Hacking the Tchibo coffee capsule

Many months ago, we bought a Tchibo coffee machine. It uses a similar exactly the same concept as the Nespresso coffee machine. You pop a capsule that contains the grounded coffee into the machine, put a cup under the nozzle, press the button and voila, a steaming cup of coffee is there for you in about 1-2 minutes.

We have been using ours for about 12 months, trying out the various coffee that Tchibo sells. Occasionally, Tchibo would sell a new selection of coffees for a limited period of time. These new selection of coffee is also sold a slightly more price. Regular coffee capsule cost 2.99EUR, but a new selection is priced around 3.50EUR.

One of the catch is that the capsule is not interchangable with capsules from other coffee machines, such as Delonghi or Nestles.

The hacker sense kicked in and had to try to get something going. After a couple of false starts, I got something that is workable and produce reasonable coffee.

The following some simple steps that I have used to reused the capsules again.

The first thing you need to do is to get a capsule that you already have used and open it up with a sharp knife. I used a pairing knife with a sharp point. Carefully, I pierced at an area just inside the lips of the capsule and work the knife around the edge. I used a gentle sawing motion as I move around. The plastic top came away quite easily.

Once the top is removed, the capsule needs to be dissembled and cleaned. Be careful to do the dissembling over a sink as the used coffee could spilled out. It could get quite messy. With in the capsule, there are two plastic filters. The top plastic filter can be lifted out to exposed the used coffee grounds. The used coffee grounds need to be removed. At the bottom of the capsule, there is a filter there. This also needs to be taken out for cleaning.

When the two filters and the capsule itself is cleaned, it can be assembled. Began by inserting the bottom filter back into the capsule. Now the usage of the coffee is next. Besure to fill as much coffee as you can fit in. I have used a small tool to jam the coffee grounds into the capsule. I have found that the flavour and the aroma is better as well when grounds is tightly packed. The top filter can also be placed on top.

Prepare a piece of aluminium foil that is big enough to cover the top of the capsule. The piece of foil need to be folded over the edge of the capsule to form a tight seal. Depending upon the strength of your foil, care need to be taken not to tear any part of the foil. Doing so may caused some of the coffee grounds to escape from the capsule and it end up in your drink.

Placed the completed capsule that has covered by the aluminium foil into your Tchibo and press the button. It will take some effort to get the combination right, but the flexibility it gives you will be fantastic.

Enjoy!

  

Scratching our itch

We started our project a few weeks ago that we hope will have some success. The project is really to scratch our own itch, and since we felt that it could be a useful service, others may want to use it as well.

The itch is the language barrier that we face when starting out in Germany. I think that it would be the same if the country was in France or Sweden. We just haven't got a good enough grasp of the language, and at my age, picking up the language is going to be difficult.

The further itch is to not just speak it, but also to read it. In particular, a document of some sort. The Germans love their document and everything have to be in order.

My initial scratcher began with my colleagues, then our neighbours when we were more familiar with them, but mostly it fell into Google Translate. As bad as it is, it did provide me with some information that act upon. Sometimes, getting Google Translate to make sense is a real battle. It is also tiresome having to type the document into it.

So my idea is to provide a service for a quick, off the cuff translation to be given. It will need to be returned within 48 hours, and it needs to be cheap. 

The technicality of it is for the document to photographed with the camera of a smart phone. The photo is then emailed to a specific address. Within 48hours, the translated document is returned.

I have just launched the beta program. check it out at launch.48translate.com and sign up to get a life time discount. 

Schuletüte and all that kind of great stuff, part 1

23rd of August is a special in our family. Our eldest son Albert begins the next phase of his life. Today is the first day for his primary school. Well, it is officially the first day, but his first full day is tomorrow. However, lets see about today.

Albert was extremely excited to start his next phase. I think he is also very nervous and eager to venture out into the unknown.

The day started at 6am. That is the usual time for the family, but the kids just sprang out of bed. Usually, we had to coax them out of bed and to start getting ready for the day. Today, we did not have to do much coaxing.

Today, Albert received a schuletüte, or a school bag. This contain special treats for him so that he remembers the day.

After breakfast, we visited the town where the school is located, Witzhelden. It is a nice quaint town about 9 km from our town. We were in a bit of rush as we had to drop Albert's younger brother to Kindergarten. 

The day starts at 8.10am at the local Church. As we arrived at about 8am, any car parks close to church were taken. So we parked close to the school and walk back to the church. Our first thought was that we are going to be late as everything is punctual in Germany. There were about three other families walking towards the church as well, so we just followed them to church and hope that know the time better than us.

The church service was fantastic. Although, it was conducted in German, I was able to get the gist of the service. Basically, the father blessed the children for their schooling career.

After the service, everyone walked back to the school for an assembly in the school hall. The second year students also arrived to do some performances to celebrate this special event. This is nice as it sets the scene for the interaction between the various years of the school.

The principal also made some announcements about the upcoming school year and help explained the performances. All the parents, including us, were very proud of their children starting their schooling as their names were announced.

Albert got a taste of class later in the morning. He had a one hour class session with his teacher. 

While Albert was in the class, the school served out a selection of pretzels, champagne and juice, brotchen and ham and salami. It gave a chance for the parents to mingle. Unfortunately, we kept to ourselves. Our dreaded language and the German social barrier popped up.

This morning, Albert and his classmates were made to feel very special. It is surely a day for him and his classmates to remember.

Being receptive for an Asperger's husband

Since I last asked myself if I have Asperger's Syndrome, I starting to ponder how my life fits into my relationship with members of family, especially my wife.


Being a woman, their emotional needs are typically a lot stronger than that of a man. The needs to be loved and to be attended to are all part of being what I need to provide for their emotional needs. 


The other aspects of their emotional need comes from being receptive to their body language and their emotional signals. The emotional signal is something they project to give me a sense of how they are, emotionally. For example, she could give a particular look to say that I have problems and need someone to listen to when I talk about my problems. Being someone who has some Asperger's Syndrome, I would not necessary pick up to signals. Very often I would misinterpret those signals and arrive at a totally different conclusion.  


Imagine the scenario, I misinterpret the signals, and as a result of the misinterpretation, I apply an incorrect action to it. I know that what I providing could be right, but from my wife's perspective, I am totally wrong. Sometimes, I come across as an uncaring person. This is far from the case. This is totally my problem, and I need to way to overcome this problem.


I have not got a clue on how to overcome this problem. Anyone?

I think I may have Asperger's Syndrome

With all this investigation in Asperger's syndrome, it looks like that I have got a lot of similarities as an person with Asperger's syndrome. I have though my history of when I can remember, and the following signs are definitely Asperger's Syndrome behaviour. 


Typically, I don't really care for much emotional empathy for folks that I don't know. For folks that I know well, that emotional empathy is quite normal. This kinda shows that I have some emotional disconnect with the general population.


I am an engineer, a software engineer at that. Although I don't have an obsession with it, my interest is quite healthy.


I prefer to converse to other folks about objective topics than about subjective topics.

When I talk to other folks, I rarely look at them directly in the eyes. I would start to quite a little bit uncomfortable. I would usually talk to them with my eyes staring into the distance, and glanced at them on occasions. 


The question is whether I should go for an official assessment. I don't really know. What would I achieve. I am just making some sense on this. I shall let you know how I go.

Heart felt

In my small village of Leichlingen, a walk around town  brings us in contact with many interesting people. These are folks with an interesting background and history. My German is not good, and I am disappointed that I won't be able to talk with them,  and to enjoy hearing their stories.

My wife had a serendipitous encounter today. He is a gentleman, always well dressed with a tie and cap. To our children, he is known as "the funny man."  He laughs loudly and waves to all the children as he sees them. Other children are a little bit afraid of him as his laughs are quite loud and he seems to talk in a non-engaging manner. Some would even describe his condition as a little bit insane.

My wife regularly sees him catch the same bus as she does to Leverkusen. He is always by himself. One of our neighbours told us that he was quite normal, but it all changed after his wife passed away about two years ago. When I heard the story, it was just  story and did not make too much of it.

In today's serendipitous encounter, it goes something like this.

my wife: "are you catching to bus today?"

the funny man: "yes, I am."

my wife: "Great, are you going to Leverkusen today?"

the funny man: "yes."

and he starts to walk towards to the bus stop. He stops, turn around and looks at my wife and said "but not with my wife, cause she is away." The look on his face is a "I wish my wife here to take this bus trip with me." He continues his way to the bus stop.

Upon hearing this encounter from my wife, I felt this strong sensation in my body. I felt for him that he is missing life partner. My heart just felt for him.

Chris Himmelfahrt or Vatertag?

For the religious among us, the 17 May 2012 is a celebrated day when Christ ascended to Heaven. For the others who are not, there is vatertag to celebrate.


Our neighbour celebrated this tradition last year and he kindly invited me to join them this year. The participant only needs to be a dad (in loose terms) to join in, or have the potential to be a dad. This event is also popular with young men (in their twenties) as well.


For the trip itself, it need to meet some criteria for it  be traditional. Firstly, we need a group of men (see above). In our group, there were seven of us, all men and from the local neighbourhood.


Secondly, access to some beer is critical. The local brew is preferred. For us, that would the Kolsch, or Köln water. As there are seven of us, the organiser made an executive decision as got 4 kegs or 20 litres of beer. I also think that beer help to social aspects of the group of men.


Thirdly, we need a wagon that can be pulled along. The wagon needs to big enough to carry all the beer, and food. Well, the food only consists of some cans of Pringles and the traditional Salt sticks.


An lastly, we need a route through the forest. The whole idea is the walk through the woods with beer in a wagon and have a good afternoon talk men stuff. Our organiser chose to start from the nearby town of Burscheid and walk downhill to our home town of Leichlingen. The trip is about 14km long, along a re-purposed railway track, and through some beautiful forests.


The trip started at 10am and we reached home by 6.30pm. We stopped at a local pub for a meal by 3pm. They were also plenty of chances to grab a wurst along the way as well.


My neighbour told me that this tradition is an important part of a man's life in Germany. I guess that it is a way for men to talk, share and do men stuff. When I heard about this last year, I was rather skeptical as to the value of it. Other than a sorry excuse to get drunk, I fail to see how it would add value. Well, I was totally wrong on many levels. After the walk and talk with the other dads, even with my limit German, I was able to get a sense of how the men of Germany live their lives. They are proud people and have many traditions to uphold. This walk is one of many. Personally, my participation allows me to form a bond and break the social barrier that an expat feels when living in a non-native speaking country. 


Contrasting this to the culture of men in Australia, I find it difficult why more of these type of events does happen back in Australia. Are the Europeans more cultured? Who really knows, but I do think that this type of events does give the men a more healthy lifestyle.