RIP Cliff

Twenty years to the day since Cliff Burton (bass gutairist from Metallica) was tragically killed on tour in Europe.
Heard "To Live is to Die" on TripleJ last night, and it is still one of my fav's 20 years on.


When a Man Lies He Murders
Some Part of the World
These Are the Pale Deaths Which
Men Miscall Their Lives
All this I Cannot Bear
to Witness Any Longer
Cannot the Kingdom of Salvation
Take Me Home

Clifford Lee Burton
2-10-62........9-27-86

This will screwup Website Stats

Anonymous browsing based on a  modified verison of Portable Firefox. Running a few websites myself, the Stats are an important part. But anonymous browsers and proxies can really screw your data. I think the hidden agenda is it is more focused on users that have other intentions than just leaving a fingerprint.

A tweaked version of Firefox that makes Web browsing anonymous has been released by a group of privacy-minded coders. Every few minutes, the Torpark browser causes a computer's IP address to appear to change. IP addresses are numeric identifier given to computers on the Internet. The number can be used along with other data to potentially track down a user, as many Web sites keep track of IP addresses.

Tweaked Firefox Lets You Surf Internet Without a Trace - Yahoo! News

Bathurst Brewing Comp Trophies

The Bathurst Brewing Comp trophies arrived a couple of days back, and here they are in all their glory. Great plates for the 1st and 3rd places, and a wine set for the Exhibitor of Show that included a bottle of red, cork screw, wine pourer, wine stopper etc. A great little set. And of course the certificates.
A great well run comp. I don't know of any other brewing comp that is so fast to get judging sheets, awards and prizes out to entrants. A truely worthy comp.

Beer for Mum ?

I guess the beer in non-alcoholic, but even still. Very photoshop as well.

Cherryflava: Beer is yum for mum

Whobar

Anyone who knows me in my professional career will know that I have a keen interest and involvement in Identity Systems. So it was great to see the innovators over at SXIP make annoucements at DigitalID World about their Whobar initiative. God knows how many sets of logons I have for websites and forums. Looking forward to seeing this adopted for sure.

Who What? Whobar previewed at DIDW11 September, 2006 - 9:52pmSxip is demoing a preview of Whobar, new Identity 2.0 technology at Digital ID World and the Future of Web Apps this week.Currently under development, Whobar makes it easy for users to register and login to a website using their choice of emerging identity protocols such as InfoCard, i-names, and OpenID. We’re considering releasing it as an open source module for developers to easily add support of the emerging Identity 2.0 technologies to their site. The benefits of this for users would be a common website login experience and for web developers, to streamline their user registration and login process with Identity 2.0 technologies, while maintaining support for their existing user accounts.

Who What? Whobar previewed at DIDW | Sxip Identity

Most Successful Exhibitor of Show

The Bathurst Brewing Comp was run over the weekend, and I managed to pickup Most Successful Exhibitor of Show. My American Pale Ale got a first in the Australian/American Pale Ale category, and my Dubbel got third in the Belgian category.

Really looking forward to getting the judging sheets back to read the judging comments, but I'm pretty stoked.

Most Successful Exhibitor of Show
Sponsored by The Kelso Hotel, Kelso
Darren Robinson

Homebrew Beer: The Country Brewer - For All your Homebrew Beer Needs

Blogged with Flock

Bond drinks beer

So good to see from a beer lovers point of view. Even though Heineken isn't a personal favourite it will be nice to see beer in a James Bond movie.

Los Angeles- Forget the martini - give that man a beer. That could be the rallying cry in the upcoming James Bond movie Casino Royale, in which the suave British super-spy is set to drop his exclusive taste for martinis and instead take up some plebeian beer-swilling, according to the Hollywood Reporter Friday. Producers of the movie have even signed a six-figure deal with beer giant Heineken for a promotional partnership that will include a television commercial shot on the Bond set featuring Bond girl Eva Green and directed by Oscar-winner Stephen Gaghan.Bond purists will be grateful to know that the beer plot is not just a money grab by the movie's makers. Casino Royale was the first Bond book written by Ian Fleming and the only one in which Bond drinks beer.

The Raw Story | Bond bows to beer

IE only sites in Firefox

I'm forever switching between IE and Firefox due to those sites that I have to run IE for. Well now I can embed IE in Firefox. This is sooo handy.

mozdev.org - ietab: index

Drinking Customs

From here.

Sounds like a great little exhibition. Will have to get out at lunchtime and check it out.

DRINKING CUSTOMS AN EXPLORATION OF PUB CULTURE AROUND SYDNEY

Wednesday 6 September, 2006 - 31 March, 2007
Level 1 Exhibition & Library Lounge
FREE ADMISSION

Curated by Dr Charles Pickett

The exhibition Drinking Customs presents the social history of drinking cultures and pubs in the surrounding area of Customs House and Circular Quay. The exhibition presents changes in the attitudes towards drinking and how it has been an important part of Australia's self image. This social history is presented through photographs, poster graphics and objects related to drinking.

Brewery Labels

My brewery labels finally arrived. Due to a stuff up I ended up getting big and small ones. The big ones are going on my gear (eg. kegs) and the little ones wherever my gorilla marketing takes me.

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Stone 10th Anniversary

Damm, where is my teletransporter ?
Sat 9 Sept is Stones 10th Anniversary

Checkout the 40 breweries that will be there including :
Russian River
Rouge
Pizza Port
Brewery Ommegang
Hoptown
Dogfish Head
Avery
Alpine
Alesmith
and of course Stone

Need I say more.

When Astronomers get angry

An amusing billboard, maybe by some angry astronomers.

pluto-astroid.jpg (JPEG Image, 699x509 pixels)

Hop based Antifoam

A couple of shots from brewing a RyeIPA that calls for First Wort Hopping (FWH), which is where hops are added to the kettle during the sparge and remain there for the entire sparge time plus boil. The problem is if you are maxing out the capacity of your kettle it usually incurrs a messy boilover and then loss of some of the FWH and some wort volume.

Here is a picture just before the boil is about to start with about 48 litres of wort in a 50 litre kettle.

I tossed in a Hop based Antifoam capsule as the heat was applied to bring to a boil.
A full boil, and no boilover. No mess, and no need to skim the protein foam, that would have resulted in a loss of FWH's.

A great product. I'll be using it whenever I'm doing a full volume boil.

Hop Monsters

My brewing has taken a turn for even more hoppyness this winter. My winter beers are always higher alcohol, and usually hoppier to provide some balance. A couple this winter have been off the chart in terms of bitterness, and I'm planning about another three before the heat of summer really arrives. This definition from Russian River (who make the most hoppy beers you could ever think of) is me exactly.

Russian River Brewing Company

LED's embedded in clothing

I can see the benefits for merchandising, but definitely wonder how cost probhibitive it is likely to be until the technology gets penetration.

Philips illuminates IFA 2006 with production-ready Lumalive textile garments

Eindhoven, the Netherlands - Philips Research intends to impress the visitors at this year’s IFA (Internationale Funkausstellung) with a world-first demonstration of promotional jackets and furniture featuring its innovative Lumalive technology. Lumalive textiles make it possible to create fabrics that carry dynamic advertisements, graphics and constantly changing color surfaces. The Philips stand in Hall 22 will act as a showcase for the Lumalive textile products that will be worn by Philips’ hostesses and embedded into booth furniture of the Future Zone.



Lumalive fabrics feature flexible arrays of colored light-emitting diodes (LEDs) fully integrated into the fabric - without compromising the softness or flexibility of the cloth. These light emitting textiles make it possible to create materials that can carry dynamic messages, graphics or multicolored surfaces. Fabrics like drapes, cushions or sofa coverings become active when they illuminate in order to enhance the observer’s mood and positively influence his/her behavior.

Philips Research Press Releases - Philips illuminates IFA 2006 with production-ready Lumalive textile garments

Reliance on Ammenties

Bugger. I've been in on a brewday at Shed 22 Brewing Company and can feel for the guys having to dump a batch. That is going to screw up the production schedule. Hopefully some compensation from the gas company.

Building evacuated in NZ capital August 31, 2006 - 5:14PM A major gas leak caused chaos in New Zealand's capital, leaving at least one office block temporarily evacuated, streets closed, businesses shut down and thousands of litres of beer spoiled.Inner-city restaurants offered reduced menus of uncooked food, hotel guests had to forego showers and the boutique Wellington Brewery Company dumped 5,000 litres of spoiled beer.

Building evacuated in NZ capital - Breaking News - World - Breaking News

Ooops

She isn't going to live this one down.

CNN says sorry for taking on-air toilet break September 01, 2006
CNN was forced to apologise yesterday after television anchor Kyra Phillips took a toilet break but inadvertently left her personal microphone on - and broadcast live in excruciating detail her bathroom gossip session during a nationally televised speech by US President George W. Bush.

CNN says sorry for taking on-air toilet break | Media | The Australian