Comet, the new and improved Ajax!

Found this link on Digg that describes a new low-latency approach to ajax-esque web applications.

http://www.irishdev.com/NewsArticle.aspx?id=2166

Very cool stuff indeed, now I just need a project where I could really make use of this technology!

Brew #6 : Hazelnoot Brown eh.

We started our day off with a long hike and my body was feeling pretty sore, but the good type of soreness after you’ve busted ass along the trail! I was planning on brewing this afternoon so I figured I should first enjoy one of my favorite beers.

This afternoon I busted out the brew equipment and ingredients for my next attempt at a quality brew. I’m brewing a hazelnut brown ale because my buddy really digs the stuff and I was ready to brew again! The dry yeast from Danstar is something entirely new to me, its a packet of Nottingham brewing yeast from Canada. So, with all due respect to the yeasts fine Canadian heritage, I must name the brew “Hazelnoot Brown eh.”.

1. Heated up the brewpot with 6.5ga water to 150F and steeped the following grains for 30 minutes:

4oz Chocolate malt

6oz US 60L malt

6oz Carastan malt
2. In a separate pot, I steeped 16oz Munich malt at 150F for 30 minutes as well.

3. Combine both steeped grains and bring the whole pot to a boil, added 1tsp of gypsum as well.

4. Momentarily turn off the heat to dissolve the following into the wort:

6lbs light liquid malt extract

4oz maltodextrine

5. Bring the wort to a rolling boil, stir a bit, add 1.5oz of cascade hops and continue to boil for 45 minutes.

6. Add 1tsp of Irish moss, and 1/4oz of Cascade hops, continue to boil for 15 minutes.

7. Add 1/4oz of Cascade hops, and boil for 10 minutes.

8. I had also mixed the dry yeast with warm water to activate them. I also mixed a cup of cooled wort so as to bring the yeast up to the same temperature of the wort.
9. Chill the wort to below 80F and then I siphon it through my bucket and into my carboy.

10. The original gravity was 1.053 and it tasted great!

Here’s a pic of the wort coming to a boil

Here’s a pic of the first Cascade hop addition

Edit 4/2: Racked to secondary on top of 4oz of Hazelnut Extract, SG is 1.015 and it tastes pretty darn good! woohoo! (1053-1015)/7.36 = 5.16% alcohol.

4/29 : Bottled the beer today, got 44 bottles and it tastes damn good! FG was 1.013.

Silvercreek Falls hiked!

Wendie, our friend Ann, and I started the day off with a hike along the Silver Creek Falls Canyon Trail (about 5 miles, 600ft elevation).. About 90% of the trail was covered with several inches of snow. It was about 35F and totally clear skies with an occasional ray of the warm sun peeking down to the canyon floor. We haven’t hiked this trail in a long time and I’m really feeling the affects of it! Here’s a picture of some falls, I thought the sun light casting over the falls and pool would make a good picture!

Click to see a bigger version!

Ultra-mobile computing

I’m really looking forward to the next generation of mobile computers. PDA’s have too small of a screen, laptops are still a bit too big to carry around. I’m liking the looks of Microsofts Origami project.. who knows when it will be released though.

I ran across a link to pictures of Intels prototype for something very similar to the Origami.. one thing I’m not too thrilled about is the keyboard on a pivot behind the screen. While it’s a trick way of concealing the keyboard and compacting the whole device, it’s just another moving part which will probably take quite a bit of abuse over time.. I don’t know if there’s a good answer beside sticking with a bluetooth compact keyboard. Anyway, take a peek at http://www.eweek.com/slideshow/0,1206,a=172991,00.asp , it’s pretty sweet.

So here is my wishlist:

1. Wireless (bluetooth, wifi, gsm)
2. Storage (massive storage, ultimately it would be flash memory, no moving parts!)
3. Screen (6 - 8″ with a high resolution, wide format)
4. Camera (high mega-pixel, good video capability)
5. Input (stylus, on-screen keyboard, bluetooth keyboard)
6. Sound (speaker, audio out, I want to dock this thing in a set of speakers too!)
7. Battery (atleast 2 hours worth under a heavy load of processing)
8. Dock (I want to dock this thing to a regular monitor,mouse, and keyboard)
9. Expansion (I’d like to connect an external harddrive/dvd writer)
10. Finally, I want to boot linux off of this as well. :)