Last Week I Learned... (Sept 7 - 13)

I believe I have mastered the art of scanning both paper and mobile tickets at the NJ Transit turnstiles at Secaucus Junction in NJ. As I get used to this commute I have had to deal with some new challenges for me. On many busy days I have mildly panicked as my ticket would not scan and I would begin to hear the sighs and mutterings of the line people building up behind me. But now I have found the solution: slow and square. If you keep your phone or ticket rectangularly aligned with the scanner glass AND place the ticket or phone very slowly, it gets picked up right away! Now I breeze through with no fear. I hope some other NJT riders will come across this post and learn about it - especially those in front of me!

Twitter: @RobinSkolnick

The 1/4 inch to USB cable that came with the Rocksmith guitar video game for XBOX works perfectly with Garageband! Rocksmith is like Guitar Hero, except you can plug in your own guitar and play along with the songs while learning new riffs and techniques.  I was super excited when on a whim I connected a guitar to my computer using the cable and it works right away with a really solid and strong signal.

I learned that when using homemade pizza dough, you can roll it out really thin and it will still produce a nicely sized crust after baking. My first few attempts resulted in way-too-thick crust and basically inedible pizza. I followed Bobby Flay's recipe (with my daughter helping).

Flickr: Zach Dill

There is a product called Circuit Scribe that allows you to draw your own circuits! I learned about this via the NYCIST listserv.

And for the final one for this post, iPadPalooza has posted the Mini-Keynotes from this summer's learning festival. Mine is below and you can check them all out here.