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Ah, the wonders of Internet memes. Bacon is all the rage nowadays. As such, companies have been looking to capitalize on that taste demand. Enter J&D's with their two entries in the field: Bacon Salt and Baconnaise.

I've had Bacon Salt for a while now. It's awesome stuff. Goes great on a lot of things. My only issue is I've become pre-hypertensive and that much sodium isn't going to help things. So, I was excited to hear about Baconnaise, which would allow me to continue my bacon-flavored adventures with less sodium and heart attacks and such.

I ordered a jar of Baconnaise from their site last week and got it earlier this week. Excluding the holiday, it was only about 3-4 days of shipping time. Not too shabby! I ordered the light version, as it cuts the fat to 1/3 the previous value and dumps 25mg of sodium as well. But to it's credit, the majority of the fats in the regular version are unsaturated.

My first plan was to try some as a spread topping for a Chick-fil-a Chargrilled Chicken Sandwich. For those familiar with them, they're relatively subdued in flavor compared to other Chick-fil-a options. But the best thing about them is they have nearly no fat (3g), a ton of protein (28g), and a whole wheat bun for complex carbohydrates. They actually would make a great entry in anyone's diet.

So, I got two yesterday and put some Baconnaise on the bun. My first impression was that the taste was surprisingly light. However, two things likely factored into this: 1) I'm coming from Bacon Salt, which is extremely flavorful 2) This is the light version, so it's probably not going to be as strong. Regardless, while the taste was minimal, it was excellent. I definitely recommend the combination.

The consistency also surprised me. Realistically, Baconnaise is much less a spread and more of a dip. It has a texture and thickness that matches dips more than mayonnaise. I'm going to try it with some carrots as a dip a little later on today as a snack. I have high expectations for that. I think it would also go good with potato chips, but I'm not interested in taking in those kinds of saturated fats.

All-in-all, it's a great product. I'd recommend getting the pack of Bacon Salts and Baconnaise direct from J&D's, provided it's not in your local grocery yet. Give it a whirl and see if you like it. If you like bacon, you probably will.

I'm nuts about TV. Seriously, it's my favorite media format. I'm especially a fan of serialized shows that follow a single story arc from week to week over the course of a season or a series. And luckily for me, this kind of show is becoming more and more popular (which is a welcome change from the sitcom and reality crap that used to flood the airwaves).

One problem with that kind of format is that if you miss an episode, it's more severe than other shows. So, it's one of the biggest reasons I've wanted a Tivo for a long time. For me, it's not the cost that's been the issue, it's HDTV support. So, when I heard word of the Series3 Tivo, I was all over it like white on rice. I've seriously been chomping at the bit to get one, no matter the cost. Now that it's out, most people are put off by the $800 price tag, but for something that's going to change how I watch TV and will keep everything in the nice, high quality I like, it's perfect for my needs, no matter what the cost.

Anyhoo, it was annouced by Engadget that it would be released this Tuesday, so I opened up Tivo in my browser before heading to bed so I could just hit Cmd+R in the morning to refresh the page and order one quickly. No, I'm not kidding. I did so and had mine ordered by 9am EST on Tuesday. My geek factor was high that day.

Unfortunately, there are two very bad things I hadn't planned on happening. The first was at 9:30am when I called up Comcast to get the required CableCards to handle the digital cable and encrypted channels I subscribe to. For those not familiar, a CableCard is basically your standard PCMCIA card that holds some data to allow any CableCard-using device to access the premium content you might be getting over your cable line. The FCC has mandated that every cable company provide them so that we're not forced into using the cable company's boxes. This Tivo will replace my cable box completely. However, despite being dead simple to install (slide in the slot, read some codes from the screen to a technician on the phone, and repeat for card number 2), they are requiring that a technician come out to install these for me. And apparently they are backed up, so I can't get it until Oct 2nd! Luckily, Lost, my favoritest show ever, isn't going to premiere until the 4th, so it should be all set in time. But if they had delayed further, someone at Comcast would be dead right now. So, no pure HD until the 2nd.

As for the 2nd issue, I got this message tonight:

Dear TiVo Customer,

Thank you for your TiVo Store purchase. Unfortunately, due to excessive order volumes for the TiVo Series3 HD Digital Media Recorder, your shipment has been delayed. We will be refunding all shipping charges to your account. The credit should post to your account within 3-7 business days.

Please be assured we will be shipping your order no later than Friday, 9/15/06. You will receive a shipment confirmation email with the tracking information at that time. We sincerely apologize for any inconveniences this may have caused. In the meantime, if you have any further questions or concerns, please feel free to contact us at (877) 367-8486.

Best regards,

TiVo Customer Support

Not as bad as the CableCard issues, but still... Good thing I chose the overnight shipping option, though :)

For those following The Lost Experience:

I've never seen so much nerd rage generated over any one topic as the great .99999... == 1 debate. It's currently being "discussed" on digg. Read through that and tell me that's not the most anger you've seen over one simply equation.

BTW, the answer is that 0.99999... approximately equals 1. It's related the fact that infinity has no decimal representation, in that, 0.9999... is represented in decimal form as an approximation. Taking advantage of that fact results in the ability to say 0.99999... == 1. In decimal form, it does. In conceptual form, it does not.

First, what the hell is a hurricane doing in the middle of the US?

Onto business, I've been getting a video game overload from E3 this week. Coming out of the show, everything points to PS3 losing big time this generation. It's expensive and doesn't do anything more than the rest. To me, it seems like a half-assed Wii cloned controller mixed with a half-assed XBox Live knockoff. The graphics also don't look significantly better than the XBox 360. For the 50% increase in price, you'd expect a 50% increase in quality. But the hardware specs don't lie and the system just isn't worth the cost. I know I'm not buying one. In fact, I think Peter Moore has hit the nail on the head. I'll be getting a Wii in addition to my 360 for the price of just the PS3. And, by the looks of it, I'm going to be having way more fun.

Speaking of the Wii, some people seem to be worried about it. I'm not. The one thing I've always noticed is that when you have to buy a special controller for a game (e.g. Samba de Amigo or DDR), you get a much better game experience. So, making it a permanent part of the system means there will always be that part of the experience. There's also the big reason for having the special controller: marketing. For years, new systems have been sold on the basis of better graphics. But that's only pushing games for existing gamers. New gamers don't really have a basis of comparison. If they see a motion blurred racing game or real time self-shadowing character models, they don't think anything of it because they don't see it as being an improvement, just their baseline. However, people are most definitely going to be talking about the new controller on the Wii. It senses where you are and lets you directly manipulate the game. That's going to be huge.

Any time I've ever seen someone play a video game who's new at them, they always swing and twist the control around trying to move it to manipulate what's going on the game. This is going to give people the direct manipulation that they want and need to really enjoy the experience. In terms of usability, as we've moved into this 3d universe, we've kept our 2d controllers. Emily has the hardest time trying to play Halo because it's not natural to map 2d movement on a controller to the 3d movement on the screen. I guarantee you if we both had Wii remotes, she would be much better at the game. For the first time, we have 3d games and we have a 3d controller. It's basically the promise of virtual reality without the silly helmets.