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2013-05-09 20:27:55 (2 comments, 1 reshares, 11 +1s)

Anyone still on this? Here's a thing I announced everywhere else. Maybe some people here missed it? Not likely, but I'm more curious about who actually sees it. http://mezzoblue.com/archives/2013/05/07/10_years/

2011-11-26 00:43:17 (0 comments, 0 reshares, 1 +1s)

Finally finished uploading my photos of Islay: http://www.flickr.com/photos/mezzoblue/tags/islay/

2011-11-05 06:16:26 (2 comments, 7 reshares, 10 +1s)

Have you ever seen a large flock of starlings in flight? Watch this video.

2011-11-01 18:32:15 (1 comments, 6 reshares, 9 +1s)

Good news for your Tuesday: http://mezzoblue.com/archives/2011/11/01/a_new_number/

2011-10-23 23:22:55 (8 comments, 0 reshares, 4 +1s)

Two years of riding is really filling up my GPS map of the city and surrounding area. http://www.flickr.com/photos/mezzoblue/6274541142/in/photostream

2011-10-20 18:47:45 (7 comments, 1 reshares, 1 +1s)

500ppi just seems like a waste; if your eye can't discern individual pixels after 320 or so, I can't imagine how more would benefit you in any meaningful way.

http://www.engadget.com/2011/10/20/toshiba-shows-off-6-inch-tablet-display-with-498ppi-resolution/

2011-10-18 17:16:18 (3 comments, 1 reshares, 3 +1s)

"Such is the state of the reactionary web culture. Post media with no context, no anchor in reality, and if it pushes your buttons, trips your emotional triggers, you post your pavlovian responses."

I really do like this quote from a comment thread (!) on a protest video, and I think it works in a more general way. Of course, posting it here out of context may well be considered ironic. (source: "archer" on this thread - https://plus.google.com/107606703558161507946/posts/eFcBHkW4J2m)

2011-10-13 03:00:27 (8 comments, 74 reshares, 35 +1s)

2011-10-13 02:50:49 (0 comments, 0 reshares, 2 +1s)

Oh wow, Dennis Ritchie died this weekend. I had the Ritchie & Kernighan C book in high school, and while I didn't go down that road, it did obviously open a lot of doors for me. https://plus.google.com/u/0/101960720994009339267/posts/ENuEDDYfvKP?hl=en

2011-10-10 22:14:49 (9 comments, 0 reshares, 3 +1s)

I don't quite remember how it happened, but at some point my iPhone accidentally took a bath on Friday night.

By the next morning I had forgotten and plugged it in, assuming the battery was just dead. After a while I realized that my bad dream of fishing for my soaked phone may have actually happened. I popped out the SIM card and sure enough it was quite wet and I could see condensation inside both cameras, front and back.

So I dropped it into a bag of rice for a few days, pulled it out and tried it again today. No luck. Using the detailed iPhone teardown guide at iFixit (http://www.ifixit.com/Teardown/iPhone-4-Teardown/3130/1) I spent some time pulling it apart, and scrubbing various corroded contacts with rubbing alcohol. After reassembling, sadly it appears this phone is quite dead.

I had every intention of skipping the 4S, it didn't feel like a necessary... more »

2011-10-07 05:01:06 (6 comments, 0 reshares, 8 +1s)

Happy fun laser pointer time.

2011-10-05 21:25:52 (8 comments, 2 reshares, 16 +1s)

Still waiting for the keynote day-after posts on how the crushing disappointment caused the author to self reflect and realize that maybe, just maybe, discarding a phone every single year isn't an admirable or sustainable behaviour.

2011-09-27 19:20:36 (0 comments, 6 reshares, 11 +1s)

A visual comparison of hammer pants vs hipsters

2011-09-26 05:16:14 (5 comments, 0 reshares, 2 +1s)

For +Christopher Clark -- here's all the lupulin floating in my wet hop IPA wort after brewing yesterday, for comparison.

2011-09-19 00:56:01 (10 comments, 0 reshares, 14 +1s)

My afternoon foraging around Vancouver for beer ingredients was a complete success. I found all this stuff in public spaces and didn't have to resort to raiding community gardens. (Though I did steal a few sprigs of rosemary from the 6th ave railroad track gardens because, dude, you should see the size of those bushes. They can spare a bit.)

Clockwise from top right: Lavender, blackberries, chamomile, wild rose petals, and those would be hops of a yet-to-be-determined variety in the center. (I'm guessing Cascade, and I managed to pick about a half pound of them.)

I already brewed the porter I'll be using the blackberries in later this week (see last G+ post). The hops will go into a fresh hop pale or IPA, depending on how many more I can procure from a friend tonight. And I have this idea for a floral Belgian tripel that I'm thinking the rose, lavendar and chamomile... more »

2011-09-18 07:00:56 (5 comments, 0 reshares, 6 +1s)

Brew day #016 - a robust porter made with blackberries I picked myself off bushes on the old railroad tracks in Vancouver. http://beer.daveshea.com/2011/09/016-railway-porter/

2011-09-16 05:07:07 (5 comments, 0 reshares, 8 +1s)

Drink of the night: 16 year Lagavulin on chilled rocks I picked off the beach just behind the Lagavulin distillery.

No need for Whisky Stones now (http://www.thinkgeek.com/homeoffice/kitchen/ba37/), visiting Islay paid off in spades.

2011-08-18 19:30:58 (11 comments, 36 reshares, 34 +1s)

Morphed from Martin Schoeller portraits.

2011-08-15 21:20:53 (5 comments, 2 reshares, 9 +1s)

New kitty is still spending most of his time hiding under the couch or bed, but he's started coming out for food and the litter box when we're not around.

But a catnip-covered mouse on a string? Well that he's all over, our presence be damned.

2011-08-12 21:55:21 (2 comments, 14 reshares, 27 +1s)

Damn you Bill Gates.

http://i.imgur.com/bgYeo.jpg

2011-08-12 03:02:07 (11 comments, 0 reshares, 5 +1s)

Spending the evening brewing #015, an English barleywine (and my first beer to intentionally crack 10% ABV)

My system doesn't have the capacity for 23lbs of barley, so I ended up supplementing with a few pounds of liquid extract. Shouldn't be a big deal in a beer so large that'll age for so long.

(The recipe is from Brewing Classic Styles, a Thomas Hardy Ale clone. I've made a few tweaks due to lack of availability of certain ingredients.)

2011-08-08 23:13:04 (1 comments, 15 reshares, 12 +1s)

Should you argue on the internet?

http://flowingdata.com/2011/08/05/flowchart-should-you-argue-on-the-internet/

2011-07-30 06:59:21 (3 comments, 0 reshares, 1 +1s)

Ah, that feels better. A 60km post-work ride up to Seymour Dam, a place I've had on my list for a while. 3km on gravel with road bike tires, that was fun.

Updated local map of my rides: http://www.flickr.com/photos/mezzoblue/5989417887/

2011-07-28 18:08:26 (2 comments, 9 reshares, 23 +1s)

Pretty hard to argue these pro gay marriage signs.

http://www.happyplace.com/8958/the-most-hilariously-convincing-gay-marriage-signs

2011-07-26 18:48:36 (0 comments, 0 reshares, 6 +1s)

One nice feature I noticed about Lion this morning that I haven't seen anyone mention anywhere: an iOS-style login page automatically pops up whenever you join a public network that forces you to agree to the terms and conditions before use.

2011-07-25 18:05:15 (14 comments, 2 reshares, 19 +1s)

A great example of why I increasingly find Twitter's limitations to be unworthy of posting an actual thought there. This morning I said this regarding Lion reverse scrolling:

"If Apple really wanted to commit to this reverse-scrolling thing, why wouldn't they have flipped the arrow keys / Page Up + Page Down too?"

Many @ replies predictably missed my point, telling me the difference is scrolling is gestural and arrow keys aren't, or editing would be a nightmare, or the mouse now moves the document not the scrollbars, or whatever else.

The long form thought goes more like this. If I'm being asked to accept a change in what the mouse/trackpad controls -- formerly the scrollbar, now the document -- and when I flick up and the document moves up, if I press the up arrow key what should happen? I should be able to expect a consistent result between both... more »

2011-07-24 06:03:31 (1 comments, 14 reshares, 31 +1s)

Impressive. Most impressive.

2011-07-22 06:19:35 (3 comments, 0 reshares, 1 +1s)

Took a tiny sample of the in-progress amber ale (brew #014) I've had on the go since last weekend. It's coming along nicely, but I'm already noticing things I'd change about the recipe. I definitely used the wrong hops, which marks the first time I've been able to taste a beer and analyze the specific hop profile and how it works in conjunction with the malt.

2011-07-21 21:20:29 (16 comments, 3 reshares, 14 +1s)

Has anyone coined a term yet for that slight hesitation when you look at the trackpad and wonder which way to move your fingers now? How about "scroll anxiety"?

2011-07-21 15:13:27 (29 comments, 40 reshares, 86 +1s)

I'm increasingly repelled by the aesthetic of Apple apps and increasingly drawn to the aesthetic of Google apps. Wait, what?

2011-07-21 15:13:23 (17 comments, 0 reshares, 2 +1s)

2011-07-21

2011-07-21 15:13:08 (2 comments, 0 reshares, 0 +1s)

2011-07-21

2011-07-20 05:45:04 (6 comments, 0 reshares, 3 +1s)

Today was the first time back on my new-ish bike in almost a month. Crappy weather + completing a big ride seems to have temporarily sapped my desire to get out there, but I'm starting to get the urge again.

40km loop down Adanac / Frances Union to the Lakes bike path in Burnaby, down around Deer Lake toward New West, back along Rumble and then a meandering trip back through East Van.

(FWIW, this is more or less my exact bike, though my saddle is black. http://www.bronesbikeshop.com/LOOK%20585%20DA%2010%20AC300%20FSA.jpg)

2011-07-18 06:47:26 (0 comments, 1 reshares, 1 +1s)

Full write-up of the beer I brewed today: http://beer.daveshea.com/2011/07/014-caspian-amber-re-brew/

2011-07-18 02:17:46 (6 comments, 0 reshares, 6 +1s)

If you're a beer lover and have never stuck your nose in a pile of fresh hop pellets, you're really missing out.

2011-07-18 01:43:55 (9 comments, 0 reshares, 10 +1s)

Brew #014, amber ale. Waiting for the wort to boil.

2011-07-17 23:37:07 (2 comments, 0 reshares, 5 +1s)

Mashing in an amber ale. Hit my temps bang on this time, first time I've done that.

2011-07-17 00:01:07 (0 comments, 7 reshares, 25 +1s)

This painting is not available in your country.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/paulmutant/4992725876/

2011-07-15 18:45:25 (3 comments, 0 reshares, 3 +1s)

Now that I have a working wife again (thanks Canadian Immigration for dragging your heels) it's time to start getting the finances back in order. New accounts, new investments, all sorts of interesting movement in the past week. Feeling good about this.

2011-07-15 17:12:03 (14 comments, 0 reshares, 16 +1s)

This is a special kind of hell.

(Anyone with multiple Google accounts trying to view Docs in one and + in the other knows what I'm talking about.)

2011-07-15 06:16:13 (11 comments, 9 reshares, 17 +1s)

Nail on the head about why I almost instantly started monitoring my Google+ feed closer than my Twitter account.

2011-07-14 19:19:09 (11 comments, 0 reshares, 0 +1s)

For an app I was using just yesterday to look like this today, that's a little worrisome.

2011-07-14 17:28:51 (15 comments, 0 reshares, 9 +1s)

You know that feeling you get when you go to grab something out of the freezer and discover the beer you left in there to chill for a half hour over two days ago? Yeah, that.

2011-07-13 18:28:08 (1 comments, 0 reshares, 4 +1s)

Oh good, my favourite: filling out tax forms for a country where I am not a citizen.

2011-07-12 22:27:04 (12 comments, 0 reshares, 0 +1s)

Ruh-roh. Somebody who I haven't added to a circle or "approved" in any other form was just able to share a post with me, and it showed up in my notifications. Wasn't spam this time, but that doesn't bode well.

2011-07-12 17:27:43 (14 comments, 0 reshares, 5 +1s)

For some reason my iMac has started doing this thing where it duplicates itself on the network then reports a name conflict and relabels itself imac-2 or imac-3 etc.

I'm up to imac-4 now, and my favourite part is how it identifies as a Windows computer for some reason, complete with the smarmy BSOD Apple uses.

Perhaps it's time to tidy up your glass house, Apple.

2011-07-12 16:05:48 (5 comments, 4 reshares, 7 +1s)

Google+ To Pass 10,000,000 Users Tomorrow (on 7/12)

As I promised on Saturday night, I have finished updating my Google+ membership model with new data and re-estimated the Google+ user base.

My surname-based analysis shows that the number of Google+ users worldwide reached 7.3 million yesterday (July 10) – up from 1.7 million users on July 4th. That is a 350% increase in six days. The userbase is growing so quickly that it is challenging for me to keep up, since the number of users of any given surname (even the rare ones I am tracking) seems to be climbing every day.

More impressive than last week's growth is the astonishing growth in users from yesterday at mid-day to tonight -- a 30% jump. My latest estimate tonight shows approximately 9.5 million users. This suggests that 2.2 million people have joined Google+ in the past 32-34 hours.

Ip... more »

2011-07-11 21:30:24 (11 comments, 0 reshares, 1 +1s)

Learned after plugging one of my new 2TB disks into the Airport that it doesn't actually support the Master Boot Record partition scheme, it only works with GUID or Apple Partition Map.

A quick re-partitioning naturally erased the 700GB I had on there, so here goes another overnight data transfer.

2011-07-11 06:58:33 (9 comments, 0 reshares, 10 +1s)

I have a box of beer into which I've been slipping a bottle of every brew I make, 12 in total over the past year. This evening we had a BBQ where we dipped into that box and had a bonus 13th preview bottle of my new IPA. This was the detritus.

(Up front is the cap from a bottle of Westvleteren 12 I cracked to thank everyone for being brave, http://beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/313/1545)

2011-07-08 16:02:08 (4 comments, 1 reshares, 5 +1s)

While proponents of owning your data consider outsourcing blog comments to Facebook a bad thing, I'm noticing the quality of discussion isn't nearly as mind-numbing when people have to stand by their real names.

Then again, I can't be the only one who will probably never comment under my Facebook ID.