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Settling In…

So, I’ve been at my new job as a UofO Server Admin for four days now and talk about culture shock. I have gone from working with servers running SCO OpenServer and IBM 4690 OS to an environment filled with Windows 2003/2008 systems. Being able to pick up the phone and receive immediate remote support on a failing hard disk is a luxury that, until now, I did not know existed.

I am also getting a better grasp on exactly what I will be doing in my new capacity. Right now, I am responsible for a dozen or so systems, including a pair of domain controllers, a pair of file servers, an Exchange server, a DPM (Data Protection Manager) server, an IIS server and a SharePoint server. In addition to keeping everything running and up-to-date, I will also be performing a lot of Active Directory tuning and automation of manual processes.

Of course, between the new job, the impending birth of my child and the holidays, my time for beer has been squeezed nearly dry. I would have loved to make it to this year’s Holiday Ale Fest, but I can just image the hell that would be the rest of my life if my wife went into labor while I was sipping Sang Noir under the big tents in Portland.

And while I probably won’t make it to any other events this year, I have taken some time to choose a few gems out of the beer stash, to be passed around the midwifery center when our child finally arrives. Bottles of ’09 Abyss, Hellshire I and Firestone Walker 14 are all ready to be packed into the bottom of the delivery bag. I still need to make it to the bottleshop for some Dupont and Rodenbach grand Cru.

I also had a chance to get in one more brew session for the year; a nice 4%-ish Irish Dry Stout that will hopefully stay on tap through the NFL playoffs. Stats and recipe will be up this weekend.

Cheers!
Kevin

 

A New Toy

I am writing this post from my newest toy, a ViewSonic G Tablet that my wife gave me for Christmas. The device is a 10.1″ (1024 x 600) Android tablet, powered by Nvidia’s new Tegra 2 processor. The Tegra 2 is currently the fastest mobile processor available, combining a dual-core 1Ghz ARM Cortex-A9 CPU, an ultra-low power GeForce GPU and a dedicated video processor, capable of full 1080p playback.

The tablet was completely unusable at first due to some very buggy software. But, after getting it online and pulling down the latest patch, it was moving right along. So far I haven’t done much with the it besides play Angry Birds, set up my E-mail and install Adobe’s Flash beta drivers, but I can’t imagine it will be long before I get the itch and start writing apps.

I will probably begin by dusting off the Android port of my Beer Test, which I started working on earlier his year. My other initial thought is to write a brewing calculator, as the tablet seems like a great format for such a tool. Jeff did a Survey of Beer Apps earlier this month, which lists several that are currently available for Apple and Android phones, but the ones I have tried so far have all felt a bit fiddly. Any ideas for a beer app you would like to see on a tablet? Or suggestions for features missing from the current crop of mobile brewing calculators?

Cheers!
Kevin

More on Kinect Hacking

In my Holiday Gift Guide, I talked a little about the hacking potential of the new Xbox 360 Kinect device. Since then, some interesting things have developed, so I thought I would spend a few additional minutes on the topic.

Since Hector Martin released his prize-winning Kinect driver, libfreenect, on Nov. 10th, the community OpenKinect has sprung up to continue developing and maintain his code. Libfreenect is fairly robust at this point, including not only a device driver, but also a cross-platform API that works on Windows, Linux and OSX, and wrappers for ActionScript, C#, C Sync, OpenCV and Python. The software supports access to the device’s RGB and depth images, motors, accelerometer and LED.

A few of my favorite projects using the libfreenect open-source library are:

While libfreenect is a nice, lightweight C library, another option became available last Thursday. PrimeSense, manufacturer of the PrimeSensor reference camera, which Microsoft used for the Kinect, open-sourced its driver and framework API. The driver, while not Kinect specific, does attempt to implement all features of the PrimeSensor reference spec.

PrimeSense also partnered with Willow Garage and Side-kick to found OpenNI, a not-for-profit organization to certify and promote compatibility and interoperability of NI (natural interaction) devices. OpenNI has released a C++ framework based on PrimeSense’s driver. And through OpenNI, PrimeSense has released a beta of their NITE skeletal tracking system.

Like I said, a lot of interesting stuff in the last couple weeks. One of the most appealing aspects of Kinect hacking is that no “hacking” of the device is required; the camera system uses a stardard USB interface. So, download one of the above libraries, plug the device into your computer and you’re off to the races.

I have been trying to come up with a beer related Kinect project to justify buying the device, but so far I’m coming up blank. There is already some object recognition code written, so it wouldn’t be too much work to detect when a glass is held in front of the camera and determine the SRM of its contents. Not the most creative idea, but hey, it’s what I could come up with on the spot. If you have a more beery idea for a Kinect project, let’s hear it. It may be the motivation I need to open the wallet.

Finally, for anyone interested in Kinect hacking, I’ll leave you with some required reading.

http://openkinect.org – OpenKinect
http://groups.google.com/group/openkinect - OpenKinect Google Group
https://github.com/OpenKinect/libfreenect - Libfreenect library
http://openni.org - OpenNI

Cheers!
Kevin

Beer and Coding Holiday Gift Guide

My wife has been asking me what I want for Christmas for the past couple of weeks. Unable to come up with anything I really need and unsuccessful in convincing her to let me dig an underground steam room on our .19 acre lot, I turned to the interwebs for guidance. Sadly, asking Google for beer geek gifts returns little more than lists of beer…and USB drive bottle openers. For coders, the outlook is equally bleak. Apparently, I am into novelty t-shirts and coffee mugs with sayings like “PHP = Pretty Hot Programmer”…and USB drive bottle openers.

So, to help all you beer geek and, uh, regular geek better halves out there, I’ve come up with a quick list of gift ideas for this holiday season.

BEER GEEK GIFTS

Join the Club - Many pubs offer mug clubs, where patrons pay a yearly fee for a reduced price pint and/or a larger pour. Unfortunately, most of these clubs have a limited number of spots and many have years-long waiting lists. Sometimes you get lucky though.

Locally, the pub inside the Kick City indoor soccer arena has a mug club with available openings. For $25 per year, you get your own 20 oz mug and a reduced price. While Kick City doesn’t have the widest variety of taps, there is usually something on from Hop Valley and the Ninkasi brewed house beer, Turf Monster, isn’t too shabby.

16 Tons also offers something similar, their Patrons Club. For $25 per year, you receive 10% off all on and off premise sales, a monthly newsletter with coupons and priority for special events, tastings and releases.

Outside of Eugene, you are on your own. Call a few of your beer geek’s favorite bottleshops or pubs and see what is available.

Take a Class – Everyone loves to learn, right? So, why not help your beer geek continue their education? In the last few months, Oakshire has hosted a couple beer and cheese pairing classes and more recently, a beer and meat pairing class.

16 Tons has started hosting Sake 101 classes, a great introduction for people unfamiliar with the drink. Most of these classes are very limited, so check with your local breweries, bottleshops and bars/restaurants for upcoming sessions.

Some Vertical Action - Pick one of your beer geek’s favorite special release brews and buy several bottles. Give your geek one bottle and squirrel away the rest. Then repeat this process each year, gifting one newly purchased bottle and one of each previous vintage. Starting at year two, your geek will be able to do their own vertical tasting, comparing the beers side-by-side. While this gift takes some commitment, it also provides you an easy out for years to come.

If you are unsure where to start, ask your local bottleshop for suggestions. Off the top of my head, Deschutes Abyss would be a good choice, as would Dissident, although released a little less frequently. There’s Firestone Walker’s Anniversary Ale for you big spenders and Anchor’s Our Special Ale for those with a more modest budget. Damn, looks like I did end up giving a list.

CODER GIFTS

Get Kinected – The XBOX 360 Kinect will no doubt be a popular gift this year, but what makes it so enticing to coders? Open-source drivers. At the beginning of November, electronics DIY site Adafruit held a contest to create open-source drivers for the device. Hours later Spanish open-source advocate Hector Martin released a driver, ushering in the era of Kinect hacking.

KinectHacks.net has become the unofficial compendium of these DIY projects, with works ranging from area-mapping Roombas to software that draws a bra on anyone who stands topless in front of the camera. Phil Spencer, VP of Microsoft Game Studios has also stated that Indie Games will get Kinect support in the future, allowing  XBOX developers to write software that interacts with the device.

There Can Only be Uno – Uno is the latest version of the Arduino, replacing the Demilanove. The biggest upgrade to this incarnation is the automatic power source detection, no longer requiring a jumper to move between USB and DC. It is also fully compatible with all Demilanove and Diecimilla code, libraries and shields.

Currently, Adafruit is offering free Rubber Bumpers with each Arduino purchased, handy for keeping the dining room table from damaging your board, and vice versa.

Inside the Box – Heard of Pandora? No, not the internet radio service, the open-source gaming handheld. Born out of conversations on the GP32X.com forums, Pandora is a true community effort. The TI OMAP3530 driven handheld features 256MB of DDR RAM, 512MB of NAND Flash, dual SDHC card slots, Bluetooth, 802.11g wireless, 800*480 LCD touch screen, TV-out, full QWERTY, dual analog thumbsticks and runs a tweaked version of Angstrom-Linux.

The first batch of Pandoras (~4,000 units) is already sold out, but OpenPandora.org is taking preorders for batch two, $349.

Well, I hope this guide has given you some idea, or at least steered you away from the novelty t-shirts. If any of you geeks out there (of either persuasion) have gift ideas you would like to share, feel free do so. I still need to figure out what to ask for myself. Residential windmill has a nice ring to it…then again, I am a pretty hot programmer.

Cheers!
Kevin

I’m Not Dead Yet

If you are reading this post, then Beer and Coding is back up and running. My old web host was hit with a massive DDoS attack early Friday morning. In response, they turned off a block of IP addresses on the affected server. A block that happened to include Beer and Coding.

Now, I say “old web host” because after a “six hour outage” stretched into the third day, I decided to jump ship. I have just finished restoring my website and databases to my new host, iPage. I haven’t had a chance to test everything, so if you find something that is still broken, let me know. I will do a thorough sweep in the morning, but right now I’m off to bed. Between dealing with my site and taking a trip to Portland for the Holiday Ale Fest preview (which I will talk about tomorrow), I’m ready for some shut-eye.

Cheers!
Kevin