Dump cake recipe Advertisement free

Mainly because the internet is full of broken recipe sites that start with a story about fairies or want you firstborn child's identity.  

1. Dump 2 cans of fruit into the bottom of a 9×13 pan.
2. Dump the cake mix on top of the fruit.
3. Add thin sliced of butter over top of the cake mix.
4. Bake @ 325 degrees F (165 degrees C) for 40 minutes  or until golden brown.

Interested, okay, here come the ingredients and pics.

This is a template, change it up or down, remember the idea is not to do any real work, and keep the liquid in there, since the liquid is what makes these stop drying out.

    1 (21 ounce) can cherry pie filling
    1 (20 ounce) can crushed pineapple, drained
    1 (18.25 ounce) package yellow cake mix
    1 cup margarine, melted
    1 cup flaked coconut
    1/2 cup chopped walnuts
My variation is to swap the melted margarine (a time consumer) with 1/2 a block of butter, just chop into slices of grease and lay on top ; and sub the nuttytoppings with chocolate chip buttons.

Writting product reviews

Why write product reviews? Part 1.
Well because whenever you uniquely pass a Turing test, you proves it's not just a bot leaving a review. Amazon have a huge problem with this for example, and I'm not sure they are even remotely capable of preventing paid reviews, there advertising AI sux eggs, so they cannot possibly remove fake reviews. So now you know why I leave reviews, AI is getting better and better at it every day, reviews that include a photo of the item are even harder to fake, so up your game a bit on your next review. I'll leave a link to some bot accounts to look at below for later.

How I score

I like the 1-5 scoring system, its granular enough to not take too long and easy enough to use for decision making. I have a different grade for software and for hardware, and I prefer to leave reviews in big batches in order to get some normalization going.

Software scores

Apps on the google store/Android and on other platforms get
1 star if they just fail to run, or are making false claims
2 stars if they have big issues, and don't get un-installed within the 1st 20 minutes
3 stars if they are pretty cool, but not something I am interested in, un-install after a few days
4 stars if they have minor issues, but stay installed for a few days, (5 stars if un-installed because job is done)
5 stars if I keep the app in my likes list, or engage and use it occasionally over a period.

How to earn 1 star for an app:
Crash out-of-box; offer free money (which is a barefaced lie) or run some other kind of money making scam; portray women as objects, or attempt to steal data or money. Or just plain be a mickey-mouse app which took 10 minutes to create.
How to earn 2 stars for an app:
Crash more than twice. I forgive out-of-box crashes if an app works on 2nd or 3rd try, I am a software tester after all, so crashes do excite me, I will try again. If the app runs, but still does not float my boat, its 2 stars.
How to earn 3 stars as an app:
I am not always your target market, I give 3 stars for something that other people might like, but is just not for me.
How to earn 4 stars for an app:
I have to like some aspect of your app, it needs to be an app that I can tell other people to try out. I will un-install your app for now, but I will install it again later if I ever need an app that does function X. It's not a bad app, it's just not permanently installed. If your app is a bit crappy, but you give me good support this will raise you from a 3 to a 4 star app, or even a 5 star.
How to earn 5 stars for an app or game:
Some one-off or single use apps get un-installed, but do get 5 stars. Mostly the 5 star apps will be apps I actually buy. Half of the free apps I use do not get 5 stars, something in the way adverts get pushed at me for the most hilarious products mean that free apps are a bit hobbled in my rating system. Charge me 5 dollars for the app and get 5 stars is my economy, if you want loyalty get a dog I say.

I'd like to see a world where reviews count for more than dumb adverts, adverts can be manipulated by anyone, but reviews from people that I actually know in real life are the same old currency they used to be. If you want reviews from real people who connect with real people, build on a well connected review platform of some kind that connects real customers with real vendors.

(Promised earlier, list of mostly bot accounts , which will leave you "likes" on medium.com and boost your SEO . Even though medium.com is strictly not about promotions... NOT)

Why I quit my job

I've been asked this so many times in the last few months. Nobody actually reads this blog, so I am sure I'll be asked a dozen more times, "Why did you quit ?"

Energy and focus. It's not something individuals can provide, the fuel for a team comes from elsewhere most of the time, and when things got wrong and that disappears, it's not going to go well.

 A corporate restructure when I was once working at a large IT firm had the same effect, and people just start leaving when that happens, well, that's a part of the reason. Because when energy and mission are not there, it normally means the product is not profitable and a even bigger restructure is in the wings. Not looking at cost-to-build the thing kinda grinds me at a "is this for real" level and gets worse the bigger the company. Energy doing the wrong things can also be bad, lots of wrong things were done, but for me, I was not getting the energy or optimistic vision I need.





There are 2 other contributing reasons for my leaving outside of morale and feeling driven; focus and competency.

Focus is something a development team have when they are all building the same thing and with the same goal in mind. An easy way to do this is to look at the constraints, what can we not do and what must we always do are product rules to live and die by. Stepping outside of a constraint, really is failure for the project. Typical constraints might be speed, size, market or just simply size of the device. Being focused on constraints sets up a common language around the cost of building things, engineers are really bad at looking at the cost. It also prevents the priority from shifting about randomly aka "Who moved my cheese"

Competency, this is me really. When I find I'm just not learning how to use the tools quickly enough, or getting enough of the job done, I feel unqualified. I think this is easy to do when you are trying to be all things to everyone, and not only be great at just one thing. If you are prone as I am to going down the rabbit hole, then exposing yourself to a really large system makes that rabbit hole problem so much more of a hurdle. If I'm on a learning track that is too high level or too low level and am not making visible progress, it's my prerogative to feel I am failing. Failing to play my part.
Well that's it, really, low motivation in a system where the energy is at a low already and the important thing keeps shifting around. I don't think I am able to learn as quickly as I used to do; that really knocks your confidence and miss-directs you.
Under it all, I am finding myself trying to define my place as an introvert in the workplace, for years I have made a lot of concious behaviour changes to break the introvert mould that forms around you. Ultimately this "concious behaviour" puts a stress on you in small ways you cannot imagine until you find the space to go and look at yourself properly. Next time I post, I'll be talking about a few other things I have gotten wrong over the years and more recently too. However, quitting this job was not a mistake, it was getting in the way of me being happy at all. If this is you, watch and learn from Susan Cains TED talk  : "The power of introverts" .

Fish Braai

Some notes on the fish BBQ.
It's probably the 1st time I actually cooked for someone else, which says a lot, but does not excuse 3 mistakes.
1. I forgot to add garlic to the bruschetta mix - I added a tad too much onion, but they were better than last time due to better toasting skills
2. I should double-foil the parcels on the braai, they all tore slightly, but with  no consequence, still more foil does help.
3. Put in a tad more coal to boost heat, it took over an hour to complete 2 re-loads of the grid.

This is the bruschetta recipe https://www.simplyrecipes.com/recipes/bruschetta_with_tomato_and_basil/

This is the Hake braai recipe, it was a large fish, https://www.lovefood.com/recipes/60526/andrew-nutters-bbq-fillet-of-hake

I made a modified version of the recipe for quick following

Hake BBQ

·  200 g beetroot, peeled and cut into quarters

·  1 tsp chopped fresh thyme

·  4 tbsp olive oil

·  8 shallots - peeled and cut in half lengthways

·  2 tbsp runny honey

·  4 x 200g Fillets of hake, skin on and boned

·  1 juice and zest lemon

·  1 clove garlic, chopped finely

10 new potatoes, boiled and cooled

Dressing parcel 1

200g Beetroot, 1tsp thyme, 2 tbsp olive oil

30 minutes roast

Dressing parcel 2

8 Shallots cut lengthways, 1 tsbsp olive oil, 2tbsp honey, crush 1 clove garlic

30 minutes roast

Fish

1 tbsp olive oil, lemon zest, lemon juice

Grill potatoes for 5 minutes.

Serve

Serve the parcels with fish on top, and with potatoes arranged around it all.

/rant
Pictured above is a incorrectly assembled Texas 47cm BBQ, as made in China - they missed out the grid between the 3 legs, so I had to find 2 bolts to put the wheels on, which is just an incredulously huge Homebase QA failure if you ask me.

Youtube UGM takedown request

I decided to share the audio for a takedown claim, which is 21 seconds, and frankly pretty much bull. So anyway it's the copyright people gone mad. The moving images are here - but now the sound is just not that much fun. I worked hard for it EMI are not fun people. Glad I don't buy that much from them.

To see the clip and what the fuss was about go to youtube : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ad-vq1DBUWs&feature=youtu.be