay soon. And that means Back to the Future, Heroes, Shrek, Breakfast Club, and many other goodies coming to BluRay.

Props to KooshMoose for sending me the Kotaku link.

Professor Layton and the Curious Village Nintendo DS Nintendo Everyone A

I generally avoid puzzle video games. Why? Because they generally suck. Usually plagued by few, simple, old, hackneyed, puzzles that I figured out when I was 8. This, however, is an exception. Clearly my many years of experience helped me solve these puzzles, but that doesn't mean that I did them all instantly, or that I didn't sloppily miss a few the first time. There are over 120 puzzles, and apparently a weekly puzzle available for download (for who knows how long, but still that's cool). So lack of puzzles won't be an issue. And the interface is perhaps the best part. Instead of just saying here's 120 puzzles go at them, there is a well written story with decent animation (for a DS) that even has good voice acting. All-in-all it took me about 9 1/2 hours to complete the game and save the day. I've now started to destroy the game by finding every last puzzle and completing them all, and who knows what great "super ending" they have in store for me. Basically if you like puzzles, this is a must buy.

Lee Siegel argues that our ever-deepening immersion in life online doesn't just reshape the ordinary rhythms of our days; it also reshapes our minds and culture, in ways with which we haven't yet reckoned.

[ Amazon.com ... The Kindle Store ]

To hear the guy you'd think we're all headed towards living in caves sealed off from each other only relating via computers and in totally inadequate ways. Sounds like he doesn't like the electronic life, or the always on connection. Read all about it on your Kindle. Yes, he's selling a Kindle version. Hope this sells 0 copies.