Richard's Blog

2011-02-20T20:58:00.000Z

I haven't done much with this blog in the past two years. A lot has changed -I have changed, though not my choices in operating systems, I still run linux everyday and swear by it, and I still grow hops by the dozen and brew beer with them. However I don't know what to blog about any more.

And so I'll point you to my posterous: dharmabum.posterous.com. A mixture of quick blogging, multimedia, writing, my photography and hop growing.

"One day I will find the right words, and they will be simple." — Jack Kerouac.

Installed Ubuntu Lucid Lynx

2010-05-05T00:15:00.001+01:00

Took me awhile to get it working due to a newer version of GRUB -which I took for granted as always working.

My reason for going through boot loader hell was to look at Ubuntu's new 'me menu' and look at Gnome improvements.
The me menu is just a front end to empathy and gwibber. Ubuntu's Gnome is slower than I remember, way more sluggish and unresponsive than Debian Lenny Gnome environment. All that said, the colour scheme is nice -no more brown.

I think this is the first big distribution I've installed where gimp isn't installed by default. Which is odd and not helpful.

Nvidia Video drivers installed with ease.

Wanting a faster environment I set up lxde and compiz. Geekness.

Carlow Irish Stout

2010-02-22T23:22:00.000Z

Pours a dark colour with a good lasting tanned head. Aroma is of roasted malts. Taste is a smoky one, roasted malts, a little chocolate, coffee and, at the back, a blackcurrant note. Pleasant bitterness. Smooth mouth feel. Reminds me of Guinness original but more creamy like Murphy's. 4,5% Strength.

Rating: Good.
As you can see am a professional at rating beer
Overall: A true Irish stout.

Wells Banana Bread Beer

2010-02-11T23:02:00.000Z

Pours a clear coper-amber colour with a good lasting head. Aroma is dominated by sweet banana-like toffee candy, and soft butter with a little dough. Tastes better than it smells, the banana is well balanced with a white bread flavour and, in the background, a bitter spicy note. Crisp mouth feel. The banana taste lingers with a slight hop bitterness. 5,2% Strength.

Rating: Good.
As you can see am a professional at rating beer
Overall: Banana goodness.

Google Chrome beta

2009-12-08T18:55:00.002Z

Now available on Debian/Ubuntu/Fedora/openSUSE.

I doubt open source enthusiasts, like myself, will move away from Mozilla/Firefox.

Download it from tools.google.com/chrometools.google.com/chrome

Buying Hop Rhizomes in the UK

2009-12-02T15:54:00.007Z

With U.S based sellers not offering shipping outside of North America -with few exceptions- there isn't a wide choice of variety.
There are a select few UK sellers. Most are little nursery's and farms, offering British hops. You wont find any Cascade for sale (if you do then comment!), instead you will find hops like Bramling Cross, Northdown and other lesser known homebrewing hops.

If you're thinking about propagating seeds for beer brewing hops. Forget it. I tried, and failed. The process is long. If you want any old common hop plant for decoration or an experiment it's easier to look in the wild and take a cutting. Hops are easy pickings for cuttings.

Here is a list of potential UK sellers for 2010. Some take orders now.

UK shipping
http://www.hopshop.co.uk/range.php?CategoryID=28
Offers: Cobbs, Wye Challenger and Prima Donna.

www.essentiallyhops.co.uk/acatalog/Hop_Plants.html
Offers: Challenger, Prima Donna, Goldings Phoenix and Fuggle --now selling a wide range of hops including cascade.

www.aplus-hops.co.uk
Offers: a range of traditional British hops. --down?

shop.deaconsnurseryfruits.co.uk/hops-62-c.asp
Offers: Hallertauer, Fuggle and other tradition British hops.

www.willingham-nurseries.co.uk/hop.html
Offers: Fuggle, Perle, (East) Kent Goldings, Saaz, Mount Hood, Santiam, Nugget, Willamette

E.U Shipping
www.eickelmann.de/Store/index.html
A German website that has UK shipping with a wide range of German hops for those who are looking for something different.

A list of sellers can be found at: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Grow-Hops/links/Hop_Rhizomes__Commercial_Sources_001197133665/

New to growing hops?

-- Update Feb 2011.
I found cascades from ebay late last season.
Aplus hops website down?
www.essentiallyhops.co.uk has all kinds of hops.

Fullers ESB

2009-11-25T00:26:00.000Z

Pours an amber colour with a lasting white head. Aroma of malt, caramel and a little citrus hops. Tastes of sweet toasty malt, toffee, bitter tea-like spices, and citrus hops at the back. Good bitterness. 5,9% Strength.

Rating: Great.
As you can see am a professional at rating beer
Overall: Complex, but damn is it well balanced.

Currently reading Maggie Cassidy

2009-11-19T18:36:00.000Z

What an odd cover by Paddy Eckersley. The girl in the story is young and yet the cover looks as though its her mum.

Second hand book shops are cool.

Courage Directors

2009-11-01T21:21:00.000Z

Pours an amber colour with a lasting amber head. Aroma is malt dominated; sweet malt with a little caramel. Tastes of cereal bread-like malt at first then a citrus pine like notes. Moderate bitterness. Has a citrus soft bitter finish. 4,8% strength.

Rating: Not bad.
As you can see am a professional at rating beer
Overall: Balanced ale with no surprises.

Castle Rock Harvest Pale

2009-10-05T23:51:00.000+01:00

Pours a pale golden colour with a small lingering head. Aroma is full on bitter citrus noted hops. Tastes of hops, grass notes, and sweet malts. Moderate bitterness. Average light body. Has a dry finish. 4,3% strength.

Rating: Good.
As you can see am a professional at rating beer
Overall: Refreshing Blond Ale from Nottingham.

Harvested Hops

2009-09-29T21:22:00.000+01:00

Harvested all of my final hops today. 300 Grams worth from one challenger. So the season, for me at least, is over. All that's left is to dry them, and use them.

Favourite reads this summer

2009-09-24T20:11:00.011+01:00

I got through a lot of books this summer, most of which were classics. Here's a list of my favourites.

If I'm going to start reviewing books, I want to make it clear, I am not going to write whole paragraphs listing the plot. He did this. He did that. She said so and so. Seriously, bloggers who do that are not reviewing, their just giving you the damn story before you've read it. I intend on writing little about plot, focusing more about style, themes, and what I liked.

Slaughterhouse 5, Kurt Vonnegut.
I wasn't sure what to expect from this. I found it be a combination of genres, so much so its a unique novel. It explores the absurdity of war, death, and time travel. I liked how it was written in simple short prose with one sentence paragraphs.

Lolita, Vladimir Nabokov.
Granted, its not for the light hearted, as the narrator, Humbert Humbert, is a sly man obsessed with young girls he calls nymphets. Disturbing yes? Nabokov lets you see the world through a paedophiles eyes. He does this while at the same time showing Humbert as a -somewhat demented- human. The style features a lot of word play, puns, and lyrical run on sentences.

For Whom the Bell Tolls, Ernest Hemingway.
My first Hemingway novel. Written in a very simple style, its an intense war story with a major theme of death. What interests me is despite being set in the Spanish civil war, the novel doesn't align itself with any ideology other than anti-fascist.

"Once tonight we have been impeded by the ignorance of the anarchists. Then by the sloth of a bureaucratic fascist, then by the oversuspicion of a Communist."

Hemingway writes of massacres on both sides of the war, showing the turmoil of civil war. Apparently President Barack Obama was influenced by this novel.

Crime and Punishment, Fyodor Dostoyevsky.
Dostoyevsky lets you into the mind of a murderer, a drop out student called Raskolnikov. The story is intense as the protagonist's guilt builds, and tries to justify the crime to his moral self. The translation is good and feels modern.

Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, Hunter S. Thompson.
A drug fuelled search for the American dream. First line:

"We were somewhere around Barstow on the edge of the desert when the drugs began to take hold."

Your on the roller coaster straight away.
The drugs add a surreal nonsensical element that the narrator is unaware of, which at times made me laugh out loud. An example of this:

"at one point I tried to drive the Great Red Shark into the laundry room of the Landmark Hotel - but the door was too narrow, and the people inside seemed dangerously excited."

Apart from the hilarious quotes, it has great prose, and in many ways similar to 'the Great Gatsby'.

Nine Stories, J.D. Salinger.
Salinger is best known for his novel 'Catcher in the Rye', but he also wrote some great short stories. My favourite was 'A Perfect Day for Bananafish', a catapult of an ending, and 'Teddy', a Hindu influenced story. This definitely influenced my writing.

The Dharma Bums, Jack Kerouac.
This is Kerouac's outdoor adventure. Think 'On the Road' meets the outdoors and Buddhism. It follows Ray Smith (kerouac) mountain climbing, hiking, hitchhiking, and wild party's. Made me want to hike in the countryside, and write haiku's.

The Great Gatsby, F Scott Fitzgerald.
Fitzgerald became my favourite writer over the summer. His lyrical perfect timing prose style is like poetry. Its a story of excess, lost love and want in the jazz age. Social commentary, or an art piece, I love it.

Into the Wild, Jon Krakauer.
A non-fictional biography of Christopher McCandless who, inspired by Leo Tolstoy, Henry David Thoreau, and Jack London, set off to Alaska. Krakauer uses personal experience and other similar stories to explain McCandless actions. Brilliant journalism.

War and Peace, Leo Tolstoy.
I started reading this one in spring from 17th of February, and finished it on the 15th of April. The length and the amount of characters seems daunting at first, until you've read a few chapters. It has friendship, romance, huge battle scenes, philosophy, religion, and a lot more. What more could you want from an epic novel? I actually think Pierre Bezukhov is my favourite character in literature.

Wild Hops

2009-08-26T19:06:00.000+01:00

Finally found some wild hops down the road.

Might try collect them soon.

Jennings Sneck Lifter

2009-08-22T00:08:00.001+01:00

On the bottle it says...

"In northern dialect sneck means door latch and a sneck lifter was a man’s last sixpence which enabled him to lift the latch of a pub door and buy himself a pint, hoping to meet friends there who might treat him to one or two more."

Who knew you could learn words and phrases from a beer bottle.

Pours a deep ruby red colour with a good tanned head. Aroma is toasted caramel, fruitcake and a little coffee. Tastes of toasted malts, little woody notes, and perhaps a hint of chocolate malt. Moderate sweetness. Nice hoppy bitterness. Smooth mouth feel. After taste is light bitter roasted linger. 5,1% strength.

Rating: Good.
As you can see am a professional at rating beer
Overall: A good enjoyable premium bitter.

Tsingtao Beer

2009-08-21T01:06:00.001+01:00

640ml Bottle imported by Halewood international uk.

Pours a clear pale golden colour with short lasting white head. Aroma is floral hops, corn and a little barley. Tastes similar to pilsners from main land Europe. Sweet malts and corn. Slightly metallic hint. Soft watery mouth feel. After taste is dry and clean. 4,7% strength.

Rating: Not bad.
As you can see am a professional at rating beer
Overall: Nothing special, but surprisingly its a damn refreshing lager.

Tweetdeck on xfce / ubuntu

2009-08-17T16:50:00.002+01:00

If you're a twitter fan new to xfce or (x)ubuntu, attracted to the efficient and fast environment, you will notice tweetdeck is useless. The buttons show up, but nothing else.

Unfortunately it seems tweetdeck only knows how to store username/password information on Gnome and KDE. When you start tweetdeck from the terminal you are given: "Unknown desktop manager, only Gnome and KDE are supported".

Fortunately there is a way around this with a little bash script.
First make sure 'launch gnome services on start up' - option found in session and startup - is ticked. It should already be ticked if your an ubuntu user - if your not I'm guessing you need the Gnome keyring service installed for this to work.

Next, the script. For (x)ubuntu users you can simply use this:

 #!/bin/bash
GNOME_DESKTOP_SESSION_ID="gnomeisgo" /opt/TweetDeck/bin/TweetDeck

Copy the above into your favourite text editor and save as "tweetdeck.sh". Once saved, right click the file, and open properties. Look in permissions and tick "allow this file to run as a program" to give it permission to run. Now click the script to run tweetdeck. Done.

For other distributions try this:

#!/bin/bash
GNOME_KEYRING=`ps x | grep gnome-keyring | awk '$5 ~/^gnome-keyring/ {print $1}'
`
DIRNAME="`dirname $0`"

GNOME_DESKTOP_SESSION_ID=$GNOME_KEYRING $DIRNAME/TweetDeck

From www.mindby.com. I'm sure it works for openSuse.

Happy tweeting.

The complete joy of homebrewing

2009-08-14T18:39:00.001+01:00

Writen by Charlie Papazian. Known to many as the homebrewers bible it has sold more then one million copies over 25 reprintings and 3 editions. After an introduction the book is split into three parts: beginner, intermediate, and advanced. Each section has adequate information. There is, in the beginners section, a step-by-step guide. If your totally new to beer there is a style guide too. In intermediate and advanced there are recipes, various methods, ingredient details, helpful charts, and even a bit of yeast science.

Some of my first beers were from the intermediate recipes. They deal with kits, extracts, small amounts of malt, adjuncts and hops. I did a Cushlomachree stout (page 208) from a coopers stout kit and it turned out to be, up to then, the best I made.

The advanced section deals with all grain brewing. Water adjusting, culturing yeast, grinding grain, mash tuns, lauter-tuns and different mashing methods. If it goes over your head dont worry Mr Papazian writes: Relax. Don’t worry. Have a homebrew!

As a reference, I cannot stress how useful this book is. When I'm looking to buy ingredients or following a recipe, I can always check the hop chart, style guideline or look up an adjunct. Just last year I wanted to try using pears from our garden tree. I looked up fruits and found instruction on how to pasteurize fruit (page 89-90). If your starting to be a serious homebrewer there are three and a half pages on growing hops in appendix 7 (page 353).

If your new to brewing or looking for an excellent reference I recommended it.

Jennings Cumberland Ale

2009-08-04T00:04:00.000+01:00

Pours a clear golden amber colour with a little short lived head. Aroma is floral hops, caramel malts and a slight metallic tang. Tastes of sweet caramel and biscuit - bread notes. After taste has a good bitterness linger. 4,7% strength.

Rating: Okay.
As you can see am a professional at rating beer
Overall: Average bitter.

Leffe Brune

2009-07-22T00:03:00.000+01:00

Pours a clear deep red colour with a good white head. Aroma is fruits, chocolate and burnt caramel malt. Tastes simpler than its aroma and appearance. Sweet toasted malt with slight raisins-cherry fruit hint. After taste, though malt dominated, has a nice bitter taste. 6,5% strength.

Rating: Good.
As you can see am a professional at rating beer
Overall: Would be great to see this stronger and possibly more concentrated, however its an enjoyable Belgium beer.

Moved

2009-07-10T12:49:00.002+01:00

~~I've moved this blog over to linuxandbeer.blogspot.com to consentrate on linux and beer.~~

~~Updated your bookmarks as they use to say in the 90s.~~

You know what, that was a stupid idea. The two topics didn't go - who would have thought. Ill keep using this place I don't care about SEO crap.

Hop photos

2009-07-10T04:45:00.003+01:00

St Austell Cornish IPA

2009-06-26T00:57:00.000+01:00

Pours a very light copper, golden, colour with a thin white head. Aroma is citrus pine hops with fruits. Medium body. Tastes of citrus hops, light biscuit malt and spice notes. After taste is a well balanced clean bitterness. 5% strength.

Rating: Good.
As you can see am a professional at rating beer
Overall: Nice IPA.

My Hops

2009-06-25T20:44:00.002+01:00

From left to right. Golding, Challenger.

They didn't get off to the best of starts. When they sprouted in their individual buckets I moved them to my allotment patch. I'm guessing the temperature shock might slowed them down. They died down till 2 weeks later they were growing. Now their 8ft on wigwams + a stable wire trellis. No hops yet, still time for some to appear though. I hope.

Golding was behind the challenger, till today it passed it on to the wire trellis. I read it is a slower grower in the early season.

Holts Humdinger

2009-06-24T23:15:00.000+01:00

Pours a copper colour with a thin white head. Aroma is toasted malts, honey and a little cirtus hop notes. Light-Medium body. Smooth texture. Taste is mostly honey with citrus hops. After taste is a short cirtus hop dry bitterness. 4% strength.

Rating: Not bad.
As you can see am a professional at rating beer
Overall: Pleasant honey beer.

Wyre Piddle Piddle in the Hole

2009-06-24T00:23:00.000+01:00

Pours an amber colour with a short lasting thin white head. Aroma is caramel malt, honey and woody notes. Medium body. Tastes of sweet biscuit malts with a little earthy grass hop hint. After taste is a slightly short lived bitter linger. 4% strength.

Rating: Not bad.
As you can see am a professional at rating beer
Overall: Simple bitter.

Lomo script for Gimp

2009-06-21T00:07:00.001+01:00

I have used several lomo scripts. I think this one is the best with its cross processing effects.

Inverting LAB A or B is neat. The motion blur is really the icing on the cake making shots look vintage. Several colour settings come with the script too. Lots to place with.

Examples from flickr.com/phot...

Download the script from registry.gimp.org/node/7870. Place it in the gimp scripts folder ~/.gimp-2.4/scripts/.

Twitter to Pidgin status

2009-05-25T17:49:00.003+01:00

If you tweet daily and use pidgin to talk to multiple protocol contacts then showing your latest tweet in a status might be useful.

Go to code.google.com/p/pidgin-twitterstatus and download twitter-0.4.0.pl. Place it into ~/.purple/plugins.

New to ubuntu? To find ~/.purple/plugins go to home and unhide files ( ctrl + h ).

If the directory doesn't exist make it. On pidgin find "twitter status" in plugins ( ctrl + u ). Configure it and turn on. Turn your status to the status name you applied in configure. Done.

Who is Simeon Hobbes ?

2009-05-18T12:53:00.003+01:00

On friday a 'Simeon Hobbes' joined twitter and started following LOST twitters. Since then he's been posting cryptic LOST tweets. A lot of them are about Jacob. Some of the tweets have strangely been deleted like this one:

To be touched by the light of Jacob is to awake anew. May night, and slumber, give way to a better tomorrow.

The lost experience posted a video entitled 'Who is Simeon Hobbes?'. Its a morse code message.

I was going to translate it, but the people over at the lost wiki have already done so. It reads:
.. / .- -- / - .... . / -... . -. -. ..- / -... .. .-. -.. --..-- / - .... . / .... . .- .-. - -....- ... --- ..- .-.. / --- ..-. / .-. .- --..-- / - .... . / --. ..- .. -.. . / --- ..-. / - .... . / --. --- -.. ... / - --- / - .... . / - ..- .- -/.- .-.

I AM THE BENNU BIRD, THE HEART-SOUL OF RA, THE GUIDE OF THE GODS TO THE TUAT AR

Check out lostpedia.wikia.com/wiki/Simeon_Hobbes.

Edit: Well its a fake, but nothing like a bit of mystery.

Abbaye Du Park Blonde

2009-05-08T01:24:00.000+01:00

In a cadged corked 75cl bottle. Pours a clear copper colour with a good white head. Aroma is metallic, lager hops and a little wheat note. Medium body. Tastes of wheat malt, honey and slight biscuit notes. After taste is a hopped metallic like linger. 5.6% strength.

Rating: Okay.
As you can see am a professional at rating beer
Overall: Big bottle, good strength and not a bad taste.

How I tweet from a phone

2009-04-11T22:37:00.006+01:00

There are a number of J2ME Twitter clients out there. Some good, some bad. Some lack options and deemed expensive to run on pay-as-you-go tariff. Loading a friends timeline without a limit takes time and so it becomes "Wait And Pay" wap scenario.

The advantage of using a client to tweet is obviously quicker and cheaper than to send a tweet via text.

jibjib is an open source J2ME Twitter client. Minimum requirements are only CLDC 1.0 and MIDP 1.0. If your phone is Symbian based (Can play java games) and is made sometime after 2001 it should work. I'm guessing 2001 because CLDC 1.0 and MIDP 1.0 had a final release date in 2000. Note: some beta versions of jibjib may require newer versions.

jibjib is very small being only 30-40 KB. You can download timelines. Set a timeline length, @reply easily and setup gateways.

Download the Jad or Jar from jibjib.org/download/stable and install it on your phone. Open options and set your username & password in setup. After that your ready to tweet.

Another client I have tried is freeware Abiro Jitter. Requiring CLDC 1.0 and MIDP 1.0. It works well for sending tweets. Sadly though it doesn't have a timeline download limit.

The alternative to a client is opening a page with your browser. There are sites that allow twitter access by wap. They work well and you dont have to install anything.

Try opening:

Some will keep you logged in so you wont have to enter your username and password again. All you have to do is bookmark the page.

For anymore clients and pages see twitter.pbwiki.com/Apps#Mobileapps.
Happy tweeting.

Adnams The Bitter

2009-04-11T00:08:00.000+01:00

Pours a clear dark amber brown colour with a thin white head. Aroma is sweet malt, a little caramel, and lemon-like citrus hops. Medium body. Tastes of biscuit sweet malts with bread-like nutty notes. Moderate bitterness. After taste is a dry hop noted finish. 4.5% strength.

Rating: Good.
As you can see am a professional at rating beer
Overall: A refreshing hoppy session bitter. Good on tap and bottle.

The Dwarf Crew are back

2009-04-10T13:10:00.009+01:00

I was going to wait and review it later, but I cant wait. In about 7 hours the first part of the new Red Dwarf will be shown on Dave. After ten years and the miserably failed movie attempts, its finally back.

I've been itching to see new episodes since sales of the dvd's always do well, and the endless calls for the movie. Having a 10 year wait a 3 part special is just as good. I'm hoping its not going to be a lifeless remake of itself, but a continuation.

"Red Dwarf" has been a trending topic for most of the day. Seems like dwarfers populate twitter. Even one of the cast are on twitter. Robert Llewllyn who played the Kryten twitter.com/bobbyllew.

Red dwarf is on at 9 on Dave. I know right? Dave! Who would have thought.

Comix

2009-04-09T00:05:00.001+01:00

Avid comic book fans will like this application, but if your not a comic book reader don't dismay it's a brilliant photo viewer too.

It offers efficient thumbnail previews, full-scale mode, dual pages for those comics, a Manga right to left reading mode, open ZIP and tar archives, bookmark support, image enhancement and plenty of other features you would expect on a generic image viewer.

What I like best is the zoom feature. Its like using a square magnifying glass. The image enhancement is also clever. Changing the brightness, contrast, saturation and sharpness.

If your looking for a customizable photo viewer or comic book reader and run GNU/Linux. Try it out. Ubuntu users get the latest deb from getdeb.net/app/Comix. Other builds, source and more information see the homepage at comix.sourceforge.net.

LivingSocial Books

2009-04-08T19:16:00.003+01:00

I use the facebook application often. At first I used it to list the books I like, and then I started keeping track of what I've read. Its good for recommendations too.

To get this widget goto books.livingsocial.com/widgets. For help see books.livingsocial.com/blog/2064-widget-guide?ref=sidebar-blog-post.
Note: Facebook application users CAN login to the main site.

The invention of morel

2009-03-28T15:48:00.009Z

I have recently studied the lists (there's a few out there) of books from lost. squidoo.com/lost-book-list.

One of them caught my eye: The invention or morel by Adolfo Bioy Casares. "Sawyer was reading this book about a fugitive on a deserted island while living at the Others' barracks in episode 4 of season 4 ("Eggtown")".

I don't remember the episode. Season 4 sometimes became a choir to watch. Is that a nasty thing to say? I love series 5. Finally its going somewhere.

Just from the description and the fact that sawyer was reading it, I had to read the book. Its quite short being about a hundred pages. That doesn't bother you when your reading war and peace at the same time. Mainly plot based with it written in the form of a diary by a fugitive. While escaping the police he is told about a deserted island. The only warning is that the temporary inhabitants died horribly. Living on the island, to the surprise of the narrator, people show up and strange events occur.

I wont spoil the plot. There are a lot of connections to lost. An island. Weird others. It is eerie and a mix of science fiction fantasy. Enjoyable little read. I may read more books from lost.

Screenlets

2009-03-07T13:06:00.004Z

Screenlets is a widget engine based on compositing window managers. It allows you to run python scripted widgets as well as web widgets like Google gadgets.

Right now with xfce4.6 I'm running a window list, weather updater (like I'm lazy to look outside), a simple calendar, a simple clock and a twitter updater. I'm also playing with a facebook one. It works well with xfce.

Ubuntu users can download the latest from www.getdeb.net/app/Screenlets. You may need to update or install new python libraries to run some of the widgets. An alternative to screenlets is gdesklets.

Wychwood WychCraft

2009-03-04T23:23:00.002Z

Pours a light amber colour, good lacing with a small white head. Aroma is lager-ish and bready with crisp citrus hops. Light body. Tastes of biscuity malts, light toffee hint, floral spicy hops and a citrus tang. After taste is a spicy-citrus tang. Dry finish. 4.5% strength.

Rating: Okay.
As you can see am a professional at rating beer
Overall: A refreshing blonde ale. Possibly my favourite from this brewery.

Poachers Black Crow Stout

2009-03-03T22:42:00.005Z

Pours a very dark colour with a medium frothy tanned head. Aroma is roasted malts, coffee and caramel. Smooth body. Tastes of roasted malts, yeast, hop bitterness and a toffee note. After taste is a fruit like sourness. Quite dry. 4.5% strength.

Rating: Okay.
As you can see am a professional at rating beer
Overall: A drinkable light coffee stout.

Robinsons Old Tom

2009-03-03T01:57:00.004Z

Pours a very dark brown colour with a medium tan head. Aroma is dominated by roasted chocolate malt with a pleasant oak note. Smooth rich body. Taste is complex with a combination of dried malt, burnt sugar and dark malts. Well hidden alcohol. After taste is a warming sweet malt, almost treacle like. 8.5% strength.

Rating: Good.
As you can see am a professional at rating beer
Overall: Complex and strong.

Poachers Billy Boy

2009-03-02T23:52:00.003Z

This camra approved ale is named after a border collie named 'billy'. You cant miss the bottle it has a picture of the collie.

Pours a golden colour with a medium white head. My bottle was very active and frothy. Aroma is mostly malt, sweet tarty hints and a little sour note. Medium body. Taste is sweet malt, caramel, a little sourness and moderate bitterness. After taste has a sweet bitterness. 4.4% strength.

Rating: Not bad.
As you can see am a professional at rating beer
Overall: Nice English bitter.

Wells Bombardier Burning Gold

2009-02-28T22:54:00.003Z

Pours a clear honey colour with a thin white head. Aroma is lager like with little aroma hops. Light watery body. Taste is toasted malt, caramel hints, bready and light hop bitterness. After taste has long bitterness. Quite refreshing. 4.7% strength.

Rating: Okay, had better.
As you can see am a professional at rating beer
Overall: Wells has better beers to offer.

Abbot Ale

2009-02-27T23:55:00.003Z

Pours a amber colour with a thin white head. Aroma of sweet toasted malt, mild aroma hops, hay and light fruit. Medium body. Taste is pleasantly unique. Toasted malt, a slight butterscotch whisky hint and a little fruit. After taste has a dry bitter feel. Matured characteristics. 5% strength.

Rating: Great.
As you can see am a professional at rating beer
Overall: A classic English ale.

Morrissey Fox blonde ale

2009-02-26T23:17:00.008Z

Featured on the tv show (forgot the name) on channel four. Its supposed to be a cross between lager and ale.

Pours a light colour with a dissipating head. Aroma is of pine notes. Possibly cascade hops. Generous use of aroma hops. Light body similar to a lager. Ordinary mouth feel. Taste is slightly dominated by hops and of biscuit malt. After taste has a dry light bitterness. Quite balanced. 4.2% strength.

The taste reminds me of Sierra Nevada Pale Ale, which is a great cascade hop beer, but generally compared this a less superior brew.

Rating: Okay.
As you can see am a professional at rating beer
Overall: Decent light hoppy ale.

PekWM on Ubuntu

2009-02-05T21:43:00.004Z

PekWM is a lightweight window manager. Suitable for older machines and users looking for performance.

From linux dumps

Screenshot of PekWM, bmpanel, eterm and irrsi. Verdant PekWM theme.

I found it to be highly customizable just like fluxbox but noticeably faster. Its behaviour is completely different from anything I'm use to. So I changed a lot of stuff in ~/.pekwm. There is well written documentation on the project website to help you out.

There is a slightly old build in the repository under the package name pekwm.
sudo apt-get install pekwm

If you like it and want to fully commit there is a guide at the ubuntu forums with a deb source and building information for newer builds.

x11 Touchpad Speed

2009-02-05T17:59:00.011Z

When I use Fluxbox or PekWM on ubuntu I find that, unlike my default desktop xfce4, the touchpad mouse configuration is terrible. I had to run my finger across the pad twice to reach either side of the screen.

The fix I found works by editing /etc/X11/xorg.conf. For peace of mind (even though its only editing mouse speed) you may want to backup your xorg.conf! Copy it with root powers cp /etc/X11/xorg.conf /etc/X11/xorg.conf-backup.

Open xorg.conf. Find the mouse and touchpad settings like below.

Section "InputDevice"
 Identifier "Configured Mouse"
 Driver  "mouse"
 Option  "CorePointer"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
 Identifier "Synaptics Touchpad"
 Driver  "synaptics"
 Option  "SendCoreEvents" "true"
 Option  "Device"  "/dev/psaux"
 Option  "Protocol"  "auto-dev"
 Option  "HorizEdgeScroll" "0"
 EndSection

Under the Identifier Synaptics Touchpad (your touchpad device name maybe slightly different) and before EndSection add these three lines:

Option "MinSpeed" "0.45"
Option "MaxSpeed" "0.75"
Option "AccelFactor" "0.020"

Restart x. Log back in and try it out. You may want to try out different configurations to your liking. Note: these settings will effect your desktop environment (xfce, gnome and kde ect).

Avidemux

2009-02-03T21:39:00.007Z

When I first started using linux based operating systems there was no GUI video editing tools. However, today the situation is improving with projects like Cinelerra and Kino. For simple editing though Avidemux on Ubuntu is great.

Avidemux can be used for simple editing and converting videos. With a user-friendly interface it supports AVI, DVD compatible MPEG, MP4, FLV and ASF.

I tested it with a ripped mp4 encoded youtube movie and converted it into an avi format. The setup was simple, the process didn't take long and the final result was perfect. I can see this being useful if you convert videos daily and like to make basic cuts.

You can install it by sudo apt-get install avidemux. Other packages include a qt version for KDE users avidemux-qt. A Command line version is available too avidemux-cli.

For other builds and tutorials see fixounet.free.fr/avidemux.

Snow

2009-02-02T16:57:00.007Z

Heaviest snow fall in Britain for years and all I got is this.

There was no point in taking a walk with the camera. Quite disappointed. With all the hype I was hoping for a 1990's (my childhood) foot of snow like some other areas.

Its going to snow tonight so I might be able to take good photos in the morning.

My Favourite Books

2009-02-01T23:30:00.003Z

Reading is good. You know? Its cool. It beats the TV and film most of the time. I must have read about 40 novels last year so I thought I would make an incoherent list of favourites.

Nineteen Eighty-Four
Probably George Orwell's most famous book. Once you read it you see how much an influence it has on culture. Concepts like Room 101 and Big Brother are well known. Its a dystopian novel set in a totalitarian regime, which its protagonist Winston Smith seems to drag on living in. The first part is a little dull till the more likeable and rebellious character Julia is introduced.

Homage to Catalonia
George Orwell's experiences and observations in the Spanish Civil War. He writes about warfare in the Spanish mountains/countryside, being shot in the neck, revolutionised Barcelona, street fighting and the major political movements. Its probably the best account of the war.

On the Road
Jack Kerouac's travels around America with Neal Cassady. Some find it outdated. This maybe true by language and racial attitude yet it does have a tale of passionate friendship and a search for something. This novel inspired Bob Dylan and the lizard king himself Jim Morrison.

Dubliners
Fifteen short stories depicting middle class life in Dublin at the start of the 20th century. Written by James Joyce it is his most accessible work. My favourites stories are 'A Little Cloud' and 'The Boarding House'.

Small Gods
The deepest philosophical novel of the Discworld series. Terry Pratchett uses themes of religious satire and greek philosophy. Its set a few hundred years before most of the Discworld novels. I found it a little harder to read than others in the series and yet more rewarding.

Walden
Henry David Thoreau's account of two years spent living at Walden Pond near Concord, Massachusetts in a log cabin. He writes about his day-to-day life, self-sufficient philosophy and observations. Quite complex and not easy reading.

Nation
A Terry Pratchett non-discworld novel set on an tsunami swept island called Nation. Only Mau, a young man who is an original inhabitant, and Daphne, a shipwrecked British girl, remain marooned. Humorous situations while Pratchett takes on themes such as imperialism, gender and race.

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
Written by Douglas Adams, a talented writer, died in 2001. What started life as a radio show became six books following Arthur Dent across the galaxy. The first book is the strongest of the original five. Extremely funny light hearted science fiction. Its very English too. When I read it I strangely want to wear a bathrobe, wear slippers and drink tea. The movie doesn't do the book justice.

Google glitch

2009-01-31T15:16:00.003Z

It seems everything on google is listed as "This site may harm your computer." right now.

For example a search on a popular 1974 UK children's television series Bagpuss has everything denied.

news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/7862840.stm

Red Dwarf is back

2009-01-27T01:25:00.003Z

After the failed movie attempt and endless sales of DVDs there's to be a 2 part special on Dave. That's right: DAVE. I guess the BBC is too busy not showing Gaza appeals and funding Doctor Who to get this, seven million DVDs and videos worth, cult show back on the box. If you cant tell already I would have preferred it on the BBC but beggars cant be choosers. Its about time it was back!

Source: news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/7851989.stm

You can see production updates from dave.uktv.co.uk/library/red-dwarf/.

Learn Morse Code on Ubuntu

2009-01-06T01:00:00.007Z

I recently became a scout assistant-leader. As you do. One of their activities is the use of morse code.

Enter aldo. A morse code learning tool released under GPL. It plays morse code and you have to identify/translate it. It has the Koch method which starts at 2 charters then once mastered it moves on to 3 charters. Then 4 and so on. Classic method, random characters, is also available.

Aldo is listed under package name aldo. Install with: sudo apt-get install aldo. Run it in a terminal by entering aldo. Simple really. Its better to run it on xterm or one of its variants.

To translate code I use the chart on www.learnmorsecode.com.
See www.nongnu.org/aldo for other aldo download sources.

Holiday Road Rage

2008-12-22T16:49:00.007Z

I was a few minutes into a journey across town when the bus driver began pulling out of a stop only to pull out in front of a Chrysler PT. Which is probably the worst looking car on British roads. The driver understandably honked as he stopped. The bus driver stopped the bus then carried on thinking that was the end of the matter.

The bus pulled in to the next stop. The Chrysler, which followed the bus, decided it was a great idea to stop in front of the bus while passengers got on. I don't think the bus driver took much notice. I'm guessing his attention was on passengers money and tickets.

When all the passengers were on board the bus driver was ready to go. Only to see the fat back end of the Chrysler. He honked. Honked again. The Chrysler driver showed his/her intentions by honking back. It wouldn't move. Some passengers muttered along the lines of 'what's his game?'

What happened next is something I have never witnessed before. Well on a bus anyway. The bus driver opened the bus doors. Stormed out. Walked over to the Chrysler and totally let rip. I cant really write what he said. It is Christmas after all. The passengers fell silent. A lot of them gasped. At first at the language used then at the idiot in the Chrysler. The bus driver marched back on the bus while the Chrysler, watched by disapproved tutting old lady's, set off slowly pulling into another road. Leaving the old lady's asking themselves if the driver was drunk.

The meaning of the story is: chill out its the holidays.
Heres some Christmas stress tip links:
Impactfactory.com/p/stress_manageme...
Bbc.co.uk/norfolk/features/xmas_2003...

Text to Speech on ubuntu

2008-12-19T15:24:00.007Z

A text to speech function can be provided with a program called Festival. Used for development and research it is capable of producing clearly understandable speech from text.
sudo apt-get install festival

Install a voice. You have a choice of some voices on the repositories.
festvox-rablpc8k -British English male 8khz.
festvox-rablpc16k -British English male 16khz.
festvox-don -British English male.
festvox-te-nsk -Telugu male.
festvox-suopuhe-mv -Finnish male
festvox-suopuhe-lj -Finnish female.
festvox-mr-nsk -Marathi male.
festvox-kdlpc8k -American English male 8khz.
festvox-kdlpc16k -American English male 16khz.
festvox-kallpc8k -American English male 8khz.
festvox-kallpc16k -American English male 16khz.
festvox-hi-nsk -Hindi male speaker.

Choose one and install with:
sudo apt-get install chosenpackagefromabove

To make it say something I make a text file with the text I want spoken and run the following (change the file location):
cat file.txt | festival --tts

Or you can run Festival in a terminal and use (SayText "something"). Keep the brackets. For example:
festival> (SayText "Testing Testing")

To use it with pidgin so that IM's are read out aloud install the pidgin-festival package:
sudo apt-get install pidgin-festival

To activate it open Pidgins plug-ins (in tools or Ctrl + U). Find Festival. Tick it and restart.

Click configure to see the options. Select a voice for the plug-in if you have more than one installed. Maximum message lengths is useful. You don't want someone annoying to instant message you a message the size of a book and have it all read out with 5 chats going. Also announcing events its neat if your out the room "Fred is online".

Changing voices can be done by running festival. Type festival in a terminal to start the festival prompt. Use this command (voice_NAMEOFVOICE) changing the voice name to which ever voice you want like festival> (voice_don_diphone). To find voice names of the packages you have installed look in /usr/share/festival/voices/.

If your seriously wanting to use Festival daily you may like to have more realistic voices checkout ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=677277 for instructions. For an online demo, source and other information see cstr.ed.ac.uk/projects/festival.

Yet another Photoblog

2008-12-16T22:29:00.004Z

For next year I may move away from photoforamonth.blogspot.com to a more generalized anything-goes photo blog. So I created blackhillproject.blogspot.com. It wont have much till next year. If the name sounds strange to you that's because its named after a local wood where iv taken many of my photos. A very airy place. In the mean time I am playing with my own template.

Brewed a Bitter

2008-11-27T23:01:00.005Z

...using John Bull best bitter kit. Added some light malt, roasted barley, small amount of northern brewer hops and a can of extract that's been laying around. O.G 1.080. With my favourite dried yeast, Nottingham ale yeast, for obvious reasons. Wrapped up the fermenter in newspaper and placed it in the warmest part of the house just in case the cold causes a stuck fermentation.

Wii error

2008-11-24T18:02:00.007Z

My sisters copy of Wii Music updated the Wii. Restarted it. Ran the disc then a error message. Other games work just not this one. I googled the problem and found a load of modders forums. The unit isn't chipped so there's no help but to replace the game disc.

Edit: Was the the disc after all.

Funny Hamster

2008-11-22T17:51:00.006Z

A hamster sleeping up on a glass window in a pet store. Had to take a photo of it.

Okocim Beer

2008-11-11T01:13:00.004Z

A German styled Pilsener brewed by Okocim Brewery in Brzesko in southeastern Poland.

Pours a very light gold colour. Nice but short lived head. Musty citrus aroma. Not great but I smelt worse beers. Light body maybe a little watery for some. Tastes of sweet light lager malts with balanced spicy bitterness. Quite dry. Clean hoppy finish. A good 5.5% alcohol.

Rating: Okay.
As you can see am a professional at rating beer
Overall: A decent dry pilsener polish lager.

Joe Strummer...

2008-11-08T01:53:00.006Z

'...and the legend of the clash' is a book I found sitting on a shelve in the local library. I was looking for something good to read. Like a Orwell novel. Though, the library has only two copies of Animal farm and one copy of Nineteen Eighty-Four. I've read both these and didn't favour any other novels.

I nearly left empty handed until I saw "Joe Strummer" in bold capitals. I have liked the band since my teens. Songs like ''White riot' raw punk, 'London calling' reggae bassline and the dub sound of 'Straight to hell'. After reading the first chapters of the book I realised I knew little about them despite knowing their discography.

Written by Kris Needs it offers an inside look into the band. He was a journalist/editor of ZigZag. A music magazine which was devoted mostly to the growing punk movement around 77. Kris became friends with the band and other punk royalty.

The biography of Joe himself is detailed following his early life to busking, art college, his fascination with George Orwell (see what I did there), squatting, joining pub rock band the 101's and the Clash. It's packed with stuff I didn't know. For example he once went by the name of "woody" as in Woody Guthrie. There is also smaller biography's of Mick Jones, Paul Simonon, and Nicky "Topper" Headon. Most of the book follows the bands progression. Writing songs, tours, recoding albums and the bands relationship.

Famous names pop up like Shane MacGowan, Robert DeNiro and Martin Scorsese. Kris Needs also wrote about the first time he met Sid Vicious learning bass to 'Blitzkrieg bop' overnight.

It's well written with honesty and humour. Plenty of stories and photography by Pennie Smith makes its worth reading if your a punk/clash fan.

Lets all jump aboard

2008-10-29T17:09:00.005Z

It seems the media, concerned public and politicians have all jumped on the condemning bandwagon with BBC Radio 2's 'The Russell Brand Show' prank calls involving Russell Brand and Jonathan Ross to Andrew Sachs.

I wont comment on the prank call itself. Its the reaction I find amusing. Its a radio broadcast with just 400,000 listeners and a few complaints. Four days later the mail on sunday asked Sachs agent for comment creating a snow ball effect with the media gradually running the story non stop totalling up 1800 complaints.

What makes this more undue is politicians jumping on the bandwagon. First with David Cameron "I don't think it was appropriate. I don't think it was in keeping with broadcasting". Then later that day the Prime Minister calls the incident "clearly inappropriate and unacceptable". Its amazing don't you think? They find the time to talk about a trivial media onslaught on two popular comedians/hosts away from issues such as poverty, Iraq, Afghanistan and the recent failure of what some might call world wide capitalism. Makes you think don't it?

Listing Hardware

2008-10-21T16:39:00.004+01:00

For a full detailed list of hardware on ubuntu try:
sudo lshw

The list hardware tool creates a detailed list of hardware organized by component. For example:

*-battery
     description: Lithium Ion Battery
     product: PA3098U
     vendor: PANASONIC
     physical id: 1
     version: 05/25/2001
     serial: 3658Q
     slot: 1st Battery
     capacity: 3900mWh
     configuration: voltage=14.8V

You can output the list to a html document by running:
sudo lshw -html > hardware.html

On other debian based distributions you may find lshw is not installed by default in which case try aptitude install lshw.

Licher Weizen Hefe Hell

2008-10-20T22:45:00.000+01:00

Brewed by Licher Privatbrauerei. Lich, Hessen, Germany. Website can be found at licher.de/brauerei/biere/weizen/.

Commercial Description:

Licher Weizen gets its characteristic aroma and taste from being brewed out of wheat blessed by the sun and finest yeast. It is typically brewed according to the "Deutsches Reinheitsgebot", which is the oldest food law worldwide (dated 1516). Licher Weizen should be served in the typical glasses, so that it looks just like it tastes: perfectly refreshing!

Pours a hazy amber colour. Thick white head. Light sweet hay-like malt aroma. Medium body with smooth mouth feel. Tastes sweeter than other hefeweizen with yeast, wheat, and banana notes. Little bitterness with moderate sweetness. Slight spicy after taste. 5.4% strength.

Rating: Nice.
As you can see am a professional at rating beer
Overall: A pleasant Hefeweizen.

Writer's World Maker

2008-10-11T13:17:00.004+01:00

I've always wanted writers tools for linux and so has the creator of Writer's World Maker.

"I am a fiction writer, when I converted to Ubuntu from Windows I had problems finding the tools I used to use in Windows. Running them under Wine never worked right for me so I decided to write the software I needed for myself and for the kind Ubuntu /Linux world that gave us such a cool and free OS. "

It allows you to organize chapters and scenes. Characters, places, and notes can all be added. The layout is efficient. It took me 5 minutes of playing around to understand how it works. There's no 'get started guide' but it all makes sense after trying. Select a chapter, then create a scene (right click over the text box and select add new scene), select the scene which shows the text below and write.

If you like to write and use linux you can find a deb and other packages at www.wwmkr.com.

Oak Aged Beer

2008-09-17T23:37:00.008+01:00

Brewed by Innis & Gunn. I've never had whiskey oak barrel matured beer before.

Commercial Description:

Using oak to age beer is unheard of. But, the flavours imparted by the oak barrels (previously used to mature bourbon) lend an incredible depth of taste. Think vanilla, toffee and orange aromas, with a malty, lightly oaked palate; soothing and warm in the finish.

Pours a clear dark golden colour with a small smooth white head. Sweet malt, oak hints and toffee all present in the aroma. Medium body. At first the taste is caramel-like dominated before you begin to notice the slight citrus, oak and pleasant whiskey like taste. No notice of hops. Smooth warming alcohol finish. 6.6% strength.

Rating: Nice.
As you can see am a professional at rating beer
Overall: Different. If you like whiskey and beer; it beats any whiskey malt made beer.

Mad Goose

2008-09-16T23:51:00.010+01:00

Brewed by Purity. Don't know much about them.
Commercial Description:

Brewed with Maris otter, Caragold and Wheat malt with Hallertau bittering hops and Cascade and Willamette aroma hops. Light copper in colour with a great hop character citrus overtones.

Pours a clear copper colour. Little or no head. Generous hops and pine noted aroma. Ordinary light pale ale body with smooth mouth feel. Taste is dominated by hops at first then the pale malts become noticeable. A slightly bitter after taste. 5% strength.

Rating: Nice.
As you can see am a professional at rating beer
Overall: A great hoppy pale ale.

Pumpkins

2008-09-14T22:07:00.005+01:00

These are my nearly ripe Jack O' Lantern variety pumpkins. As you can tell from the name there good for Jack O' Lanterns and also for pies. My football sized squash were totally dwarfed by some I saw this morning growing at the bottom of the allotments. I will take a photo sometime. I remember 2 years ago the same plot had pumpkins the size of large screen televisions. Something tells me they grow for size.

Remember Creatures?

2008-09-06T16:32:00.008+01:00

When I was young I use to run creatures dabbling in genetics and breeding different traits. Friends, who at the time played, lost interest when they realised it wasn't a game but a artificial life program. You oversaw or played god in how these artificial life forms developed. Like an ant farm only more progressive. It was created by a computer scientist called Steve Grand OBE in the early nineties originally for DOS.

I don't quite remember how I came across creatures 1. I think it might been upstairs in whsmiths searching for something to waste pocket money on. I didn't realise the depth of the game. The creatures called norns have digital DNA, biochemistry and neural network brains. They can evolve like real animals through cross-over mutations.

Breeders and, I guess, gene hackers created loads of different breeds. Some of them humorous for example the Essex Norn which is sex mad. Some of the enthusiasts set up runs. Leaving a set of norns alone and letting "nature" take its course. Theory is the weaker ones will die out slowly every generation allowing the stronger norns to become dominant.

Back in 1998 I bred a long living healthy norn in about 7 generations. Selective breeding of course. I probably had some going back 20 generations. I did play creatures 2 as well loosing interest to buy number 3.

I only blogged about this program because I came across a project called openc2e. An open source game engine designed to be compatible with the various engines used in the Creatures series. It's still in development but you can try it out with creatures 1 without norns. It can run under linux too. Openc2e.org.

Happy birthday to GNU

2008-09-05T13:21:00.005+01:00

I don't want to engage in adding youtube videos any more because over time they always become obsolete which effectively kills the point of the post. However this is a great introduction to free software by Stephen Fry.

Also happy birthday to GNU, which is 25 years old on the 27th of September.

Walden; or, Life in the Woods

2008-09-04T17:55:00.011+01:00

I've been reading this book by Henry David Thoreau with interest. Looking for a simpler life for two years two months and two days he lived in a cabin on the shore of a pond. For his nonconformist self-reliance project he spent a mere $28.12 for food and shelter.

"I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived."

He spent his time observing nature, writing, reading philosophy, conversation with visitors, and in the summer tending to beans. He regularly visited others and walked in town.

His thoughts on social life and solitude are some of my favourite philosophical observations in the book.

"Society is commonly too cheap. We meet at very short intervals, not having had time to acquire any new value for each other. We meet at meals three times a day, and give each other a new taste of that old musty cheese that we are. We have had to agree on a certain set of rules, called etiquette and politeness, to make this frequent meeting tolerable and that we need not come to open war."

At times when hes not pondering on nature its like reading an old fashioned blog but without dates. It's also written to appear as though he stayed for one year.
If you like a slow read, nature or philosophy its a great read to ponder.

You download the book at www.gutenberg.org/etext/205.

Thoughts on Google's Chrome

2008-09-03T14:00:00.015+01:00

No linux or mac build is out yet. So its off to windows xp *yay*.

On installing it offered to import stuff from firefox, although it didn't happen? It has a cool start page similar to that of opera 9.5. Basically it has your most visited pages and bookmarks. You can also search history from there.

Visually it offers nothing new from other browsers. Under the hood however there's a multi-threaded design offering speed and stability. I think Opera has something like it too. In theory a tab that crashes or stuck on a JavaScript run around wont crash the browser instead you can use its inbuilt task manager to close thread/tab.

Application shortcuts are a great idea. We've all read on Tech blogs and in newspaper columns that applications that solely sit on your hard drive like office or photoshop are going way of the dodo while the industry moves towards web based software. Using google gears you can add a application shortcut you desktop, start menu or launch bar. So you can start webpages like gmail or google spreadsheets easily.

Its great that google has something open source to challenge IE. I'm not hanging up firefox yet. Its long way off from that and too early to even discus.

There's a lot of linux users on the web trying to run chrome with wine with partial or no success. In a few days I bet someone will have a solution.

Yet another Hop update

2008-09-02T16:56:00.003+01:00

One plant, the challenger, is very health looking with several vines and large leaves that have different shades of green.

The other however, as you can see above, is still catching up with one vine. It doesn't have long what with day-light-hours becoming shorter. I'm hopping it develops a little more ready for next year. So as to develop its roots for a kick start next season.

Batemans Summer Swallow

2008-09-01T22:28:00.008+01:00

Yet another batemans beer from the supermarket shelf.

Commercial Description:

A crisp clean beer, sparklingly gold, with a delightfully floral nose and subtle bitter taste.
Colour: EBC 16-20. Bitterness: EBU 20. Hops: Phoenix and Target. Malt: Maris Otter

Pours a clear copper colour. Short lived thin white head. Caramel hints, sweet malt and musty hop aroma. Slightly light soft mouth feel and body for a bitter. Taste is sweet malt, hop and caramel hints. Vanilla noted crisp after taste. No bitterness.

Rating: Okay.
As you can see am a professional at rating beer
Overall: Boring.

Sundays Rain

2008-08-31T18:12:00.005+01:00

This morning, half a sleep, I walked to my grandparents around 2 miles away. It was so humid and warm. All the more reason to be astonished by the afternoon pour.

Sundays public transport is dire. Rain makes Taxis harder to come by as if they all magically dissolve. While at the bus station you will always find that your destination isn't fully met so you have to settle for a bus that has a stop several blocks away.

Potatoes from a bucket

2008-08-28T16:13:00.006+01:00

Around march time I put 3 seed potatoes in to a 3 gallon bucket complete with home made compost. Placed it in a sunny sheltered place and this is what I got back from just 3 potatoes:

Some are like the size of big roast patatoes. The others could probably be used for mashing or salad. The variety is desiree.

Also I have been busy on the allotment weeding, digging, manuring, harvesting and gerneraly getting ready for next year. I'm thinking of starting an allotment blog for next year.

Sierra Nevada Pale Ale

2008-08-12T23:01:00.001+01:00

Commercial Description:

Sierra Nevada Pale Ale is a delightful example of the classic pale ale style. It has a deep amber color and a exceptionally full-bodied, complex character. The fragrant bouquet and spicy flavor are the results of the generous use of the best Cascade hops.

Pours a copper colour with a thin white head. Aroma of cascade hops (you never forget that cascade smell once you've brewed with them) and pine notes. Great aroma. Light body. Smooth mouth feel. At first the taste is dominated by the citrus hops then the moderately sweet malt. After taste has a dry mild bitterness. Well balanced. 5.6% strength. Bottle conditioned.

Rating: Nice.
As you can see am a professional at rating beer
Overall: Well balanced and lots of hops.

Fullers Organic Honey Dew

2008-08-12T01:18:00.005+01:00

Commercial Description:

Served chilled, Organic Honey Dew offers both refreshment and an unbeatable taste. The real organic honey in the brew gives a gentle sweetness that appeals to a wide range of people, even those who perhaps wouldn't usually drink beer, making it a very popular choice!

Pours a pale clear colour. Thin white head. Honey with floral hops aroma. Soft smooth mouth feel. Very light body. Taste is solely a sweet mellow honey flavour with light malt and slight bitterness. Nice 5% strength. Quite balanced but maybe too sweet for some. Malt after taste is pleasant yet short lived.

Rating: Okay.
As you can see am a professional at rating beer
Overall: Refreshing honey goodness. The non ale drinker will like this one.

Caledonian Deuchars IPA

2008-08-11T23:32:00.003+01:00

Commercial Description:

A distinctive golden beer that's long on refreshment. It's dry and delicious, a brilliant blend of malt and hop with a hint of citrus, that leaves your taste buds calling for more.

Pours a very clear golden amber with a thin white head. Citrus and slightly fruity hay like aroma. Light body. Smooth mouth feel. Taste is sweet caramel with biscuit like malt. Very nice dry bitter after taste. 4.4% strength. More like a bitter than IPA. Perhaps its the lack of a oak taste (this is from a pasteurised bottle).

Rating: Nice.
As you can see am a professional at rating beer
Overall: I don't think its an IPA but still its a nice hoppy session beer.

Update on beer and hop matters

2008-08-07T18:23:00.004+01:00

The hops are okay and I think they have survived the post. The challenger lost a vine but has new growth on another (look below). The golding vines died but theres a tiny new growth so it will pick up.

Iv also been brewing. Last week I brewed a Pilsener lager. I got to experiment with rice and I think its going to very strong. Yesterday I brewed another, a dark gingered ale using nottingham yeast. Will see how gingered it is when its finished fermenting.

Got hops?

2008-07-26T12:21:00.003+01:00

2 Bare hop plants came in the post this morning wrapped in damp moss. One challenger and one golding. Put them both in separate 3 gallon buckets for the time being. Once I've found a place to plant them in the allotment I can move them in the autumn. I'm not going to get any hops this year obviously but I will have a more established plant for next year on the allotment.

I will post pictures if they get going. Somehow I need to set up a trellis in the allotment. No doubt it will be made from odd bits.

Wychwood White Wych

2008-07-24T00:26:00.004+01:00

Commercial Description:

A golden fragrant ale brewed with goldings and northdown hops and a pinch of malted wheat for that crisp sparkling flavoursome finish.

Clear golden appearance with a nice white head. Aroma of spicy hops. Ordinary light mouthfeel. Tastes of musty light malt with a little honey and citrus. Bitter after taste. 3.8% strengh. I don't mean to be a snob (Which I'm not) but it's unbalanced. I mean for a bitter it is to floral and citrus. I can still drink it but its not going to win awards.

Rating: Okay
As you can see am a professional at rating beer
Overall: Unbalanced. Might like it if your into light ales.

Pauwel Kwak

2008-07-22T23:07:00.006+01:00

A Belgian Strong Ale brewed by Brouwerij Bosteels in Buggenhout.

Commercial Description:

Full-bodied Belgian Specialty Ale. Amber in color with beautiful foam and slightly sweet, seductive malt character. Rich, satisfying Belgian experience.

Was given this by Ben. Pours a cloudy dark orange. Champagne like bubbles stream from the bottom of the glass. Even white head. Aroma is a complex sweet cherry fruit blended with nice spicy hops. Smells like goodness in a glass. Mouth feel is ordinary. Taste is complex as the aroma. Bitterness, caramel, dried fruit and yeast. Dry warming biscuity sweet finish. At first the taste maybe overwhelming with its 8% strength but it grows on you and you can enjoy it.

Rating: Nice
As you can see am a professional at rating beer
Overall: An ale worth taking your time over.

Wychwood Circle Master

2008-07-21T00:44:00.005+01:00

Commercial Description:

"Circle Master is brewed using a unique blend of Plumage Archer Barley Malt, organically grown for us in a dedicated field under the auspices of the Prince of Wales Duchy Estate in Gloucestershire. Whole leaf target hops, naturally grown in a single garden in Kent, are added to create a beer of exceptionally taste and character. A tantalising citrus aroma heralds a delightful malt flavour, rounded off with a spicy bittersweet finish."

Its organic so I am interested to see what this is like.
Pours a clear gold colour. Small white head. Aroma of citrus, corn and sweet biscuit malt. Mouthfeel on the light side. Orange and apple fruit flavours with a crisp biscuit malt. No bitterness at first but has a slightly bitter sweet citrus after taste. A good 4.7% strength.

Rating: Not bad.
As you can see am a professional at rating beer
Overall: Despite it being 4.7% I could have a few for a session.

Black Wych Stout

2008-07-20T00:18:00.007+01:00

Brewed by Wychwood Refresh (Marstons).
Commercial Description:

Black Wych is a spellbinding brew of roasted black malt and oats with a broom-full of progress hops. This is a recipe for a velvety smooth stout with a full dry and biscuity flavour and a clean cut aromatic bitterness.

Deep black appearance. Little brown head. Roasted malts with a little lemon hoppy hint aroma. Quite a light mouth feel for a stout. Has a strong roasted malt flavour with a light vanilla taste not to overwhelm. Dry chocolate malt finish. Little spicy after taste. Well balanced. 5% is a good strength.

Rating: Not bad.
As you can see am a professional at rating beer
Overall: Quite light bodied yet strong flavoured.

Specially Selected Golden Pale Ale

2008-07-18T23:49:00.004+01:00

Brewed by batemans for aldi.
Commercial Description:

Specially produced for Aldi stores. The finest Maris Otter barley from Lincolnshire and Yorkshire is delicately malted then roasted over traditional kilns, before being skillfully blended with only hand picked female hops. Brewed by Batemans in their 130 year old incolshire family brewery.

Sweet toffee aroma. Clear bronze (not golden after all) with a small white head. Little carbonation. Light body. Sweet butter, light biscuit notes and a overwhelming toffee taste.

Rating: Okay but not great.
As you can see am a professional at rating beer
Overall: Bland and too sweet.

Specially Selected I.P.A.

2008-07-18T22:31:00.003+01:00

Brewed by Batemans for aldi stores.
Commercial Description:

Specially produced for Aldi Stores. The finest Maris Otter barley, Lincolnshire and oven roasted crystallised malts are matured that little bit longer to replicate the ales which were transported over to the East India Company in bygone days. Brewed by Batemans in their 130 year lincolnshire family brewery.

Looks like a IPA. Nice head. Has a IPA aroma but isn't as strong like empire. Butter, honey notes and the style defining oak wood hints (its meant to be aged in wooden casks). Smooth mouth feel. Taste: butterscotch, little honey maybe and crisp spicy with noticeable warming alcohol after taste. Tastes stronger than 5%.

Rating: Not bad.
As you can see am a professional at rating beer
Overall: Not enough hops for my liking but its still drinkable.

Schöfferhofer Hefeweizen

2008-07-17T01:49:00.001+01:00

Brewed by Binding-Brauerei (Oetker Group). On opening this beer I could already smell a classic hefe. That fond sweet banana and yeast smell. Pours a hazy yellow. Great white head that lasts. Mouth feel is smooth and creamy. Taste is pleasant clover, light wheat with lemmon fruity hints. Little bitterness.

Rating: Nice.
As you can see am a professional at rating beer
Overall: Pleasant Hefeweizen. Good price. 99p in aldi.

Creative writing tips

2008-07-07T20:23:00.001+01:00

I was looking for short story tips for writing of course. This site has some really useful information.

Short Stories: 10 Tops for Creative Writers

What is a Short Story?

A short story begins as close to the conclusion as possible, and grabs the reader from the very first line. It conserves character and scenes, typically focuses on just one problem, and drives towards a sudden, unexpected revelation. (Kathy Kennedy and Dennis G. Jerz)

Blog editor for firefox

2008-06-30T00:26:00.003+01:00

I installed scribefire and I was amazed how good it is. I'v used flock for blogging which is great but I don't use all of its features so I stay with the fox. Anyway I wanted something to post to a blog from firefox. Nothing fancy. Just something that would do the job. Instead I find a fully featured blog editor extension.

From Scribefire's website:
ScribeFire is an extension for the Mozilla Firefox Web Browser
that integrates with your browser to let you easily post to your blog: you can drag and drop formatted
text from pages you are browsing, take notes, and post to your blog.

www.scribefire.com

Facebook chat with Pidgin

2008-06-16T22:30:00.003+01:00

While msn was (and still is) not working I started using facebook chat. I had the idea why not use pidgin? After I goooooogled it I found this code.google.com/p/pidgin-facebookchat. No messing around api keys. Just install the deb or exe. It works on ubuntu fine.

Once you install it add a new account. Find facebook chat (has the facebook icon). Enter details and it should log you in. It even pulls photos of friends. Neat.

Installed xubuntu

2008-06-10T20:38:00.009+01:00

Well I dropped kde for xfce a few days ago wanting a change and taking advantage of long term support of xubuntu 8.04.

I tried switched on compositing so I could use Avant Window Navigator (bottom of the bellow screenshot). I have blogged about awn before. Its a great dock like application for navigating windows and lunching applications. Even though I have used it sometime ago with gnome I noticed a performance drain on xfce.

If your using awn with xfce have you noticed you cant drag and drop desktop icons/launchers in to the launcher? Well to do so you need to create a launcher the normal way. Right click desktop and choose 'Create launcher' *Below*. Find the program you want to create a launcher for by typing in the name. Once you have chosen it you (THE IMPORTANT BIT) must shorten the name to one word then remove the comment. After clicking create you may now drag it to awn.

I really like to keep things efficient so I turned all the compositing stuff off. That means no extras just xfce4. Nice and fast.

Xubuntu is just like ubuntu however the install went blank during the final step and my windows partition wasn't loaded. I had to edit fstab myself. I know 'Boohoo' says the bash master.

Svyturys Baltas Wheat Beer

2008-06-06T00:16:00.006+01:00

This is a Hefeweizen from Lithuanian by a brewery called Svytury which merged with Utenos Alus and now apart of the Carlsberg Group. Talk about beer monopoly.

My bottle was 5.0% however some places on the web list it as a 5.2%. Its a cloudy yellow coloured drink with a short foamy head when pouring. Banana with citrus hints aroma. Tastes lighter than most other wheat beers iv tried. Its still sweet and yeasty like other wheat beers but it could be better. It says on the bottle:

"it may be flavoured with a piece of fresh lemon"

I guess that would give it something extra. Especially for people who are not into 'real beer'.

Funny enough it does taste like my second wheat beer I made a while ago and also Iv never had a Lithuanian drink.

Rating: Okay.
As you can see am a professional at rating beer
Overall: Light wheat beer. Its not the best example of Hefeweizen but that doesn't stop it being drinkable/enjoyable.

Chess

2008-05-25T01:43:00.004+01:00

I haven't been instant messaging much lately since I started playing chess on facebook and chess.com. It makes a change from reading endless philosophy.

I play chess at Chess.com!

lostlogan
Rating: 1693

Challenge me!

View my games

I really like chess.com although they haven't yet sorted out their live play, their turn based rocks. I stopped playing at yahoo because of an annoying bug asking to clean cache. When I clear everything manually from firefox and flash lo-and-behold still same old cold message. Well doesn't matter I was fed up of people leaving games or my internet failing on me and finding I was returning to a lost game (they get someone (jerk) to join and resign on my behalf). Frustrating.

A few chess posts might appear when I feel like it. I was thinking about showing good games I have played or writing about the grandmasters I like. I like studying Ricard Reti. His style appeals to me.

If anyone plays, play me.

Roche Abbey

2008-05-15T22:13:00.004+01:00

Went exploring around Roche abbey. Never been before. Never knew it existed. Ben showed me where it was. A short drive from my town. Its all ruins now but there's a wood, river, small water fall and a lake.

Google maps link.
I have a few picture on my photo blog.

Update facebook status using twitter

2008-05-14T14:50:00.005+01:00

You can use the twitter application on facebook to update your status.
In its settings you will find status update option. Enabling it allows anything you post on twitter to automatically be set as your status.

Once you have twitter and facebook connected you can start using your terminal to update your status. Using curl of course. (sudo apt-get install curl for ubuntu users)
curl -u username:password -d status="Your Post" http://twitter.com/statuses/update.xml
Change user name and password obviously.

Weird and random petitions

2008-05-11T23:37:00.003+01:00

These are all from the official government E-Petitions website.

Introduce Compulsary Unicycle Riding Lessons For The Armed Forces

Let mice be allowed free travel on public transport

Ban Fallout Boy and Panic! At The Disco

Give borat complete control of england, making him more powerful than TB and the queen.

Allow Sheffield United FC to be exempt from relegation from the Premier League

Command the tide to go back

Wear bermuda shorts on a thursday

Move the UK to a warmer climate

Make cat owners responsible for their pets actions including fowling in peoples gardens

Invade France

Free the Chicken People!

Send cats to iraq in medieval battle armour mounted on weasels

Make Britain the 51st State of America and not part of a Federalised Europe

Banish Jade Goody to a distant land far far away so she doesn't make an even bigger fool out of herself than she already has!

Make Britain into a Pirate ship

Put a british monkey into space

Give cats the same rights as humans

Send an elite team of ninjas to the moon to combat the iminent chav invasion

Ban My Chemical Romance from headlining Download Festival 2007

Change the National Anthem to "We Will Rock You" by Queen

We must all hail HYPNO TOAD

Make me a cup of tea

Ensure that mashed potatoes are 100% mashed potatoes, not like turnip or nowt

Ban men from buying hair straightners

Ban broccoli as an edible foodstuff and reclassify it as a toxic substance

Provide every person of 70 years of age with a Grey Squirrel

Ban Tinned Fruit In Syrup

Please ban hangovers as we feel poorly

Bring back blue smarties!

Allow free prescriptions for elderly badgers

Have every Monday off

Notes on Ubuntu 8.04

2008-05-11T12:18:00.007+01:00

I installed a fresh install of ubuntu 8.04. Sort of a jump for me since I was using 7.04. Should also note this ubuntu works on my intel 82830M card. Previous Ubuntu 7.04 had many xserver errors on it.

Installing a modem. Speedtouch 330. Easily done. Script on help.ubuntu.com just works. Adding pon speedtch to /etc/rc.local is better a solution than any of the boot scripts around.

Installing nvidia drivers was a little fiddly. I was about to download the packages from the repos but after messing around for 10 mins. Lots of unticking and ticking enable it downloaded them for me.

Once I had the nvidia drivers I could turn on the visual effects which are now in appearances.

Installing mp3 playback. This is one the biggest noobie questions around. The truth is it shouldn't be. What it comes down to is what player do you use?. See help.ubuntu.com/community/RestrictedFormats/MP3. I use exaile which is a gtk amarok like player. Its neat. It uses the gstreamer0.10-plugins-ugly package.
sudo apt-get install gstreamer0.10-plugins-ugly
It then installs liba52-0.7.4 libdvdread3 libid3tag0 libmad0 libmpeg2-4 libsidplay1.

NTFS hard drives were loaded with out fuss. First distro I have ever used that has done this. In 7.04 I used a tool to mount but with 8.04 I just put my password in and its mounted.

Final thoughts then. While I have read many mediocre reviews about the lack of anything new in this long term support version of ubuntu. Its a well packaged Debian GNU/Linux based distribution thats clearly moving forward towards user friendliness while still offering flexibility for advanced users.

Past few days I have...

2008-05-07T12:41:00.006+01:00

...Somehow gotten the internet to work on my main pc by throwing it down the stairs, only joking. Which now means I have ubuntu 7.04 running. Wondering if to upgrade but I can still install a lot of new software.

...Built a newer version of pidgin from source. Dependencies: libgtk2.0-dev libxml2-dev gettext libnss-dev libnspr-dev. Its quite polished.

...Bottled my english ale. It finished fermenting sooner than I thought. It looks as though its going to be smoooooth. Theres a lot of head retention.

...Planted pumpkins, corn and more potatoes. Future pumpkin beer?

Some potatoes have come up :D.

...Seen tad poles in a pond. So I guess it really is spring. I was thinking about taking some home. Except I have no pond! If I could find some cheap lining I could make a small one on the allotment.

Brewed a English ale

2008-04-30T23:08:00.002+01:00

Using a john bull english ale kit. Hacked with barley, oats, crystal and marris otter. Hops include a load of willamette with tiny bit of saaz (different for english ale) for dry hopping. Came up to 1062.

Chess on linux

2008-04-28T19:00:00.000+01:00

Lately iv tried to pick up chess again. I have played since little but have dropped it on and off. I stopped playing 4 years ago and its hard picking up where you left off.

To play chess on a linux box there are a few programs out there to meet your needs. Firstly though, it takes time writing lines of complex AI so projects are separated by engine and GUI board handler.

Open source engines include, my favorite GNU Chess, Crafty, Sjeng, Phalanx. There are a few others around as well as none-open source engines.

GUI Boards include xboard which is the most popular and supports loads of engines. Theres a list on the official website of all the supported ones. The windows version is called winboard.
My favorite board though is eboard.

It only supports GNU Chess, Sjeng and Crafty. However it makes up for it with a internet chess server features and board preference options. Its available for Unix-like systems. There no windows version ;). I have a good setup of GNU chess and eboard running on openSUSE 10.3 with no problems.

I do have a copy of chess master 8000. Its a little old now but it just works. It has tutorials by International Master Joshua Waitzkin. Don't know him? Never seen 'searching for bobby fischer'? Well, as a child he was a chess prodigy. He beat his first grandmaster Edward Frumkin at just 10. Sacrificing a queen and rook to mate. View it here.

Wii on the Potatoes yeah?

2008-04-12T14:01:00.007+01:00

My sister bought a Wii last week. I don't really know what to make of it. I do like the controls when playing sports games on it or Nintendo produced games however the others are shoddy bad from what I have played.
All that being said I'd rather have a Wii than a over the top ps3 or xbox360 which are hardware bloated. As far as I can see the only time you need that much cpu is for a server of some kind. So the wii kinda hit the mark on that one.

Past week Iv put in some potatoes on the allotment. Hopefully, come autumn, Ill have some chips!

I also have corn, tomatoes, spring onions and pumpkins. Self-Sufficient(-ish) or what? I was going to have hops but they wont get started. I sowed them in September!. Hopefully they will grow soon. And no I'm not going to buy rhizome (hop roots). Wheres the fun in that?