OK, so it’s 424% of nothing in comparison to Luciano Pavaroti. But still, according to last.fm, the new Wolves in the Throne Room record is creating a stir. Yeah, I can somehow believe that.

So I just realised that amarok has a little documented feature that scrobbles your iPod history to last.fm. I am kinda excited about this as I listen to more, and also different, music on my ipod than I do on the computer.

The only kind of annoying thing, which is the iPods fault rather than Amarok’s, is that the iPod history only records the number of times a track has been played and the timestamp it was *last* played. What is missing is the timestamp for every time it was played. Without this information, the scrobbler has to make up a time which is kind of silly but it’s something I can live with.

For those that are curious, to set this up you click the ‘Configure device’ button on the ‘Devices’ tab. Then check ’syncronise with amarok statistics’. Of course, as well as scrobbling the data, this also updates the stats within amarok too.

The, as yet still nameless, batch#5 is now in bottles:

#6 (more on this later) is about to finish primary fermentation.

So this is as much for my future reference as anything else but I decided it would be smart to start keeping a record of my beer brews. I’ve already started to forget some of the earlier batches we did and for a while recently Jesse and I were wondering why the Cascade hops we’d used weren’t as potent as the usually are. It turned out that we’d used some Pacific Gems that we’d received accidentally in one of Seven Bridges, unfortunately many, botched orders. Hopefully this will help us refer back to our mistakes and triumphs and try to figure out what it was we did that made that taste so…you know.

So I think this is technically our 5th attempt (we brewed the 4th batch since the last brew related post) but will be the first recorded brew. After sticking with some variation on a fairly typical West Coast Pale Ale up to this point, we decided to go with something lighter, more summery, with more of a European influence, but with a twist to keep it very West Coast and, in fact, even more geographically specific than that. You’ll see.

So Jesse wanted to make some kind of a pale lager, maybe a Pilsener. The problem being that San Francisco in the summer doesn’t really provide a suitably low temperature for that to quite work. So what could we do? Well luckily that had already been thought of well over a hundred years ago and we decided to make a Steam, or California Common, beer. That is, using lager yeast at a temperature one would normally ferment an ale at.

The Recipe (for 5 gallons)

4lbs Organic pale liquid malt extract
2lbs Organic corn sugar
2oz Organic Saaz hops
11g Safelager S-23 dry lager yeast

1 hour boil with 1oz of hops at the beginning and 1oz at the end.

After pitching, the yeast got to work very quickly and by the following morning the C02 was leaving the blow off tube very rapidly. At this point I was wondering whether, due to the increased temperature, the fermentation would happen so quickly that it might by done in a 2 or 3 day period. But as I write this 5 days later, the bubbles are still at about 8 second intervals so we have a little way to do yet. The last thing to figure out is how to tackle the conditioning process. I imagine that to be a true steam beer, it must also be conditioned at 65degrees. Maybe a little more research is called for.

I always forget you can still get sunburnt even when you’re cold and it’s not really sunny. it’s also amazing how many different places you can burn even when you’re wearing longs pants, long sleeves and have long hair. Face, check. Ears, check. Hands, check. Wrists, check. Oh well. The bbq was good, my boss even made vegan cup cakes!

Jesse, Kellen and I brewed a batch of beer yesterday. This one is a pale ale (although, as you can see in the video, it’s coming out pretty dark) brewed with cascade hops for bittering and finishing and american ale yeast is providing the fermentation. As you can see it is getting busy. It should be in bottles next weekend.

Also the slightly strange setup (lots of cardboard, and the carboy sat in the brew kettle with an aluminum foil hat on top) is due to me being slightly paranoid about being in a newly rented apartment and having a particularly explosive fermentation process last time. I don’t really want beer spraying out of the airlock and the resulting mess again.

Update:

I have posted videos for day 2 and 3 on my viddler account.

Recently I’ve started listening to mp3s of web design and development lectures on the way to work. So far I’ve gravitated towards conference lectures, but there are several universities that publicly post not only lecture slides but also audio and video.

After doing some quick research, it seems there is no definitive list of these kind of resources already out there. So the idea with this post is to provide a list of links to said resources with either audio or video available to download, as well as the accompanying slides where possible. Although the list is short right now, I expect it to lengthen with time.

I have also included a few useful podcasts at the end but I don’t know if I’ll keep those links around as the list at The Web Design Podcast Library, Digital Realm already seems pretty comprehensive.

Academic Lectures:

• Harvard - Fundamentals of Website Development: videos, slides.
• Harvard - Web Development Using XML: Lecture videos, slides.
• Harvard - Developing Web-based Database Applications.
• Harvard Extension School: Understanding Computers and the Internet. Relevant sections: Lecture 10, Problem Set 7 & Videos of the Week volume 11.
• MIT: Tim Berners-Lee on The Semantic Web

Conference Lectures:

• Web Directions South ‘06 (mp3 and slides).
• Web Directions North ‘07 (mp3 and slides)
• SXSW 2006
  Highlights:
  • CSS Problem Solving
  • MicroFormats: Evolving the Web
  • Web 2.1: Making Web 2.0 Accessible
• SXSW 2007
  Highlights:
  • How to Bluff Your Way In Web 2.0 video, slides.
  • Why XSLT is Sexy, slides

Other lectures:

• Douglas Crockford on the "Theory of the DOM"

Podcasts:

• .net mag, the English web design magazine
• Boagworld, focuses on web design and management
• Web Standards Group London, from the likes of Andy Budd and Jeremy Keith
• Edgework, think social media, smart marketing, web apps and usability.

Other resources:

The following resources helped me compile this page:

• Lecture Fox: Computer Science
• Full computer science course list.
• The Web Design Podcast Library, Digital Realm

Updates:

04/28/2007:
Added "Other lectures" section and Douglas Crockford on the "Theory of the DOM" within it.

05/06/2007:
Added Why XSLT is Sexy

It’s that time of year again. Cyclo-cross season is well and truly over so what else is there to do than lust over hot bikes?

Sacha White of Vanilla Bicycles fame produces some of the most lust worthy bikes out there. Unfortunately for most, with a multi-year waiting list they are for the most part just something to desire rather than actually own and ride. However at 8am on April 1st Sacha will be opening up the waiting list for 30 production frames under the SpeedVagen name which will be built in time for the 07/08 cyclo-cross season.

Sacha’s personal SpeedVagen was on display at the NAHMBS and the production models will be similar. With an emphasis on ultra simplicity, light-weight and ultra stiff braking system the framesets will be offered in single or multispeed versions. One interesting point is the integrated seatpost which uses Thomson guts and offers 10mm of adjustablity as well as housing a stainless tube that the rear brake cable is routed though.

Whatever your thoughts on the integrated seatpost’s practicality, Sacha continues to integrate subtle refinements into a traditionally constructed and aesthetically beautiful bicycle. I wonder how long it will take the 30 of these to be snatched up?

For more details see Bike Portland’s blog and the SpeedVagen website.

So sometimes I get home from work and can’t bring myself even to figure out what to make for dinner, let alone make it. Other times I spend from 6-10pm cooking, eating and cleaning up the mess. Last Thursday was one of the latter occasions. I decided to make some kind of Dim Sum. I ended up adapting this recipe to make char siu bao. I didn’t have all of the ingredients and it was kind of a spur of the moment decision so I made the following substitutions:

• I used firm tofu instead of pork, to make it vegan, duh! i was gonna use frozen but i remembered when i no longer had time to thaw it. I cubed it before marinating and fried it for longer than the recipe said. I also added green onions into the filling.
• It was hard to tell what consistency the dough was meant to end up as I hand mixed it. I ended up using about 1/2cup +2Tbs water in the dough instead of 3/4cup. It worked fine.
• Sunflower instead of sesame oil
• Cranberry juice instead of pomegranate
• Agave instead of molasses
• 1Tbsp white wine + 1Tbsp mirin instead of sake

Here are the results:

I just moved to a new place in San Francisco and of course the first thing I wanted to have sorted after I unpacked was an internet connection. ATT requires you to install software to setup the connection and of course, only OS X and Windows are supported. The last time I ordered DSL I had access to a windows computer to do the setup but this time I had my linux box and nothing else. As the activation day approached I started to get worried about how I would set everything up. Would I have to beg someone to lend me their laptop and allow me to install some horrid software on it (something I wouldn’t want to do to my own computer)? Or maybe I could call tech support and they could register me over the phone. I could just imagine the situation: Me “Hey could I register over the phone because I’m running linux and can’t install the software?” Tech support “We don’t support linux, see ya.”.

Anyway, the night before I went over to Paul, Jessalyn and Wilson’s house to do some research. I printed off this page and went home to find out my connection had been activated early. Anyway the instructions weren’t perfect for me but they included all the information I needed to get things going. Here’s a revised version/what I did:

• 1 Open up your web browser (I recommend not using Firefox as it seems to have problems with some of ATTs crappy forms) and type 192.168.0.1 to get to the modem config.
• 2 Use the following temporary username and password to get a connection: username: “sbcyahooreg@sbcglobal.net” password “sbcyahooreg”.
• 3 To get your own login, go to https://sbcreg.sbcglobal.net/ or support.sbcglobal.net/register and go through the signup process.
• 4 Repeat step #1-2 with your new login details.
• 5 Run a speed test over at www.BroadbandReports.com/ to be sure you’re getting all the speed you paid for.

i mean yeah these moots canti bosses would be nice to have to convert that old beater. but is it really worth $120 to be able to run canti’s on a bike that you’ll probably have to man handle the frame of to run tires larger than 28c? maybe someone just wants them for the collectablility, who knows.

speaking of ebay, yesterday i received in the mail 3 copies of the french magazine miroir des sports from the 1930s with feature articles on cyclo-cross. i’ll post scans soon.

don’t ever leave your cell phone charger at work over the weeekend when

• a) you’re house hunting and
• b) it’s new years eve.

no fun.

…have way too much time on their hands:

p.s. am i the only one not in belgium right now?

http://wicknasty.blogspot.com/2006/12/watchtabecke.html

http://www.mollycameron.com/2006/12/23/i-was-introduced-to-sven-nys-today/

http://www.jeremypowers.missingsaddle.com/2006/12/20/hot-fer-doma-of-course-nationals-and-some-squawk/

http://ryantrebon.blog.com/1388265/

http://rrnweurocross.blogspot.com/2006/12/race-day.html

eva and i are going to have waffles on christmas morning. the only question is, liege or brussels? which is it to be?

Nope.

Sunday was the Bay Area Super Prestige Cyclocross finals at Coyote Point. The fun part: Coyote Point is right on the bay and part of the course is a long section of sandy beach. The not so fun part: The asphalt sections that would snake through a grassy park. It sure was a tease; Riding on asphalt when there was all that grasss to be ridden on that the promoters probably couldn’t get permission to use. However, the course was fun and because it was so fast it encouraged riding in groups which is a positive imo.

The course had more elevation change that most I’ve ridden lately and really I enjoyed climbing through the trees. The corners/downhill in the same area were really fun too. I’ve gotta say though, the sand was probably my favorite part. I rode it several times during warm ups and felt pretty confident.

As usual, I wound up on the 3rd row at the start. Somehow I couldn’t find my pedal as we set off and although I don’t think I really lost any places I certainly didn’t make any up which, being in about 30th position, was what I needed to be doing.

So after being confident about the sand section in practise I got a bit of a suprise when the trench that had been carved out by the masters and As that made getting round the first hairpin easier had completely dissapeared. I struggled around the corner and rode about half of the straight before realising that running was going to be the faster method. I ran through the sand for the rest of the race.

After that I slowly made up a few positions and then got suprised by the bell lap for the 3rd race running! I don’t know what it is but even when I really conciously try and check laps I still get caught out. I guess it’s the 5 lap race thing. So after being informed we were on the bell lap by a competitor I uped the pace and made up a few more positions. I managed to hang on to the wheel of my lap counter around the last half of the lap after he dropped me passing someone on the long straight by the beach.

I don’t think I’ve had a such a close finish before but I convinced myself I was going to beat the guy in front of me. I chose the last corner for my move and somehow it worked, despite the final straight being so short. I took the corner just right and flew past him.

In the end I finished 17th, which put me in 15th overall. Not bad considering I missed a race.

Now it’s almost time for Peak Season Cyclocross and some real cross conditions.

Here it is in pictures.

Photos by Rick. He took tons and tons of photos of all the races. Good Job! http://bikeguy.smugmug.com/

The New York Times sent a reporter and photographer to the USGP final in Portland and came back with a well informed article and impressive photo gallery.

From the Road Bike Review Cyclo-cross Forum.