Beer, My Universe, and Everything

Storming

2009-07-31T14:41:00.000-07:00

My crackberry showed up today. I just activated it a few minutes ago, and I'm still trying to get used to it. I'm typing this on my Storm though, so at least I can browse the web effectively. Initial reactions are positive, but i'll have more to say later.

A Storm this way blows...

2009-07-29T19:49:00.000-07:00

So it's time for a new phone. Not only is my old one not holding a charge and acting strange from time to time, but I've hit my upgrade time for my "New Every 2" plan. Thanks to this discount and my expenses being reduced lately, I can finally step into the 21st century of communication, I can finally get a smartphone!

Specifically, a Blackberry Storm.

It should be here on Friday. I'm totally stoked. I'll report back after I get it and start playing with it.

Really... I wanted an Iphone, but AT&T's network SUCKS in Mount Pleasant, so getting an Iphone would be about the stupidest thing I could do!

Google Maps needs a little help with their math...

2009-07-11T06:12:00.000-07:00

I had to make a trip to Ionia from Mount Pleasant this morning. I had to be in Ionia at about 9:45am. So I jumped on to Google Maps and punched in my address and got directions to Ionia. The first route it suggested was south on 127 to M-21 and West into Ionia from there. I didn't feel like taking the highway so I moved the route to take M-20 West out of Mount Pleasant to M-66 South out of Remus. Google Maps then told me this:

Wow, 2 hours and 12 minutes... well I wasn't thinking too clearly about this last night so I set my alarm for 7am and planned to get on the road about 7:30.

While I'm on the road, I see a sign saying "Ionia 45 miles"... at 8:10 in the morning. At that rate, I was bound to hit Ionia at about 9am! Whoops... Sure enough, I'm in a coffee shop in Ionia right now, got into town at least 45 minutes early, it really only took me about an hour and 15 minutes to get here. I looked up the directions again and now I've realized Google's error, it's figuring an average speed of about 30 miles per hour! They must expect me to get stuck behind every tractor in Montcalm county...

Oh well, better early then late I suppose!

The WORST job in the world!

2009-03-30T06:48:00.000-07:00

MINE.

I HATE IT.

IT SUCKS.

THE COMPANY SUCKS.

oh my god I need to get out of here...

The BEST job in the world!

2009-03-27T18:48:00.000-07:00

After four solid days of brewing... I'm still 100% convinced that brewing is THE best job in the world. I'll try to write up my thoughts on the whole experience here in the next day or so, along with some pictures... but in the meantime just know this: I WILL BE A BREWER!

NO MORE THUMB DRIVES!!

2009-03-19T10:21:00.000-07:00

Thumb Drives are great. I can't even begin to explain how useful it is for me to have 16GB of storage in such a small form factor. I keep 8+ GB of music on my thumb drive so I've got plenty of fresh tunes to listen to at work, on the road... wherever! I keep a couple hundred meg or so of various documents... beer recipes, food recipes, resumes, handy how-tos, diagrams... lots of random stuff on there. I use it to hold avi files to watch on my laptop on the couch. I use it to hold data while I work on "clients" computers. I use it to share all sorts of media with my non-bittorrent savvy friends, or those with slow internet connections. I can't even fully sum up just how handy it is to have so much space available anywhere I've got a USB port... which is just about anywhere nowadays.

But I should back up... Thumb drives "were" great, I "did" use my thumb drive for all of these uses... until it DIED. My current (dead) drive is an OCZ ATV 16GB flash drive. It worked wonderfully for 9 months... fast, lots of room, water resistant... I had nothing to complain about! When I bought it from Newegg last June, the ratings were pretty good, at least they were good enough for me to buy it and Newegg ratings are a HUGE part of any buying decision I make when I purchase tech equipment of almost any kind. Well when I look at them now... they've taken a serious hit. It seems that my situation with this drive failing after a short to medium length period of time is not at all unique. In fact... if I were considering this thumb drive right now... I would not buy it. It's got an overall three "egg" (star) rating, with only 48% of ratings at 5 stars, including a 2-star rating from me. I try to find products that have an overall 4 or 5 star rating, with preferably 75%+ ratings at 5 star, and that normally provides me with a high quality, highly functional equipment.

Well that provides me with a bit of a problem... OCZ IS going to replace my ATV 16GB drive for me (but I'm responsible for paying for shipment to OCZ, hmmm... that doesn't make me very happy even though it's light and will be cheap.). But that still leaves me with an unreliable thumb drive, one that I don't want to use for anything anywhere NEAR important. I can't even count on this drive to last a few weeks according to all of the reviews on Newegg.

So I've been looking at other thumb drives, preferably at 16GB, to use as my "primary" drive and keep my OCZ as just a music storage device. Well... I'm not exactly liking what I see. When I search for 16GB thumb drives and sort by rating, I find a few drives with 5 star ratings but not enough ratings to count, and then a few drives with 4 star ratings... Taking a look a the Corsair Flash Voyager 16GB we've got an overall rating of 4-stars, ok so far. But when you look at the breakdown only 53% of ratings are at 5-star... not quite as good as I would like, but hey, it does come with a 10-year warranty! The next drive in the list is by OCZ... well that's a no-go, I will not buy another OCZ flash drive! Even though the ratings on this drive are a fair bit better (4-star overall, 61% 5-star)... I just don't trust them, and I don't want to have to pay to ship another drive back if it fails! Next in the list is the Pariot Xporter XT 16GB... I don't have any experience with Patriot RAM or flash devices, but the ratings are getting better, 4-star overall and 67% 5-star, but with less total ratings. Next is another OCZ... And further, not only are the exact numbers not up to my (apparently) high standards... when I get to reading the reviews of any of the thumb drives I've been looking at... I'm not comforted. It seems to be pretty common for thumb drives to die young, to have random incompatibilities with random hardware rendering them anywhere from slow to completely inoperable. It's not at all comforting... Can I not rely on a thumb drive for storage of important data? I had hopes of tinkering with installing a small Linux distro on a drive so I always had a familiar desktop with me no matter where I go...

So what in the hell is one supposed to do for long-term, portable, bootable, important data storage? Print it off? Seriously... this can't be too difficult. I used to have a Lexar 1GB thumb drive that has now lasted for close to 5 years, I know it's still working because one of my friends has it and still uses it. External Hard Drives are not a good solution because platter-based magnetic data storage is physically fragile, I need something I can throw in my backpack and take with me without having to worry about keeping from breaking. I can't afford... much less do I know if I can trust a SSD drive... they're based on Flash RAM too! And I don't know if I can trust Flash RAM anymore... For example, SSDs with USB connectivity start at $96 for a 32GB drive with an average of less than 1 review.

Fwiw... if I relax my limitations a bit on the size of the thumb drive I want, I can find some thumb drives that DO meet my exacting standards. But one of my requirements for a good thumb drive was that I be able to fit an ISO of a complete dual-layer DVD on that drive, with room to spare. That basically means 16GB is the minimum, and it seems that 16GB thumb drives are CRAP.

A week off... at a Brewery!

2009-03-18T15:30:00.000-07:00

So I've neglected this blog *JUST* a bit... to say the least. For various reasons that I choose not to go in to at this point, I've had to put homebrewing aside, temporarily. But that's not to say that advancing my brewing career is off the table or not moving forward!

Last time I updated here I was excited that I was going to be moving to Mt Pleasant soon to start an apprenticeship at the Mt Pleasant Brewing Company and Mountain Town Station Brewpub & Steakhouse. Well, due the same reasons that have prevented me from homebrewing recently, and compounded by normal financial limitations... that's had to be put on hold. But definitely not on hold indefinitely! In fact... plans are in the works for me to begin my apprenticeship this fall, even as soon as August or September!

I've still been spending time in Mt Pleasant, at the brewery. My goal at this point is to spend a minimum of one day a month there, helping out and learning as much as I can. But next week... I have a bit of a golden opportunity! I'm going to spend 3-5 days there in a row! Woohoo!!

I've been saving up my vacation time, and so has the assistant brewer up at MPBC. Brad, the assistant, is taking most of next week off, at least Monday through Thursday. That leaves Kim, the Head Brewer, all alone, and up to his eyeballs in work. Now I'm not *quite* as useful as Brad yet... they can't just let me loose and trust that I can clean/sanitize a fermenter, hook up the pump, and transfer a brew off a yeast cake and into the fermenter... yet. But I'm at least a second set of hands, and a set of hands who has a bit of brewing experience rather than Joe Schmoe off the street. So I'll be helping Kim out starting Monday or Tuesday, and ending either Thursday or Friday. I can't wait! This is the perfect use of a spring break if you ask me! And the perfect way to wedge my foot further into the door of a brewing career.

And to top it off, Tuesday night there will be a Wine & Beer Tasting at the pub! Wine & Beer samples, brewery tours, good times... I can't wait! I think the coolest thing is that people will probably assume that I work for the brewery ;-)

Update: AT&T

2008-09-10T14:34:00.000-07:00

So I called AT&T back Wednesday afternoon to try to talk to the manager who was supposed to call me, and hadn't. I got the right call center, and asked for Scott Burnham (the only real name I will list, so as to protect the innocents). Apparently Scott had already left for the day, without returning my call. Thanks again AT&T for the wonderful fucking in the... I mean customer service!

So the very kind lady who answered my call told me she would send an email to Scott, and asked me what I was contacting him about. I explained the whole story, and reiterated that I wanted Scott to credit me $50 or cancel my account. To which she said, "Oh, well why don't I just go ahead and credit your account right now?"

WTF? So all along the people on the phone could've taken care of this problem and not made me wait for some manager who won't return my call? Great... Oh well, at least I got it taken care of.

The CSR who took care of this for me indicated that there had been some confusion in the sales and CSR ranks about the rebate around the time that I signed up; many people were promised a rebate who were not eligible.

Thanks AT&T for making it right... but can you get your shit together next time?

AT&T can FUCK OFF!!

2008-09-09T05:20:00.000-07:00

ok... I officially HATE AT&T.

5 months ago I signed up for DSL through AT&T. I had just canceled my cable service because I don't watch a lot of TV, and the DSL was a good bit cheaper. Sounded like a good deal, $34 a month for 3mbit/512kbit service, and a $50 rebate on the modem... or so I thought.

But go figure, I haven't received my rebate check yet. Now I know the rebate things can take a while, so I waited about 6 weeks before I called to complain. And you know what the guy on the phone said when I called? "Oh, sorry, we'll get a check right out to you!" Oh, ok, that was easy!

Not.

About 5 weeks passed, and I still had no check. So I called again, and the gentleman apologized, explained the check had already been mailed but since it had been 4 weeks he could cancel it and send a new one. Cool. So that was about the end of June...

So here it is now, September, and I get my latest bill, reminding me once again that the lazy bastards STILL have not given me my money.

Allow me to take a momentary aside my main bitchfest to host another, smaller... mini-bitchfest if you will. I HATE automated telephone systems! Especially when they're used by HUGE companies with too many "departments" (meaning contracted call centers) to transfer you from one to another. So I call the # on my bill and navigate 3 minutes of automated menu, just trying to get a live person on the phone! And what do they tell me when I get them? "You have to call this number..." Grr! Ok, so I call. More automated menu, more stress, more yelling at a computer. Finally get a person and explain the situation... and I have to call somebody else because the order was not completed right. WTF? Ok fine, another menu more stupid computers... and FINALLY I get a person who can help.

So I get somebody, who informs me, for the very first time since talking to AT&T at all, that I don't qualify for the rebate because I don't have a home phone line! Say what?!?! NAH BULLSHIT!!! I was pissed, and got rather irate at the lady on the phone (which was rude, I should not have taken my frustration out on her, I should've waited for a manager!) After an apology I more delicately explained to the CSR that nobody had ever informed me that my account did not qualify for the rebate, and that in fact multiple people had told me the check "was in the mail". She apologized and indicate that she could not do anything, but she would out this in the hands of a manager who would call me back within 2 business days, or 48 hours or something to resolve this. He better, I've got his number.

So at this point, I'm waiting 2 more days for $50 that I was supposed to get 4 months ago, that nobody told me I wasn't supposed to get at all. It sounds like the manager may be willing to credit my account, which would really at this point be the ONLY acceptable solution to me, as there's no way in hell that I will trust them to send a check.

An easy way to get Broadcom wireless working in Ubuntu 8.04

2008-08-22T09:46:00.000-07:00

First things first, I am by no means a linux guru, in fact I don't even really qualify as a 'Nix geek! The extent of my systems knowledge with Linux is working with the gui in Ubuntu, and the occasional sudo apt-get or something of the sort. I can work my way around a Windows install with little trouble, but I'm still learning the basics when it comes to Linux OSes. So some true 'Nix geeks might even see this and tell me that there are many things which I think I understand that I really don't. I wouldn't be surprised in the least bit! If you're a 'Nix geek and you're reading this, tell me where I'm off track, cause I don't know any better! It's probably my fault for trying to think of everything in terms of their Windows counterparts anyway!

So I inherited this laptop that I'm using right now, it's a HP Compaq nx6110. 1.8ghz Pentium M, 1GB RAM, base model machine but it serves my web-browsing purposes well! I decided to load Ubuntu on it when I got it a few months ago, as an extension of my experimenting with Ubuntu on my desktop, now I have a computer to do networking with! I will make no claims to this working on any other pc or hardware. Running lspci on my machine shows this line for the wireless hardware:

02:04.0 Network controller: Broadcom Corporation BCM4306 802.11b/g Wireless LAN Controller (rev 03)

So anyway, the first time I installed Ubuntu on here, I did lots of reading on how to get the wireless to work, things like ndiswrapper and bc43wcutter and the like. Very little of it made sense to me, and so I just chose a how-to instructional document and started working it. About 1/3 of the way into that documents process Ubuntu suddenly indicated that it could see my wireless, could find the non-free drivers for it, and was ready to install my wireless. Cool! So I, like any good geek would do, said screw TFM and let's see what this does! Sure enough, Ubuntu/Synaptic took care of downloading my wireless drivers, and set them up with no hitch! Sweet. Of course, the problem was, I had no idea what I had done that had suddenly allowed Ubuntu to finish the job for me. All I could remember was that it seemed the last thing I had done was enable the Multiverse repository of non-free Ubuntu/Linux software. But since everything worked right, I didn't worry too much about it!

I inherited this computer with a case of Alzheimer's, it had a "bad" hard drive. Windows/NTFS were reporting all sorts of faulty sectors and the like, and WinXP was not even able to install on it anymore. Funny, Ubuntu and it's file system (which ever it is, I'm not even sure...) seemed to have no problems with it, for a while. It finally but the dust the other day, and so I was in the spot of having to reinstall Ubuntu, and thus re-setup my wireless.

Well I remembered that there seemed to be a connection with the Multiverse repository, so I went about trying to enable that... and it seemed it already was.

This is where I started to get lucky. I got annoyed and grabbed an ethernet cable, as I would need to plug in before I could download the driver anyway, and did some quick browsing. I came across a page that required flash, which I had not yet installed. I clicked on the missing plug indication, which then asks you which flash player you would like to use. I selected 'Gnash' and the next thing Ubuntu did was ask me if I wanted to enable the repository 'Universe'. Well, yes, yes I do. And in fact I also want to enable Multiverse. So I canceled the Gnash installation and went back to the plugin selector to see if Adobe Flash was hosted in the multivers... It was! So after installing Gnash, I rebooted. I don't know if this is necessary, but the first time I installed Ubuntu prompted me to install wireless drivers after I rebooted. This time it did not do that. However when I went into Hardware Drivers, there was now the option to enable the Broadcom wireless driver. It finished the install on it's own like the first time, and I am now tether-free! Woohoo!

Allright, so here it is step-by-step. If on the offchance anybody else out there tries this, post back in the comments whether it worked, and what system you're running. The line from the lspci command that includes your wireless hardware would be most helpful.

1. Connect via Ethernet Cable on fresh install
2. Browse to a site that includes Flash
3. Tell Firefox to install the missing plugins, and the select Adobe Flash
4. Select 'Yes' to enable the Multiverse Repository, finish installing Flash (You might be able to cancel it, I don't see why not)
5. Reboot (I don't know if this is necessary, try it without and let us know!)
6. Select 'Hardware Drivers' on the System>Administration menu
7. Hopefully the driver will appear as available, if so click to enable it
8. B43wcutter should install, follow it's prompts including saying yes to something about accessing firmware
9. Enjoy wireless internet!

Apprentice!

2008-08-12T20:46:00.001-07:00

Apprentice is a word I've always liked the sound of. It brings to my mind images of the young blacksmith or carpenter in the fantasy days of old, apprenticed to the master, working long and hard to become an expert in his own right. I've read many a story where the apprentice was able to overcome insurmountable odds to beat the antagonist and save the day.

And now I'm going to get to be one! Except... I'm apprenticing with a Brewer!! Specifically, Kim Kowalski of Mountain Town Station and Mt Pleasant Brewing Co. I'll be moving to Mount Pleasant in about 2 months, and working pro bono for the first six months. Fortunately, I should be able to cover my living expenses while I do this, and will probably get a part time job so I'm not completely broke all the time!

I owe Scott Isham of Harper's a BIG thank you for all of this! I went and brewed with Scott back almost a month ago, after talking to him at the Master Brewers Association Summer Social Picnic and asking if I could come and join him for a day. I made it pretty clear that I was wanting to get into the brewing industry. I asked him for advice about how to proceed, and he gave me very good advice and gave me some names of people to contact.

A week and a half or so later, Scott called me and mentioned that he had just gotten off the phone with his friend Kim at Mountain Town Station, and Kim was saying that he was getting behind and very busy. Scott told me I should call Kim and ask if I could brew with him. So I immediately called Kim, and set up a day to brew with him the next week. We were at the brewery (as opposed to the brewpub) and we made their stout and labeled a bunch of bottles. I had a blast, and got along well with Kim and his Assistant Brewer, Brad. I decided to make sure I got back again.

So I had the day off today, and what I had planned didn't need to happen anymore. So I called Kim and asked if he would like for me to come up and brew with him again, and he said yes. So I went off to Mt Pleasant and this time worked in the brewpub, which is kind of neat since it's on three levels and has a restaurant. We brewed Oktoberfest, and transferred some Stout from a fermenter to a serving vessel.

So I asked Kim, if he would be up for taking on a new apprentice sometime soon. Brad started this way, apprenticed with Kim for no money for a while and then was hired in full time as an assistant brewer, so I knew the precedence was there. Kim said he would be happy to take me on as apprentice!

I am so totally stoked about this! Getting into the brewing industry is tough. It's kind of a "good ol'boy" industry, lots of friends and the like. After talking to some brewers, it seems that starting out with some good brewing based education is maybe not the best bet. A brewery/brewer is not likely to want to hire you if you've not brewed somewhere before and have some good experience. This doesn't mean some education is out of the question, in fact I think an associate degree in Microbiology might be a good idea, or maybe I'll do the Siebel courses on Germany or something. Either way, I'll work in Mt Pleasant for a while, at least two years and hopefully more. The brewery is growing quickly, so hopefully this will be a good opportunity to grow with it. Then maybe in five years or so I can try and work someplace like Bell's or Dogfish Head.

Well, I'm sure I'll have more to follow, but as it is I need to go to bed...

The server thing

2008-06-23T01:03:00.000-07:00

AT&T DSL with Static IP addresses start at $55 a month ($20 above my $34, and that's slower than mine).

I can do the server, including battery backup for Portland's famous 10 second power outtages (I'll give the town credit, they only last 10 seconds because the city has a generator, Consumer's is who gos out.) for only $512. Not too bad, I think this link will work:

http://secure.newegg.com/WishList/PublicWishDetail.aspx?WishListNumber=9947448

Mail records would only be $5 a year or so, I think...

still not sleeping...

California Time

2008-06-23T00:37:00.000-07:00

So I am having a HELL of a time trying to sleep. I was in CA last week, and got back last Friday night. Since staying up late and sleeping in s cool in my book anyway, it was very difficult to try and adjust over the weekend like I should've done... I should've set my alarm, but I wouldn't dream of doing that on a weekend day with nothing pressing me to do so. So now I wanted to be to work around 8, but I don't see that happening...

My mind is just racing though, I've got lots of things I want to do. I bough some chalkboard spray-paint the other day and I want to paint a chalk surface on my beer kegs, and kegerator door. I want to build a combo Mail-bin, key rack, chalkboard using some bottles caps and six-pack carriers. I want to find out about getting a static IP address and a DSL with a better upload speed, and then set up a personal mail/file server for my friends and I to use, and me to experiment with Linux for servers, Debian or Ubuntu I think... I think I'll buy myself an EEE PC before I build a server though, unless I get help from said friends to build a server. And that depends on the internet connection, I would at least have to upgrade to the next higher speed package to get the better upload speed (though my down would not increase due to local copper 2-wire quality) and look into static DNS forwarding. Then I need to set up some MXrecords for the mail, and maybe get a page up... my brother currently own colinmckenney.com and djsopor.com, so I should use them and maybe a third for the email...

Ok, the server thing could be costly, and I could probably do the server for $350 or so, but then there's going to be some monthly and yearly fees (DSL cost, DNS entries, power) and if the guys really want to do this, there may have to be a small sign up and subscription fee, possibly including a custom email domain if they pay a little extra...

Gonna need some coffee in the morning...

Episode 37: A New Blog

2008-06-22T23:10:00.000-07:00

It is a period of... well nothing really. I've just decided that I have enough random stuff that I would like to blog about from time to time that can't go in my Brew Log to start a new blog.

So we'll see pictures of projects, beer and maybe some reviews of some nice ones from time to time, random thoughts... who knows.