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just brew it! wrote:

Captain Ned wrote:

derFunkenstein wrote:

I'm a serious home-body. I like being home. But if you love to go places, I imagine that driving is a great way to do it.

Yes, yes it is, although the soybean fields along the Ohio Turnpike do get just a little boring (much like the vineyards west of Rochester on the NY Thruway).

Try heading west of here sometime. Iowa, Nebraska, and the Dakotas will make the Ohio Turnpike look exciting.

Go south and west. I drove to Poteau, OK once because it was the nearest hotel, almost an hour from the school. Took I-55 through Cape Girardeau and NW Arkansas. The mountainous region there is awfully nice to look at.

That was a fun trip because the superintendent of this school district in the middle of a forest preserve had bought a nutso isolationist's estate. On-premise propane, electric generator, water, and tons of surveillance cameras throughout the place. He'd painted the panic room pink and his granddaughters would stay there when they'd visit. Kind of weird to look at a pink bedroom with bunk beds and the bulletproof phone booth-sized last-stand spot. A few years later that guy ran for state office and currently serves in the Oklahoma House of Representatives.

When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro.

HST (RIP)

Well he bought it (he said) because he thought it was fun and just couldn't resist, not because he was some kook. The widow of the previous owner just wanted to be rid of it. It was WAY in the middle of nowhere because it was in the middle of that forest preserve. The pink panic room betrayed his kookdom, though—just in a different way.

just brew it! wrote:

Captain Ned wrote:

derFunkenstein wrote:

I'm a serious home-body. I like being home. But if you love to go places, I imagine that driving is a great way to do it.

Yes, yes it is, although the soybean fields along the Ohio Turnpike do get just a little boring (much like the vineyards west of Rochester on the NY Thruway).

Try heading west of here sometime. Iowa, Nebraska, and the Dakotas will make the Ohio Turnpike look exciting.

I live in Saskatchewan, and even I feel sorry for people in North Dakota.

captaintrav wrote:

I live in Saskatchewan, and even I feel sorry for people in North Dakota.

You guys at least get musical pirates.

Chuckaluphagus wrote:

captaintrav wrote:

I live in Saskatchewan, and even I feel sorry for people in North Dakota.

You guys at least get musical pirates.

And if you count Ryan Reynolds' adlibbed (so probably non-canon) lines, DeadPool.

I recently bought an EVGA 750W G3 power supply, and my orders page on Amazon says it was left "in the mailbox".

No, the mailbox is not that big.

So did they chuck it in the bushes or something?

I ordered a package once and got the same message and figured they took it to wrong place because it certainly wasn't going to fit into my apartments mailbox cluster. Opened up the mailbox and found that someone invented a way to put a square peg in a round hole. Took me 5 minutes to get it out.

just brew it! wrote:

So did they chuck it in the bushes or something?

No they just left it by the door, which in this neighborhood isn't a problem. I can't find any evidence of a forceful attempt of placing the package in the mailbox, so I'm thinkin the mail guy probably just hit a wrong button or something.

Heiwashin wrote:

I ordered a package once and got the same message and figured they took it to wrong place because it certainly wasn't going to fit into my apartments mailbox cluster. Opened up the mailbox and found that someone invented a way to put a square peg in a round hole. Took me 5 minutes to get it out.

Closest I've come to that is having something flat that says "Do Not Bend" folded in half to get it in the mailbox.

The bigger issue for me is stuff getting left on the front stoop in inclement weather. If it is windy and raining, anything on the front stoop gets soaked. For small packages from Amazon, I've been using their Amazon Locker service to avoid this issue (there's a locker location a 5 minute walk from where I work). I just pick the package up right before or after work.

This just has me scratching my head in puzzlement:
https://arstechnica.com/business/2017/0 ... necessary/
https://arstechnica.com/business/2017/0 ... -to-crack/

So wait... a $400 appliance... that enables you to use proprietary packs of fruit and vegetable pulp, to make fresh squeezed juice... at $5+ a glass?

And if/when this company goes tits-up (which seems more likely than not), you're left with a $400 doorstop. Oh, wait... it's too big to be a functional doorstop. Boat anchor?

W. T. F.

I question the sanity of anyone who invested in this company or purchased its device.

Another trip to Gog.com to buy $30 of nostalgia, and another quick check to see if the No One Lives Forever franchise has broken free from the WB-inflicted copyright limbo. Nope. But one can always hope.

just brew it! wrote:

This just has me scratching my head in puzzlement:
https://arstechnica.com/business/2017/0 ... necessary/
https://arstechnica.com/business/2017/0 ... -to-crack/

So wait... a $400 appliance... that enables you to use proprietary packs of fruit and vegetable pulp, to make fresh squeezed juice... at $5+ a glass?

And if/when this company goes tits-up (which seems more likely than not), you're left with a $400 doorstop. Oh, wait... it's too big to be a functional doorstop. Boat anchor?

W. T. F.

I question the sanity of anyone who invested in this company or purchased its device.

Couple notes. First,

Ars wrote:

Customers can’t buy the juice bags without first purchasing the $400 machine, which was originally a $700 machine.

o_O

Second,

Bloomberg, via Ars wrote:

The Bloomberg piece did note that Juicero has found one solid niche: high-end hotels and restaurants.

That is a good application for this (from a business sense). Patrons of these high-end places would probably pay for hand-squeezed juice, but having a pre-packaged faker like this would keep operating costs down. So even if they end up in bankruptcy, I think that they could easily get bought out by someone.

Of course, that assumes that no other company can design a better machine for those applications.

Looks like I may be about to get sucked into yet another investigation of a memory leak that is threatening to hold up a product release. I seem to have developed a reputation as the in-house expert on memory leaks and heap internals...

I don't even fully understand what memory leaks are, it's when something creates things but doesn't remove them when they're dead right?

I need beer help. What constitutes a craft beer. For some reason when I ask for local or craft lagers I'm always recommended Sam Adams.

Some languages manage memory allocation for you. Data structures "grow" without you having to keep track of their exact size. Other languages give you control over how the memory required by your​ application is used. When you request memory you get a "pointer" to a memory address that's free to use in your application. Once you're done that chunk of memory should be released back to the OS, but if you forget to do that, or you goof and overwrite the pointer, then you've "lost" that chunk of memory, and it won't be released back to the operating system until the application goes out of scope. If that happens repeatedly, the amount of memory allocated to the application grows steadily, or "leaks" until something bad happens.

Heiwashin wrote:

I don't even fully understand what memory leaks are, it's when something creates things but doesn't remove them when they're dead right?

Basically, yeah. Using a language that automatically manages memory allocations for dynamically created data structures comes at a price (reduced performance). As a result, a lot of high-performance code is still written in lower-level languages (typically C/C++) which require the developer to manage memory allocations and deallocations explicitly. If the developer screws up and forgets to release memory when it is no longer needed, a long-running application can eventually consume all of available memory.

Heiwashin wrote:

I need beer help. What constitutes a craft beer. For some reason when I ask for local or craft lagers I'm always recommended Sam Adams.

Probably a combination of restaurant/bar staff not being entirely clear on what a "lager" is (so Sam Adams Boston Lager, which has "lager" in its name, is the default response); and the fact that there aren't many craft lagers, because smaller breweries tend to produce mostly (or even exclusively) ales.

The definition of "craft beer" also has a history. The Brewers Association defines it as beer coming from a brewery which produces less than 6 million barrels per year, is 25% or less owned by a larger (>6 million barrels) brewery, and uses "traditional" brewing methods. But 6 million barrels is a LOT, and this definition was agreed on with input from Sam Adams (who has a lot of pull with the BA), to ensure that they would still qualify. As Sam Adams has grown over the years, the limit has increased to accommodate them!

There are also a lot of mediocre "stealth craft" brands like Blue Moon (actually started by, and still a subsidiary of Coors), as well as really good beers from former craft breweries which are now part of big corporations, like Lagunitas (now 51% owned by Heineken) and Ballast Point (acquired by the same conglomerate that owns Corona).

What exactly is your goal? Is it that you tend to like lighter beers, but want something with a little more flavor? If so there are some ale styles which may fit the bill (Kolsch, Blonde Ale, Cream Ale).

If you really want to focus on local/craft lagers, you're probably going to have to work at it a little. Learn what beer styles are considered lagers so you can spot them on the beer list, and try to keep up on who your local breweries are and who the big "stealth craft" producers are. And resign yourself to the fact that at many bars/restaurants, the closest thing they will have to a craft lager will indeed be Sam Adams...

Well I'm usually aiming for local drinks, but I certainly don't have the taste for what goes on with most of those pale ales. They're just too much for me. Lagers seem more popular locally then wheat ales although hindsight I guess it's been about even really. I usually look through the ale titles to see if I can find anything I might like but I always read it as, "tastebud killer craft ipa, with extra long lasting bitter potency!" That's been my experience trying those drinks so far anyway. Guess I'll hunt for the types you listed specifically and see if I like them more.

As an IPA-loving hop-head, I (and a whole lot of other craft beer lovers) am partially to blame for this situation. I'm not sure if anyone in VT even offers a craft-brewed lager. They're harder to brew properly and take longer to mature, so they're always going to be a small part of the market anyway. Also, there's the "craft brew snob" problem, in that lagers mean mass-market beer.

Craft brewers universally started as homebrewers. Brewing a lager at home requires a spare fridge in the garage for the fermentation and aging periods.

From my understanding if I forced the strong stuff for a while I would get a taste for it but beers are always with my dinner. That's a good part of the reason I don't want something overpowering.

From my experience, you were born a hop-head or not. It's REALLY hard to make the transition. I've been working with SWMBO for 30 years now and have never got her over the hump.

If you happen to have a chance to eat in a place that does craft beers and lists them on a chalkboard, see if their beer menu includes "IBU" in the beer descriptions. IBU = International Bittering Unit. The higher the number, the more bitter/hoppier the beer. It'll give you a good first-level approximation of what you're getting into.

Captain Ned wrote:

From my experience, you were born a hop-head or not. It's REALLY hard to make the transition. I've been working with SWMBO for 30 years now and have never got her over the hump.

If you happen to have a chance to eat in a place that does craft beers and lists them on a chalkboard, see if their beer menu includes "IBU" in the beer descriptions. IBU = International Bittering Unit. The higher the number, the more bitter/hoppier the beer. It'll give you a good first-level approximation of what you're getting into.

Geeky beer trivia: IBUs have a precise scientific definition. The chemical compounds that make hops bitter are collectively known as "alpha acids"; one IBU equals 1 PPM (part per million) of alpha acids in the beer. Typical beers are in the 10-50 IBUs range, with some intensely bitter beers ranging up to 120 IBUs or so.

In other beer related goings-on, I just got back from judging in the National Homebrew Competition First Round (regionals). Smoke & Wood-Aged beers first thing this morning, Spice/Herb/Vegetable beers after lunch, and Light American Ales (Cream Ale, American Wheat, and Blonde Ale) in the late afternoon. It's been a very beery day. I'm grabbing a quick bite to eat then it's time to crash.

Will probably judge at the final round too (Minneapolis, in June).

http://www.nbcnews.com/health/health-ne ... ll-n749826

WTF?

Really makes you wonder what else might have been "inadvertently harvested" if their QA is poor enough that they can't tell the difference between a golf ball and a potato!

Edit: In a similar vein, several years ago I received a letter from Costco informing me that I should return the case of chili I had recently purchased because it "may contain electronic calculator parts". We'd already eaten it (and didn't find any calculator bits).

Here i was wondering why there were potatoes in my golf ball dinner. They can't do anything right.

I got some new headphones and wanted to practice some flying technique while jamming out.
I should do more videos but i never get to fly in really good places. Sure would be nice to have a car on the weekends sometimes.

Heiwashin wrote:

Sure would be nice to have a car on the weekends sometimes.

Bicyle If you get one of those folding types it would hide almost anywhere in the cab. Then you just need a good backpack.

I've thought about that a few times but i know nothing about bikes. I feel like i'd want someone who knows a bunch about them to help me pick something that isn't a lemon, and a seat that won't be painful. I've never used a bike seat i could actually sit on without it becoming unreasonably painful.

Yeah, and I have no idea why. It can't be that difficult to create a bike seat which isn't the cyclists equivalent of a hair shirt, but most bike people I've talked to seem to think otherwise, or are just uninterested for some reason.

You can have a seat that's cushy or you can have a seat that's lightweight and doesn't get in the way when you're lifting off it for power strokes. Most cyclists choose the latter and it's somewhat like riding a horse: you're supporting much of your weight near the centerline of your pelvic bone and using a lot of strange muscles to keep it there. Once you break in those muscles with a few good rides it's not such a big deal.

The main thing is to get a seat with a well-designed comfort channel so the delicate nethers aren't being crushed and (for guys) eventualy rendered impotent.

In the last 3 days I've dealt with every technology vendor we have for different SNAFUs; our client records vanishing from the cloud based software that we use for client interactions, our printer is broken as hell, and somehow our shared drive decided to reformat itself.


I'm hating technology right now. I need to go play Mad Max or Fallout to remind myself that technology can be fun too