Category: starred

Carbon steel knives are popular among chefs and people who love to cook for a number of reasons, but they’re also much more expensive than stainless steel. To find out if the performance delta was worth the price, America’s Test Kitchen brought some serious science to bear. Here’s what they found.

The video above is worth a full watch—they put carbon steel knives and stainless steel knives under serious duress and repetitive testing to see which ones dull and lose their edge faster with regular use, doing everything from cutting up chickens to dicing onions to some tests we’ve described before, like slicing through sheets of paper to test sharpness. They even put them up against glass cutting boards—the bane of all knives everywhere. Then they take them to MIT’s digital imaging center for comparison, and then again to the Boston University Photonics Center and put them under an electron microscope to take an even closer look.

If all of this sounds like an incredible amount of science, it should—they tested a handful of carbon steel knives, and compared them against their budget favorite (and our favorite affordable chef’s knife), the Victorinox Fibrox 8-inch Chef’s Knife. The Victorinox held its own against their top performing carbon steel knife in test after test, and only started to flag after simulated months of stressful, regular use.

Their ultimate conclusion was that carbon steel will hold its own longer and is more durable than stainless steel, so it’s worth it—only if you have the extra cash to throw at those significantly more expensive carbon steel knives. Plus, you have to pick a good carbon steel knife too—not every carbon steel is better than all stainless steel knives, and in fact, many are much worse and cost more. They suggested the Bob Kramer 8" Chef’s Knife if you’re a carbon steel lover, but it comes in at a whopping $300. For the rest of us though, if you’re on a budget, there are great stainless steel models to be had that perform just as well.

Carbon Steel Knives | Cooks Illustrated via America’s Test Kitchen (YouTube)

via Lifehacker
This Video Explains When Carbon Steel Knives are Better than Stainless

The amount of meticulous detail and genius craftsmanship and microscopic precision that goes into one of these Patek Philippe Grandmaster Chime 5175R is ridiculous. Just watching the little pieces fit together is like seeing the most beautiful puzzle ever get completed. It better be, since the watch costs $2.5 million.

Patek just released the details on what they’re calling, the "most complicated wristwatch of the eminent family-owned watchmaking companies and decidedly one of the world’s most elaborate wristwatches." Which, okay cool. The Grandmaster Chime was made to celebrate Patek’s 175th anniversary. The watch is double faced (time face on one side, date face on the flip side) and packs as much watch speak as books about horology and expensive retail space do. Patek:

Its double-face case with a diameter of 47 mm, it accommodates four spring barrels and no fewer than 20 complications, including coveted functions such as a Grande and Petite Sonnerie, a minute repeater, an instantaneous perpetual calendar with a four-digit year display, a second time zone, and two patented global debuts in the domain of chiming watches: an acoustic alarm that strikes the alarm time and a date repeater that sounds the date on demand.

The watch’s movement has 1,366 parts and the 18K rose gold case is hand graved. The watch is totally and unapologetically ostentatious but it’s sure as hell fun to see it get made. Watch the process below.

---

SPLOID is a new blog about awesome stuff. Join us on Facebook

via Gizmodo
Seeing the world’s most complicated watch get built is pretty incredible

Flickr just announced a fun, new—albeit kind of pricey—program called Flickr Wall Art. All you have to do to turn your Flickr photos into a large canvas, photo mount, or book is select your preferences on the new Create portal. Two clicks—and at least $50—later, and your living room’s newest adornment is on the way.

This service is kind of a mixed bag. On one hand, Flickr Wall Art sounds like a really easy way to buy prints—"as little as two clicks," the company says. (Realistically, it takes about a dozen clicks for your first order.) Flickr also brags about using "museum-quality materials and professional printing." Photo mounts come on "Fujicolor Crystal Archive Paper with a lustre finish… mounted on a 1″ durable black mounting-board finished with wood-textured edges." Sounds luxurious!

It may be, but it’s not quite the best deal. Prices for an 11" x 14" canvas start at $64, and two clicks on a Google search will reveal that you can get the same thing at Canvas Pop for $43. Walmart will do it for $20. Without seeing the finished product, it’s hard to tell which service offers the best quality. But it’s probably safe to say that Flickr is not the cheapest choice if you’re looking to make some wall art out of your photos. Flickr also doesn’t say how big photos need to be for uploads, but when we tried one over 1000 pixels wide, it did not work.

Convenience is worth something, though. It’ll be interesting to see if Flickr turns Wall Art into an easy way for professional photographers to sell prints on the web. Until then, we’d encourage you to shop around. [Flickr via TechCrunch]

via Gizmodo
Flickr Now Lets You Turn Your Photos Into Canvases

Merging folders on a Mac is kind of a pain. When you do it, Finder tries to overwrite any file with the same name with the newer version. That means it’s easy to accidentally erase a whole folder. How-To Geek shows off a better way to merge folders using Terminal.

If you want to merge folders properly use the ditto command in Terminal. For example:

ditto ~/Desktop/Test ~/Downloads/Test

This will merge the Downloads/Test folder with the Desktop/Test folder, overwriting the contents of the destination folder with files from the source folder, while still keeping anything that’s different. You can also do this by option-clicking a folder and dragging and dropping it, but it doesn’t work as well. If you’ve been annoyed by Finder’s inconsistent merge options, ditto should do the trick.

How to Merge Folders on OS X Without Losing All Your Files (Seriously) | How-To Geek

via Lifehacker
Use the Ditto Command to Properly Merge Folders on Mac

All of us need to go through our wardrobe and make some cuts once in a while. Apartment Therapy presents a good inventory and cleaning system to purge your closet effectively.

The process involves taking everything out of your closet and trying it on. Then, get help from a friend to use the one to ten scale rating system, detailed below:

Items that rate an "8" or above — say those articles that are in good shape, fit you well and make you feel good, get to stay. 5 to 8 ratings go in the maybe box. Anything lower (damaged items, items you haven’t worn in years or things that just don’t make you feel confident), goes directly into the donate box. Consider putting high rating clothes back by the "hanger trick."

We’ve mentioned the hanger trick before, and it’s a great way to keep your closet organized. As you go, keep a running inventory list of the things you decide to keep. This will help you quickly see what articles you need to replace or buy. You should also make a "dream list" as you go, so you have one list of what you have, and one list of what you need or want. Use these lists to go back through the maybe box and help you make final decisions.

How to Do a Closet Inventory (And Why You Should) | Apartment Therapy

Photo by Rubbermaid Products.

via Lifehacker
​Take Inventory of Your Closet and Clean it All at Once

It’s tough keeping your tool chest organized, especially when you have loose wrenches rattling around in drawers. Grab a few carabiners and gain control of your tools.

Carabiners are readily available at any camping or sporting good store and come in a variety of sizes and colors. You can also find them in almost any hardware store or home center, typically in the check-out aisle.

Wrenching Tips | Hooniverse

via Lifehacker
Organize Your Wrenches with Carabiners

We homeowners love all the tax breaks the IRS gives us. When we make improvements to our home, we can use those expenses to offset some taxes when selling. Home repairs, unlike improvements, aren’t deductible at time of sale though. Here’s a quick way to know which costs you can deduct.

Over at Don’t Mess with Taxes, they explain the differences:

For work on a personal piece of real estate to have any tax value, it must add to the property’s value or prolong its life. These are classified as home improvements.

You and I likely will argue that a working kitchen faucet does indeed add value to our homes, but the Internal Revenue Service is unpersuaded in this area.

Instead, the federal tax man says general upkeep tasks like my faucet repair simply keep or return a home to its original good condition, rather than qualify as tax-reducing improvements to the residence.

Tax-saving capital improvements have to last for more than one year and add value to your home, prolong its life, or adapt it to new uses.

We’d like to deduct everything we think adds value to our home, but the IRS disagrees. You’ll need to consult a tax advisor to know for sure, but this is a good rule of thumb to help understand the difference.

Tax differences between home repairs & home improvements | Don’t Mess With Taxes

Photo by Karin Dalziel.

via Lifehacker
Know the Tax Differences Between a Home Repair and Home Improvement

iOS/Web: Not everyone likes a quiet workspace. Some of us prefer to have a little background noise. We’ve covered many online noise generators in the past, but MyNoise is different: it calibrates background noise based on your hearing range and listening devices.

Each of us hears slightly differently, so myNoise lets you configure the app after going through a quick hearing test. Once you tell it the smallest threshold you can hear in each range, it remembers the settings. The iPhone app lets you configure the sound levels based on location like a noisy plane or a busy coffee shop.

I’ve tested it for a few weeks and I like that my headphones at my desktop block out more sound than my portable earbuds. I’ve even used it at night to help me fall asleep along with my SleepPhones. Check it out at the link below.

myNoise noise machines | myNoise.net

via Lifehacker
MyNoise Customizes Background Noise to Your Hearing

Wrecky minion Lauren sent in today’s cookie cake with a single, desperate plea:

"Tell me what this means!!"

And while I agree that it appears to be some kind of secret hieroglyphic code – no doubt used to communicate government secrets to fondant sympathizers – I honestly have no clue what it says.

So help me out, peeps:

My best guess?

Carrots seize (seas) the G3 checkpoint.

(Aha! Maybe someone is calling the Carrot Jockeys to action?)

 

And while you’re at it, can somebody PLEASE tell me what this is?

Because all I see is a bleeding rain cloud. Or maybe a bleeding frozen brain. Oh! Oh! Could it be Frozen/ Walking Dead cross-over? DARE TO DREAM, PEOPLE.

 

Thanks to Lauren & Anonymous for finding either awesomely clever cake puzzles, or the world’s most fiendish decorator trolls. (That bleeding thing is almost $34. THIRTY FOUR DOLLARS!)

*****

Thank you for using our Amazon links to shop! USA, UK, Canada.

via Cake Wrecks
SOMEBODY, PLEASE, TELL ME WHAT THIS SAYS

fan-made, shot-for-shot remake, the sequel to the Emmy-winning Star Wars Uncut  
via Waxy.org Links
The Empire Strikes Back Uncut