Brain Enema of a Savage Mind

Welcome to the world of tomorrow!

After a lot of thinking, pondering, going back and forth, and more than just a little bit of drooling, I finally broke down and got an iPad. Yes, I’m quite aware when the iPad came out that I panned it. One of my complaints, like many others, is that the iPad is just a big iPod touch. In many ways it is nothing more than that, but I’ve come to the conclusion, so what?

The iPod touch has been a real champ for me over the past couple of years, but the size had it’s limitations. It was good for light browsing and some quick e-mails, but it got a little tiring for protracted use for me. Not to mention the battery wasn’t suited to all day use. It’s a great little media device, but after a couple years I couldn’t help but want more.

Once it was announced that iOS 4 wouldn’t run on the 1st generation iPod touch I knew it was about time to start looking in to a replacement. To be honest at that point I still hadn’t really considered the iPod and was eagerly awaiting the 4th generation iPod touch as that’s what I was pretty sure I was going to upgrade to. When it was announced I was fairly impressed by it, though like many others I felt that using an underwhelming camera just to make the device thinner was a rather annoying move – likely one meant to minimize cannibalization of iPhone sales. Still I gave it a good look and was still fairly certain I was going to go with that. Then I played with the iPad demo at Best Buy. I was hooked.

I’m now a little over 24 hours in to owning one and it’s been a good experience so far. Most of the iPad specific apps I’ve played with are well thought out and imaginatively take advantage of the extra space the iPad screen offers. The web use is fantastic and I can’t say the lack of flash has been an issue. Sure, I don’t have much against Flash and wouldn’t mind seeing it on the iPad. I was most impressed by the ESPN website which normally uses quite a bit of Flash, but detects that you’re on the iPad and adjusts accordingly, taking out the flash and replacing with what I’d suspect is HTML 5.

I’ve yet to play with the 3G options on it, but the built in GPS is more than adequate. It might not zero in on my exact position, but it comes close enough for my needs on a device like this. I’ll have more to say about the 3G and traveling with the iPad after my upcoming trip to California.

After a day of use (and going gaga after the great battery life) I love the iPad.

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WordPress App Update

I’m not sure why I didn’t try ita while ago, but deleting the WordPress app and the reinstalling it has allowed me to once again access my site from my iPod Touch. It’s annoying that I had to do that (and then reposition all my apps), and it seems like I’m not alone with the problem. It seems their are scores of problems surrounding the most recent release, and it is starting to feel like a lot of us who can’t upgrade to iOS 4 are being left out in the cold not only by Apple, but by WordPress as well.

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The Art of the Brew

Since the completion of my new mash tun my desire to homebrew has been back on the rise.  Over the years it’s come and gone.  There have been periods where I was making a couple beers every month.  Then suddenly I’d go half a year without brewing.  I’m sure there were any number of factors involved, but I know that my last falling out with homebrewing had to do with the fact I was really tired of doing extract batches, and my previous couple of all-grain batches had been absolute failures.  Those failures were not procedural in nature, but were due to poor equipment and setup.  So I sort of shelved the whole homebrew thing for a bit.  Last month I got all the pieces to put together a new mash tun, and my first brew with it had pretty damn great efficiency - creeping up towards 80% which is more than I could have hoped for.

I’ve already gotten in on the recent group buy for bulk grains.  Now that I can do reliable all grain mashes and no longer just mini-mashes, 55lbs sacks of my base malt are going to be essential.  For now I think I’ll be going with Maris Otter, but that may change later down the road.  I’ve always liked Maris Otter – it’s a very clean grain with good extraction.  I’ll also have to start picking up some 10ish pound bags of speciality malt so I can give my beers all the character that they deserve.

My first all grain batch with the mash tun was an IPA primarily using Ahtanum hops.  I’d been wanting to try these for awhile so I figured an IPA was the best way to showcase them.  I also decided to try and get a little bit fancy with this IPA and put about 8 ounces of Gambrinus honey malt in to it. I’ve heard people saying the honey malt barely adds any honey flavor, to people saying that even a tiny amount imparts a huge taste.  I guess a lot of it is a matter of perspective and soon enough I’ll find out how I feel about 8 ounces of the malt.

The IPA just went in to the keg today so now it’s chilling down and carbonating.  Come this weekend I’ll get to taste test my first all grain batch that actually fermented like a mad demon.  It smells great, it looks great, and I can’t wait to find out this weekend if it tastes great!

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Taking Control of Your Online Identity

Recently on Lifehacker and a couple of other sites that I read regularly they have been talking about your online identity.  Who you are when someone types your name in to a search engine.  I’m sure you’ve tried it, most people have done what has been referred to as “vanity Googling”.  While vanity, or some level of curiosity may be the motivating factor behind people searching their own name online, it actually is something everyone should try.  Why?  Simple, so that you can be aware of how you are being presented should someone search your name.  That someone could be a potential employer, client, date, or any number of other people you’ve come in contact with.  If you don’t know what the search engines reveal about you, you could be in for a nasty surprise.

To be prepared for writing this I went ahead and Googled myself.  It had been awhile and I was curious as to what I might find.  Under “Alex Schwartz” it took until page 22 to reach a reference that was actually to me and that was a link to Dan’s florn.net podcast.  Under Alexander Schwartz the first reference I hit was after a few pages, and that was a link to my Amazon profile and wish lists.  Nothing terribly damning there other than learning which X-Box games I long to play, and what books I want to get next.  Trust me, it’s not that interesting, take a look if you don’t believe me.  Googling me doesn’t reveal much of anything about me(yahoo and Bing both turn up next to nothing while searching my name). In some ways it’s a good thing because I don’t have to worry about people finding out things about me that could be damaging.  I’ve been pretty good about avoiding putting anything online that could be taken the wrong way.  By the same token sometimes not finding anything speaks volumes.  Are people going to wonder if I’m secretive?  Not very interesting?  Haven’t done anything with my life?  A luddite (well, okay, checking my Amazon wish list, or the fact that I run my own domain, disprove that theory in a hurry)?  Not even real?  It leaves a lot of room for people to speculate and just plain wonder.  Paranoid?  Maybe a touch, but let’s face it, online life has been, in many ways, merging with our real world lives.  People have lost a shot at a dream job simply due to a dumb comment, or inopportune picture posted to the web.  Just like at a face to face meeting, you want the first impression of your online identity to be a positive one. Continue reading…

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Big Orange Mash Tun

All the parts arrived over the weekend for my new mash tun.  My old setup was a five gallon cooler with a half-assed home made false bottom and some plastic fitting.  Not at all an ideal setup, but did a decent enough job for partial-mash stuff.  Still I had been itching to get back to all grain brewing, but knew I needed a better setup if I was to get decent enough efficiency.  Plus with only a five gallon cooler I could really only do about 10 or 11 lbs of grain in a single mash.  A lot of my all grain recipes are over that amount, or else right around it so all grain had always been a pain in the past.

With this new setup I should be able to do approximately 24 pounds of grain in a single bash.  That means I can pump out some high gravity monsters of five gallon batches.  I’ve got all the ingredients lined up today for making an IPA.  14 pounds of grain are all crushed and ready to go in to the mash in just a little bit.  This will only be my second brew since Gabriel was born, and my first all grain batch in I can’t remember how long.

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