Monthly Archives: January 2012

TextSecure – secure SMS for Android

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So… having secure SMS really isn’t hard. Onec upon a time you may have been forgiven to think that your SMS messages weren’t recorded forever by telecommunications companies or various government agencies, but those times have long passed. At the very least you should be concerned about somebody getting hold of your phone and going through all your SMSs (phones no longer just store 20 messages).

TextSecure (Free and Open Source Software up on github) does both local encryption (messages are encrypted on your phone) and over the wire encryption. That’s right kids – you can send encrypted text messages to each other.

It’s a drop-in replacement for the built in Android text messages application, so it all “just works”.

Go install it now.

This is the app that Jacob Appelbaum mentioned in is Keynote at lca2012.

Cold Brew Coffee Experiment #3

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So, I did what I said I’d do – 1/3rd cup ground coffee + 2 cups water, overnight (about 18-20hrs) in fridge. Tasted really nice.

I think I’ve found the combination that works when I’m just making one.

Filtering out the grounds is certainly annoying… I guess this is what the Toddy is meant to solve…. because what I most certainly need is yet another way to make coffee.

Cold Brew Coffee Experiment #2

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Two things varied from my previous attempt:

  1. I kept it in the fridge instead of on the bench (it’s been really hot in Melbourne and the fridge is closer to “normal” temperature than outside)
  2. doubled the amount of water

The difference? It’s certainly cooler, and a weaker flavour. That being said,  I think you get more of the subtleties of the flavour rather than being a bit thwacked with it. I found my last experiment nice, but perhaps a bit sharp. This batch tastes very smooth and refreshing.

This batch also seemed to be less gritty, with me seeing fewer grounds in the filter. I wonder if that’s due to fridge, variance of grind or water quantity.

I think for my next go I’m going to try same amount of coffee, in the fridge, but 2 cups of water.

Cold Brew Coffee Experiment #1

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1/3rd cup ground coffee (ground approximately for what I’d use in a plunger) to 1.5cups water. Sit in airtight container on the bench overnight (about 18hrs actually) and then filtered through coffee filter paper into a mug.

It certainly is different, but still distinctly coffee. I’m not sure if I want to add more water too it or not… quite possibly – and this mixture would probably be total killer for iced coffee.

Basically, I’ve heard a million and one “one true ways” to make cold brew coffee, and this was my first go at it. Now just to try different variations until I find the one I like the most.