A lot of us at Clear-Coat like to cook, and if you do too I’m sure you’ve run in to this same problem: after amassing dozens of different spices – some in jars, some in bottles, some in bags, and some in vials – it’s nearly impossible to keep them organized and easily accessible.  I’ve run the gamut with counter top solutions (carousel style, shelving systems, magnetic holders), but they all took up precious counter surface. Then I tried to organize them inside my pantry – alphabetical, in bins, by cooking style, and finally smallest to tallest.  In the end none of them stayed organized very long, nor did they allow me to find the spice I needed any quicker.

I did some Googling and found a combination of products that works for almost any kitchen and has stood the test of time (I’ve been using it for the past 6 months), and here it is: Read More >>

“Don’t let your blackberry turn into exploding cats.” This is my favorite quote of the week, and it comes from an incredible video that will boost your productivity if you have trouble with overwhelming amounts of email (like me): Inbox Zero, by Merlin Mann. Read More >>

Breville YouBrew with Carafe

We’re pretty serious about the coffee we drink here at Clear-Coat – a few of us are downright coffee geeks.  So while we normally don’t do product reviews, we really wanted to do a full-blown review on the Breville YouBrew since we purchased one for our office about a week ago.  We love great products, we love coffee, and we love great blog posts…so this seems like fair game.  Now, onto the review: Read More >>

A friend of mine was cleaning out his childhood bedroom and under the piles of clothes, baseball cards and CDs (remember those?) he found a diamond in the rough: a 1991 Apple Macintosh Classic. This happened to be the first computer I ever owned as a kid. Anxious to see if it worked, even though we had no mouse or keyboard yet, we set it up in an office and sure enough we got a happy face on the boot screen. More impressive than the fact this 20 year old computer booted up after being off and in a closet for more than 15 year was the fact that it had remembered, and restored, what was on screen the last time it was turned off – a ClarisWorks text file titled “Some Kind of History”.

To give you a sense of what kind of computing power we’re talking about, this Mac Classic has the following specs:

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It’s been a while since our last blog post, and I’m going to try to tie together all that has happened as best as possible, because I definitely believe there’s a valid link between it all. Read More >>

SOPA (Stop Online Piracy Act) is bad. Utilizing the same website censorship used by Iran, China, and Syria, SOPA would give the power of censoring the web to the U.S. law enforcement and copyright holders – mainly the entertainment industry. Read More >>

Nothing says “Christmas Spirit” like claymation. Happy Holidays!

Share The Joy. Répandez la Joie. from Shed MTL on Vimeo.

NPR recently wrote an article about hackerspaces finding their way into local public libraries, which could prove to be one of the most empowering moves for the youth in those areas. If you’re wondering what a hackerspace is – Read More >>

The New York Times recently featured an OpEd piece on the topic of Talent vs Hard Work, which you can find here:
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/20/opinion/sunday/sorry-strivers-talent-matters.html

The author’s research concludes that high IQ results in a higher likelihood of success later in life, as measured by those that “earn a doctorate, secure a patent, publish an article in a scientific journal or publish a literary work.”

I believe their measurement for potential (IQ), and success (level of education, number of patents, etc) are flawed. Read More >>

I once heard someone say “I don’t understand what the big deal is about Steve Jobs, all he did was invent the iPod, it’s not like he cured cancer”.  It’s easy to take for granted where the luxuries we all have come to expect in technology came from.  If you look back to what things were like before Apple stepped in, you can see not only did they innovate and bring some of the best products to market, but they pushed competitors to innovate and test their own limits.  Here are our 10 favorite quotes from the man who practically invented the modern day cell phone, tablet and MP3 player, and one of the greatest CEO’s to ever live, Steve Jobs: Read More >>