Gettin’ Ready for the Post Season – An Amazing Spinach and Artichoke Dip

Moody Thought: “A good plan today is better than a perfect plan tomorrow.”

- Proverb

Wasup People,

It’s almost time for the playoffs baby! Between the college football bowl games and NFL postseason play, these next seven weeks I’ll be in heaven. I say, “While in heaven, maximize the moment!” Thus, I’m pulling out all the stops. My first stop is chips and dip. A good chip and dip sets the tone for the remaining festivities. What better way to start things properly than an amazing spinach and artichoke dip?

Ingredients:

2 Cloves fresh garlic (minced)

1 Cup Mayonnaise

1 Cup Grated Parmesan Cheese (8 oz)

1 (14 oz) can of artichoke hearts, drained and chopped

Salt and Pepper to taste

(Optional - a tablespoon mozzarella)

Instructions:

It tastes even better than it looks and is extremely easy to make. You’ll need about 35 minutes to make this. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C). While oven is preheating, drain a can (~14 ounce) of artichoke hearts (quartered or half) then chop them. Be careful not to dice the artichokes. It’s good to have a mix of chopped and hearty pieces of artichoke. Once you’re done chopping, place artichokes in a bowl then add 5 ounces of cooked, chopped spinach (I like to use frozen chopped spinach, drained well after cooking). Ensure that the spinach has been properly drained before adding them to the mixing bowl. Combine two cloves of minced garlic with a cup of mayonnaise and Parmesan cheese to the mixing bowl. Mix everything together carefully and add salt and pepper to taste. Personally, I like to add a lil mozzarella to top off the dip before I bake however, this is optional. Once everything has been thoroughly mixed together and meets your desired consistency, add dip to a small ramekin or oven dish of your choice then bake for 25 minutes or until the top is golden brown. Give it about five minutes to cool and supplement the dip with you choice of chips. I’ve found that salty pita or tortilla chips tend to work best.

I hope you give this a try and enjoy sharing this with folks you care about.

Peace,

TruEngineer

Verizon Wireless finally rolling out LTE Service December 5 – Simply Brilliant!

Moody Thought: “Good things come to those who wait.”

- Proverb 

Wasup People,

There has been a tremendous amount of buzz surround Verizon Wireless’s 4G or LTE network that will officially launch December 5 (finally, we've been waiting patiently) to some 100 million American consumers. I have to give Verizon credit, the way they are rolling out the product and how they are marketing it, simply brilliant. I say for two reasons, first, the product is rolling out slowing starting with computers and then migrating to mobile devices, tablets etc. This allows Verizon to stagger the use of its new network, maintain high download speeds, generate buzz all while they beef up their network for the tablet war in 2011. In addition, they are releasing a plethora of 4G phones that will be showcased at CES in January 2011, awesome!

The second reason why I think this move is brilliant is because of it’s marketing strategy. The new network is called 4G LTE (Long Term Evolution) allows them to claim it’s the next generation network while not actually being a 4G network. What am I talking about? By definition, 4G must get download speed of 100 Mbps mobile and 1Gbps stationary (think landlines, dsl,  cable, etc).

Anyhow, the commercials simply pop. I’ve included these two below.

New Commerical:

Old Commercial:

Each of these commercials generates buzz but Verizon has the technical capacity to pull it off. Coupled with the fact that this new network is GSM based (world wide standard) vs CDMA, it seems like the mythical Verizon iPhone may finally come to fruition and help Verizon compete on a global scale. I could go on and on but to put it simply, it’s brilliant!

Peace,

TruEngineer

iPhone reception issues – Who’s to blame, Apple or AT&T?

Moody Thought: “If at first you don’t succeed, dust yourself off and try again.”

- Aaliyah

Wasup People,

A lot of folks are out talking about potential reception issues for iPhone4’s when you hold them a specific way (resulting in connecting stainless steel antennas).  I find it rather interesting that many of these folks are secretly Apple haters. I think Steve Jobs and co. are aware of that thus explaining his response to customers, “It’s a non-issue.” Although I didn’t like Steve Jobs response and understand his rationale, I do think people are missing a bigger picture here. The truth of the matter is this; the iPhone4 is getting the best reception of any iPhone on AT&T’s network. Which leads me to this question, is AT&T’s network solely or largely to blame for poor reception on iPhones?

Now, if I haven’t made this clear in the past, I am not nor do I ever plan to be on AT&T’s network. Nothing against AT&T, I’m simply a faithful Verizon customer. With that being said, I do find it interesting that iPhone has an exclusive contract with AT&T considering Verizon’s network reputation. When we look at the reason for this it’s not because Verizon or any other cellular provider didn’t have the opportunity to have the iPhone on their network four years ago. After further investigation, we find that all the major carriers had an opportunity but choose not to carry it. Now, this is purely speculation on my part but I think the reason why Verizon and others turned down Apple was because the iPhone when it first came out wasn’t much of a phone. It was a gloried iPod that could make calls. Let’s be honest, iPhones have lacked many features that other phones have had for a while (MMS – wasn’t available till 3^rd generation, Multitasking – wasn’t available till 4^th generation – just a to name a few.)

So, with that being said, it brings me back to my question: “Is AT&T’s network solely or largely to blame for poor reception on iPhones?” I do think that AT&T is partly to blame but Apple is also largely responsible as well. We forget that Apple just got into the cellular industry recently. Apple has a history of making solid hardware and software for computers and media devices but not cell phones. I’m one to believe that Apple has been learning the hard way how to properly make cell phones while it get’s all the praise for the good and AT&T get’s all the blame for reception issues. Poor AT&T but then again, they’ve made a killing these past few years. So, I don’t really feel sorry for them. Anyhow, it makes me wonder though. Now, that Apple may have addressed some of their internal issues on proper cellular function will it finally migrate to other providers? I wouldn’t be surprised to see an iPhone5 or whatever name appear on Verizon, Sprint or T-Mobile within the next year.

These are just a few of my thoughts on this topic. What do you think?

TruEngineer