Category: Reviews

At the supermarket, I spied a box of Jelly Belly Sweet Rocks, and I had to buy it for a Cruft Labs review. A few years ago, we reviewed Bott’s Beans, the candy based on the Harry Potter books.

The Sweet Rocks are a tie-in to the Ant Bully movie. Evidently the ants eat jelly beans and call them ‘sweet rocks’. Whatever.

The whole point of the Sweet Rocks is really down to the four special flavors. Alka Root, Ant Hill, Caterpillar, and Grass Clippings.

We sorted out the jelly beans from two boxes and here is the total amount of the desired ones to test. I wish they put a bit more in the box. The regular Jelly Bellys are good, but we are really after the special flavors.

On to the testing:
Alka Root – Tasted like root beer to me. Didn’t get any subtle nuance of something else. Everyone else agreed.
Ant Hill – This is dirt flavor. Not kidding, tastes like dirt. I was able to eat and swallow it, but Mom & Dad both spit it out.
Caterpillar – Several of us tried to figure this one out. Just tasted sweet. We expected something bad like vomit flavor, but it didn’t taste bad. I’m sure the flavor scientists at Jelly Belly put effort into this, but we didn’t find the flavor distinctive in any way.
Lawn Clippings – Again, this really tastes like grass. Mom said, “Subtle and delicious. Do we have more?” Michele said, “Disgusting!”
In summary, Ant Hill and Lawn Clippings tasted exactly like Dirt and Grass jelly beans from Bott’s Beans. Nothing new there. Alka Root was root beer and Caterpillar was nothing special.
A bit of a disapointment compared to the strong flavors like Black Pepper and Vomit from Bott’s Beans.

Cruft Labs will continue to bring you any advancements in jelly bean flavor technology as we find them.

Just a quick post about Buzz Bites. Michele picked these up a few days ago. She rocks and is always on the look out for things I am interested in trying

Caffienated chocolate?
This morning I dragged my tired butt into the office after a long weekend of sun, children, and fixing a faucet. The line for coffee downstairs was long and I decided to give the Buzz Bites a try.
The taste was like a soft Tootsie Roll with a hint of bitterness. Not terrible, but not delicious either. After about 5 minutes, I could feel the caffiene and what not hitting my system and I was buzzing sure enough.
Rarely do these kind of gimmick products live up to expectations, but this things do. So if you need a burst of energy to kick start you, the Buzz Bites do work. You can buy them at Thinkgeek for a bit less than the Buzz Bites site.

I’ve been lax in my reviewing duties. Over the last several months I’ve read several books and only reviewed one. Last night I finished my latest and finally have taken the time to review it. The book, Iron Sunrise, is actually a sequel to Singularity Sky, which I finished back in December.
Singularity Sky by Charles Stross
Charles Stross is Scottish writer that is very tuned in to the ideas and concepts out there being discussed on the intraweb. He has a good idea how to interleave some of these ideas into traditional science fiction stories while acknowledging the long tradition of space opera style fiction.
In Singularity Sky, Stross introduces us into his universe, in which a artifical intelligence know as the Eschaton has scattered the human race around the local part of the galaxy, creating various civilizations on various planets for some reason unknown to Man.
Stross tosses the reader into the deep end without a lot of exposition as to what exactly is going on. A long term sci-fi reader will likely eat up, but a some may find the jargon hard to follow.
The story basically follows the collision of two cultures and our heroine’s attempt to avoid disaster. One of the cultures intends to circumvent the Eschaton’s rule on not changing the past. To avoid this, it leads the characters on a merry chase across varied planets as various subplots unfold.
This book wasn’t what I was expecting and I liked it immensely. Very similar in tone to Vernor Vinge’s work regarding post-singularity socities.
Iron Sunrise by Charles Stross
This book continues in the same universe that Stross created previously. In this book, we get a lot more exposition to let us know what is going on. Some good hard SF stuff in the beginning to reel you in to the story. A complete who-dunit from the beginning.
Back, central to the story, are Rachel and Martin the heroic troubleshooter couple we saw bond in the first novel. Along with them are a nice cast of characters that Stross brings together in eventually to a nice climax. Most of the motivations are believable, but the villains in the story are almost too evil. Stross tries to bring them back in toward the end with a speech by one of th ebad guys, but we aren’t given enough to understand their twisted motivations.
I liked the surprises that popped up along the way. It was pulled off well, with me saying “Of course!”.
The one thing I didn’t buy was one of the romances that blossoms late in the novels. It didn’t click in my mind.
Other than that, I thought Iron Sunrise was written better than Singluarity Sky and shows Stross honing his craft. I look forward to his new novels.

I’ve actually been reading a lot lately but have been neglecting my reviewing duties. Friends and family know that I’ve read this book, because I can’t stop talking about it.
The Omnivore’s Dilemma – Michael Pollan
Michael Pollan is a writer for the New York Times. I heard him speak on the radio about our food and how it is made. It was intriguing and I picked up the book for our trip to Hawaii.
Basically, Pollan looks at how food gets to the supermarkets where the vast majority of Americans shop. The reality he explains is astounding. Now, before you think I’m just some hippy on the net hyping the latest granola-eating idea that comes down the pipe, let me describe my food habits. We buy the majority of our food at Pavilions and Ralph’s supermarkets, with the occasional trip to Trader Joe’s for unique items. We eat fast food a couple times a week as a family and I personally eat out every day at lunch. We do buy organic eggs and milk and when the opportunity arises ‘free range’ and organic meat.
In his examination of the corn industry, I was amazed at the absolute insanity of the system of corn farming. Due to the government’s intervention on behalf of the large food processors (like ADM), the price of corn is less than the cost to grow it and the corn industry has become dependent on oil-based fertilizer (surprise!). The amount of corn produced is huge and the food processors invented high fructose corn syrup in the early 80s to find a use for all the corn produced. Today, with corn syrup in pretty much everything we eat, the new corn product being pushed is… ethanol (surprise!).
Next he looks at what the label ‘organic’ really means. Again, I found this fascinating. In short, organic just means that a farmer doesn’t use pesticide or fertilizer on plants and doesn’t use hormones or anti-biotics on animals. The majority of ‘organic’ food is still grown by mega-agribusiness in huge amounts. Thinking now about people that shop at places like Whole Foods get their food as opposed to the ‘regular’ supermarket is a bit funny. Organically labled food is the same whether you buy it at Safeway or Whole Foods. The silliness of it even gets bigger when you start thinking about buying organic out of season fruits that rode in exhaust spewing aircraft to get from South America to the US in the name of being ‘healthier’.
I do have to say that buy buying organic, you are getting a product that doesn’t have pesticides or fertilizers in them. That is a good thing, but organic foods are not the panacea to America’s food problems.
Polland describes the Polyface farm as an example of a sustainable farming method that by all accounts is the best way you could hope to get your food. I have to admit I was enamored when reading it, but some of the concepts don’t scale to amount of food needed to feed cities of hungry people. If I lived near Polyface Farm in Virgina, I’d go out of my way to buy their food. Pollan leads from hear into a brief desciption of the ‘slow food‘ and ‘eat local‘ movements. Both movements argue that eating food that is produced near to where you live is better in almost every way than eating food that is produced far away and shipped to you.
The point Polland makes about food labeling is superb. When was the last time you went to the store and saw the name of the farm where your oranges were grown? Was it in Florida or California? If you had questions about the farm where your ‘free range’ chicken was raised, who coudl you ask? Big agribusiness does not want you asking or thinking these kinds of questions. They want you to think that all eggs and oranges and apples and milk is exactly the same. You know this isn’t true.
Why do you think the good chefs are picky about the food they cook with? It’s because the little things matter in food. Honey made by bees that live near Clover is much different than the honey made by bees near tupelo. Beef from cows that eat grass is different than that from ‘corn fed’ cows.
After reading the book, I went to our local farmer’s market with the kids. Sure enough, the people there could tell you exactly where the food came from, most of it local. But the selection just isn’t there. Eating local means no corn in winter and no grapes in the spring. I liked the ideas, but it takes real effort to eat local and sustainably. It’s more than driving to Whole Foods.
The last part of the book deals with hunting and gathering. This part was interesting, but not particularly revealing. Those that have qualms about eating meat yet do may find it deeper, but I came to grips with being carnivorous ethically long ago. Each person needs to make up their mind about eating meat. Either eat meat or go vegan I don’t care, but I do care if you haven’t given the matter some thought.
If you can’t tell already, I highly recommend the book to anyone that has a passing interest in what they eat. If you haven’t done much reading about food before, you won’t be disappointed.
Pollan has a good weblog about these idea at the New York Times, but it’s behind the pay wall where most people can’t read it. We read the printed on paper Times, so we get to read it. It’s a shame that the Times can’t find sponors to make the column free to read.

For a while now, I’ve been drinking instant coffee at home. Michele put our coffee maker up in a cupboard and replaced with a hot water dispenser. It’s great for tea, but it leads to instant if you want coffee. I’ve tried various Japanese instants and those found in the regular supermarket from Folgers and Maxwell. They are OK, but nothing great.
When I was in Europe I found these small coffee packets that held instant coffee for one cup. I really enjoyed them and had horded a few that I brought home. When I started searching on the net for how to get them in the US, I bumped into Java Juice. I started reading the site and was intrigued. I bought some and awaited it’s arrival to Cruft Manor.

I opened the box and was pleased with the package. Quite a departure from standard supermarket style, the canister had a good tactile feel and appears to be useful for other things once the coffee is gone.
The coffee is made from organic beans and is even kosher. They even mention that the benas are ‘fair trade’.

The coffee extract comes in a packet. It’s not powdered instant coffee, it’s a liquid. The idea is that it is easily mixed into anything.
Java Juice pitches their coffee as a product for people on the go, that want high quality coffee whether they are camping or at the office.

I open the package and poured the black gold out. A strong, delightful coffee aroma filled the air. I’m not sure exactly how they make it, but this is some serious coffee extract.

I add the hot water from the kettle. (Michele tried to clean the hot water dispenser with vinegar. It cleaned off the calcium deposits great, but the dispenser died. So we are back to heating water with a tea kettle until Michele decides on the new hot water dispenser.)

A little sugar and a little milk and we are ready. The taste? Pretty damn good. Much better than any regular instant coffee I’ve tried in the past. It’s strong and has a more ‘thick’ feel to it that some of the thin coffees you encounter.
Michele gave it a try and she liked it as well. It’s been offically added to the house staples.
Java Juice is great, but it ain’t cheap. A single serving is 75¢ to $1, depending on the quantity you buy. Like most things in life, you get what you pay for. I brought a packet to work today, added the hot water from the work kitchen and I had a great cup of coffee. Compared to my usual choice of crappy free machine coffee and expensive yucky Starbucks coffee, it’s well worth the price.

A while ago (ok, it was five months ago) I received an email from a marketing guy asking if I wanted to review Hefty Serve ‘n Store stuff for my site. Now I know that marketers are getting saavy to blogs and that this was basically a product pitch, but I thought it would be fun. So, let it be known that I received TWO PACKAGES of plastic bowls for FREE. No hidden astroturfing here at Cruft Labs.

Due to little things like work, my family, World of Warcraft and my general laziness, it has taken me quite a while to do the review that you, the Loyal Cruft Reader, would expect.
Now down to business.

The Serve ‘n Store bowls and plates are a kinda intriguing concept. The idea is that the edges can interlock and close up to form a container. So you eat off a plate, don’t finish it, and with the leftovers, you slap a second one on top and toss it in the fridge. Sounds reasonable.

The first thing I had to check was if it was water tight or not. I filled the bowl up with water, seal the lid and turned it on it’s side. Water poured out. It held food just fine, but it should not be used for liquids if you are used to Tupperware or other water tight containers.

As I took a closer look at the bowls, I was surprised to see the words “Do Not Microwave” on the bottom. At first this didn’t make sense until I condsider that if the closed set was put into the microwave, the steam of the food cooking inside, could cause the bowls to blow open in a messy way.

Of course, the only way to know was to test the bowls out in a real test. So I placed some chicken leftovers in the bowl and popped it into the microwave for a few minutes. Everything came out of the microwave fine and I had a nice buffalo chickens andwich and a beer.

After eating, I took a look at the bowl and noticed that it had indeed deformed slightly from it’s brief time in the microwave. My recommendation is that one reheat will be fine but more than that will wreck the bowls further. Of course, Hefty’s lawyers are wigging out that someone would disobey the clear instruction “Do Not Microwave”, but I’m a rebel.

Now on to more crucial tests. Once of the key roles that paper plates fufill is as makeshift frisbees. I took the girls outside and had them try throwing the sealed plates. They flew surprisingly well. The girls had fun with them and I guess that’s all that matters.
The second critical test was whether the Server ‘n Store could be used as maracas. Anyone that has participated in children’s crafts knows the way to make a maraca is to put some pinto beans in some paper plates and then staple the edges shut. It made sense that the sealing action of the bowls would make them perfect for the test, but a real test was in order.
And so I present a Cruft video, made especially for you:

As you can see, they passed this test with flying colors.
Overall, the Serve ‘n Store stuff works as advertised. We’ll probably keep some around the house from now on, but I think they should offer a microwave safe version to placate the worryworts out there.

Of course, the best commercial during the Superbowl was for the Gillette Fusion razor. At first I didn’t know what the commecial was about, but once I did I stood and began applauding since i knew they we about to announce the 5 bladed razor.
I have waited for the 5 bladed razor for a long time. I reviewed Shick’s 4 blade razor and there was the Onion’s post about the 5 blade razor, but it has not been a reality until now.
As a man with a heavy beard, meaning that I get a five o’clock shadow by about 10:30 AM, I am keen for improvements in this realm. Due to my tight industry connections (actually Michele got me one at the supermarket), I got my hands on a new Gillette Fusion razor.

First you’ll notice that Gillette is now boldy claiming orange as a ‘man color’ moving beyond the traditional blue and green. I will mention that the package was easy to open. Unlike many products that are encased in plastic requiring assault with pliers and knives to open, the package was easy to open with only my fingers with no difficulty.

Notice that the razor really has SIX blades. OUTF*CKINGSTANDING! The line has been drawn and it’s now at six blades!

The shaving head itself is a slight modification of the previous 3 blade models. Besides the addtion of the blades, the little rubber strip at the bottom has been widened significantly. The handle obviously has some metal in it since it has some heft and is not as light as many of the complete disposable razors. I’m not sure why, but a little weight makes the handle feel better in the hand.

The trim blade on the back is a novel idea. For those that don’t shave, all the rigamarole on the main shaving face can make it difficult to get a clean edge on your sideburns, leading to uneven and ragged edges.

The blade exchange system looks exceedingly simply, even easy to do with wet, soapy fingers. Now if only Gillette built a toothbrush attachemnt that you could swap onto the end of the handle…

So, how was the shave? It was superb.
I am serious about shaving and use Kiehl’s Shave Cream at the end of my shower when my face has been wet for a while.
On the first few pulls of the razor, it felt so smooth that I thought it was just wiping the cream off and not cutting. I had to check and and sure enough, a clean shave. The smoothness of the pull is significantly better than any other razor I have used. A light tough was all that was needed, and I didn’t have to go over the tougher places like my chin two or three times. I’m not sure if it’s the rubbery part or the five blades, but the razor lives up to the hype. It’s the smoothest shave available.
I tried the single blade trim part and that is a great innovation. It worked great and didn’t feel as if I would cut myself as I positioned the blade to trim my side burns.
The only drawback of the Fusion is that with it’s massive head, it doesn’t fit into the typical razor hold, like the kind you see attached to the mirror. I had to hang the razor on one of the hooks through the center of the razor. Not a huge deal, but to those of you that prize symmetry, it might bother you a bit.
Obviously, IMHO, the Gillette Fusion is the new king of the hill in manly razors and is a significant improvement on shaving technology. Going forward, it will be in daily use at Cruft Manor.

I read this book on during a business trip to Orlando a week or so ago, but since I am lazy, I am only writing the review now.
Woken Furies – Richard K. Morgan
Woken Furies is the third Takeshi Kovacs novel from Richard Morgan. I’ve reviewed the first and second books previously. Takeshi is the sci-fi equivalent of a film noir detective. Set in the far flung future, Takeshi is an ex-government operative with training and skills that give him a decided edge over the bad guys, kind of like a cybernetic Jason Bourne.
In this novel, Takeshi is once again drawn into a sticky situation and get up against powerful foes quickly. I did enjoy ‘on-the-lam’ portion of the book and like Morgan’s way of showing you the cool interesting side-story but not letting it take over the main thrust of the book.
Later in the book, once you are fully rooting for Takeshi, you are shown the dark side of our ‘hero’ and given a bit of an alternate view on his actions. Morgan obviously makes his a disgust of fundamentalist thinking a key point of this story. This theme is a key element of his writing in previous novels as well. Taking a departure from previous writing, in this novel he tries to point out that taking the fight to extremes makes you no better than those you are fighting. There aren’t a lot on consequences for Takeshi as a result of his ‘bad’ actions, but it is acknowledged.
The wrap up of the story is fairly good, straying a bit into the Deus ex machina zone, but considering that you are reading a novel where characters can download their consciousness into different bodies regularly, you have to accept mysterious technology playing a role in the story.
Overall, a good read. Too bad I finished it in two days. Next time I won’t start a book on a five hour plane ride.

Disclaimer: I work for Disney and heard about this product at work.
Zoe and Mira, my daughters, had been talking about wanting iPods for a bit now. I really didn’t want to do that. Mainly because of the issue that they’d need to run iTunes to manage feeding music into the iPods and dealing the syncing and other iTunes specific issues.
At work I saw a demo for Disney Mix Sticks, a new MP3 & WMA player that is hitting the shelves now. It’s a basic mobile MP3 player with a few neat features.
Last weekend the girls and I picked up a pair at Target and they have been a big hit.

Like a Shuffle the Mix Sticks don’t have a screen. The buttons are in a familiar Mickey shape and the headphone plug is on the bottom. The girls picked up on how to operate them quickly without any instruction from me.
They come with headphones and matching lanyards. Since they are Disney products the lanyards are special child-safe ones that break away to avoid the possibility of injury. Someone has got to think about these things…

The bottom cap comes off and you can see the USB connector. To charge the battery and transfer files, the Mix Stick simply plugs into a USB port. The Mix Stick appears as a standard disc drive. Open up the directory and drag in the files you want. There’s some software that came with it, but I didn’t even load that up. Simplicity is best.
I can plug these into any computer at home, open up the media share and drag in what ever music the girls want. No software, no syncing, no restrictions.

The innovative feature is the ability for the Mix Stick to take a SD or MMC flash memory card to expand up to 1 GB of storage. Disney is selling albums on MMC cards in DRMed WMA format for kids that want Disney music without having to rip CDs.
I took a spare MMC card I had and loaded a few MP3 files onto it and inserted it in the Mix Sticks. The songs played fine and the memory was expanded.
I did the math and was a little suprised. The Mix Sticks sell for $50 with 128MB of memory. A 512MB SD card costs between $25-$35.
Disney Mix Stick expanded to 640 MB = $75-$85 ($50 + ($25-$35) )
Apple iPod Shuffle 512MB = $99
So you get more memory for less money with the Mix Sticks. Who woulda thunk? Not to mention the idea that you could keep several flash memory cards and swap them in and out of the player as needed.

I don’t have a Shuffle to compare size with, but here’s how they compare to the new iPod.

A few weeks ago, I read about the Moen Revolution showerhead on Matt Haughey’s site. Our showerhead was seven or eight years old, so I decided to give it a try.
The install was a breeze. Just unscrewed the old showerhead, applied new teflon tape, and screwed the new Moen on.

I turned the water on and let the thing rip. The first thing you notice is the handle on the bottom to steer the water. It feels natural and moves smoothly. The dial on the handle is to change the kind of water stream flowing out.

The handle does drop down a bit and was bumping into the highest shelf of the shower caddy thing. I finally removed the top shelf and all was well. Michele decided that this would ‘not do’ and is now on the hunt for a new shower caddy thing that can accomadate the size of the Moen.
This is what I would consider the main showering mode. Plenty of water and not a lot of force. The children and I both think this is better than the old showerhead.

Next I tested out the special mode. It’s described as “Moen’s patented Revolution technology takes ordinary water, spins each drop, then twirls the entire shower stream.“. Well, it’s kind of like one of those kiddy toys for the backyard that whips around in all directions. Fun the first time, but no use for washing. And the flow isn’t strong enough to be considered a massage mode.

This mode is the massage mode. But it’s not much of a massage. The stream is just more than an inch in diameter and just doesn’t have enough force to be considered a real massage mode. Now, maybe some dainty princess type might like it, but it was a disappointment to me.
Conclusion: The Moen Revolution is a nice showerhead, but it’s not revolutionary in any way except the handle. If you like the way it looks, get it. If you are looking for one of those back-massaging showerheads, this ain’t it.