My goal with my nutrition is to reduce my sugar intake, while trying to keep the overall carbohydrates as low as possible.  I don’t stress the non-sugar carbs too much, as long as I have a decent amount of protein in each meal.

I don’t know the GI for these pancakes, I have just made the assumption that by using low GI ingredients then it should all equal a low GI food.  Please let me know if this assumption is wrong.

Why do I use Xylitol? I love the stuff.  It’s as sweet as sugar, tastes like sugar and mixes like sugar.  Sure, it’s not as cheap as sugar but then I’m not complaining as I can satisfy my little sweet tooth every now and again.  I use the Annies brand which I purchase from Healthpost.

Why Chia seeds?  I read about Chia seeds being a good additive for lowering the GI of regular foods, just by sprinkling them on top of a meal.  I don’t know how true this is, but their nutritional benefits seem hard to deny should 1/2 the literature written about them be accurate.  Packed with Omega 3 and fibre – they seem like a good addition to many meals (and they’re tasteless).

So here you go.

1. Sift and mix all of the dry ingredients into one bowl. I use about 1/2 tbls of Cocoa which is all it needs for my kids to be happy.
2. Mix the egg yolks, vanilla and milk into another bowl.  Beat until yolks have broken and are well mixed.
3. Stir and fold the wet mixture to the dry.  I use an egg beater for this step (read – lazy) but don’t over mix as you will toughen the mixture.
4. Take the egg whites and whisk them briskly until they fluff up, like you are making meringue.  Once light and fluffy combine this with the rest of the mixture.
5. Leave to stand for 30 minutes and lightly mix again before cooking.

The mixture above makes ~8 reasonable sized pancakes.  I use low calorie Maple Syrup (just because I have to), but my family enjoy full flavored dark syrup on top of generous helpings of blueberries and other seasonal fruit.

I hope you enjoy.

Back to running Cortex on a WinXP box for now.

A recent (and extravagant) purchase of an Sonos S5 was plugged directly into my Cisco ESW-540 switch.  Following the instructions everything ‘should’ have worked fine, except the PC controller software could not detect the S5.  After a little tinkering, I realised that every switch port I plugged the S5 into would become immediately suspended.  Since it was the only Sonos device on the network I figured there wouldn’t/shouldn’t/couldn’t be any bridge loops – but the log was reporting the suspend due  BPDU guard.

I posted on the Sonos forums and it appears that my fix, while working will cause issues if I add another Sonos unit to the network (which I plan to do).

So for now, disabling STP on the port (not on the switch) works – but going forward I’m going to have to configure the port properly.\

The fix is to use the Smartports wizard to configure the port appropriately with a profile that better suits it’s needs.

This will learn me for jumping in and configuring the switch without RTFM.  I’ll never learn . . .

At 63% brightness, the light meter reports ~54% / 38% which is about the same as the MR16 LED bulbs when they are at 100% brightness.

50% brightness = ~47% light level / 33%

15% brightness = ~1% light level / 4% (the luminance is higher than the illuminance value here, possibly due to light from other sources)

This obviously wasn’t a scientific experiment, and I’m using a light meter that reports % light levels for practical home automation purposes (not a Lux reading).  However, it does confirm that running halogens at 80% can save power at the bulb, without compromising light levels.  Whether running the transformer constantly at 80% has any detrimental effect on it’s life, or power consumption I cannot say, but if the clearly audible “buzzing” sound from the transformer is anything to go by, I’d say it does.

As soon as the voltage drops to about 80% the lights start to flicker.  The light levels do drop, but the quality of the light is quite poor.

I’ve contacted Earthled, but accept that the transformer could be the source of the problem (This was possibly the cheapest transformer that the local lighting shop could have supplied).

I located this download containing all of the channel logos for NZ.  Big thanks to the uploader for these!

<?xml version=”1.0″ standalone=”yes”?>
<Channels>
<Channel id=”1″ cid=”tv1″ name=”TV1″ logo=”file://c:\Guide\Logos\tv1.png” />
<Channel id=”2″ cid=”tv2″ name=”TV2″ logo=”file://c:\Guide\Logos\tv2.png” />
<Channel id=”3″ cid=”tv3″ name=”TV3″ logo=”file://c:\Guide\Logos\tv3.png” />
<Channel id=”4″ cid=”c4″ name=”C4″ logo=”file://c:\Guide\Logos\c4.png” />
<Channel id=”5″ cid=”maori” name=”Maori Television” logo=”file://c:\Guide\Logos\maori.png” />
<Channel id=”7″ cid=”prime” name=”Prime” logo=”file://c:\Guide\Logos\prime.png” />
<Channel id=”11″ cid=”e” name=”E!” logo=”file://c:\Guide\Logos\E!.png” />
<Channel id=”15″ cid=”sky1″ name=”The Box” logo=”file://c:\Guide\Logos\The Box.png” />
<Channel id=”16″ cid=”uktv” name=”UKTV” logo=”file://c:\Guide\Logos\uktv.png” />
<Channel id=”18″ cid=”living” name=”The Living Channel” logo=”file://c:\Guide\Logos\living.png” />
<Channel id=”19″ cid=”food” name=”Food Television” logo=”file://c:\Guide\Logos\food.png” />
<Channel id=”30″ cid=”skysport1″ name=”Sky Sport 1″ logo=”file://c:\Guide\Logos\sports 1 a.png” />
<Channel id=”31″ cid=”skysport2″ name=”Sky Sport 2″ logo=”file://c:\Guide\Logos\sports 2 a.png” />
<Channel id=”32″ cid=”skysport3″ name=”Sky Sport 3″ logo=”file://c:\Guide\Logos\sports 3 a.png” />
<Channel id=”33″ cid=”skysporthighlights” name=”Sky Sport Highlights” logo=”file://c:\Guide\Logos\sports highlights a.png” />
<Channel id=”34″ cid=”espn” name=”ESPN” logo=”file://c:\Guide\Logos\espn.png” />
<Channel id=”40″ cid=”disney” name=”Disney” logo=”file://c:\Guide\Logos\disney.png” />
<Channel id=”41″ cid=”nickelodeon” name=”Nickelodeon” logo=”file://c:\Guide\Logos\Nickleodeon.png” />
<Channel id=”42″ cid=”cartoonnetwork” name=”Cartoon Network” logo=”file://c:\Guide\Logos\cartoon network.png” />
<Channel id=”45″ cid=”playhousedisney” name=”Playhouse Disney” logo=”file://c:\Guide\Logos\playhouse.png” />
<Channel id=”70″ cid=”discovery” name=”Discovery Channel” logo=”file://c:\Guide\Logos\discovery.png” />
<Channel id=”72″ cid=”natgeo” name=”National Geographic” logo=”file://c:\Guide\Logos\” />
<Channel id=”73″ cid=”history” name=”The History Channel” logo=”file://c:\Guide\Logos\history c.png” />
<Channel id=”74″ cid=”documentarychannel” name=”Documentary Channel” logo=”file://c:\Guide\Logos\” />
<Channel id=”75″ cid=”animalplanet” name=”Animal Planet” logo=”file://c:\Guide\Logos\Animal Planet.png” />
<Channel id=”90″ cid=”skynews” name=”Sky News” logo=”file://c:\Guide\Logos\Sky News b.png” />
<Channel id=”91″ cid=”cnn” name=”CNN” logo=”file://c:\Guide\Logos\CNN.png” />
<Channel id=”92″ cid=”foxnews” name=”Fox New Channel” logo=”file://c:\Guide\Logos\Fox News.png” />
<Channel id=”93″ cid=”bbcworld” name=”BBC World” logo=”file://c:\Guide\Logos\BBC World.png” />
</Channels>

Once the data is in 7MC you need to associate the EPG data with channels that you receive.  In my case, I am using a STB as my only source of channels so my examples below may be overly simply if you have multiple channel sources (DVB-S, DVB-T etc).

Once in 7MC, go here:

1. Settings – TV – Guide – Edit Channels.  Choose the correct channel number as it relates to the Sky Channel.  I am going to use channel 40 (Disney) as an example.
2. Select Clear All first.  This will deselect all  of the channels.  In my case I had 999 channels, so it was easier to clear them all and then select the 20 or 30 that I wanted.
3. Select 40 and press Enter, select Edit Listings, select Sort by Name, press End and it will take you to the channel list.  Locate the channel listing that relates, in this case Disney.  Select Save and you’re done.  Repeat this for all the channel listings you have.
4. As you move down through the channels, make sure you tick the channels that you want.  (Once you do this, when you edit a channel it will prompt you to save.  Select Yes).
5. Save and check your guide.  Assuming my instructions weren’t too brief, you should now have a working EPG.

As mention, in my case all I had was a STB (Sky) connected to a single tuner in my HTPC.  The only EPG data I wanted was that which related to Sky, and not FTA.

My comment above about having to donate to use xmltvnz is only whilst the product is in beta.  When it reaches public release I believe it will be free.

In anycase, this motherboard expansion is effectively a single PCI, single PCIe x1 and PCIe x16.