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1676
Living Room / Re: Homebrewing
« Last post by Renegade on July 20, 2014, 10:33 PM »
you show me how to brew a beer better than a pint of Guinness poured from a bar tap and I'll eat my hat.

Oh... 1 other angle... The current batch that I'm brewing will cost about 1/10th as much as it would cost in the store. So, there's that angle. How good is it compared to how much it costs?

When comparing costs, I think you have a much stronger case for homebrewing rather than store-bought beer.

1677
Are they trying to say that the Queen will die:

  • By the sword of her royal guard
  • By having molten gold poured over her face
  • In a hunting accident
  • By beheading
  • In an ambush at a wedding
  • By falling a thousand yards to her death
  • By poisoning
  • Something else?

1678
Living Room / Re: Homebrewing
« Last post by Renegade on July 20, 2014, 10:21 PM »
I want to tell you a story about my early days of homebrewing.

This was back in about 1986-1988, that range.

I was walking around the house distracted and not looking where i was going, and our cat ran in front of me and i stepped on the cat.

A cat owner's worst nightmare then occurred -- I heard the cat's bones break under my feet.   I looked down to see blood on my foot and my stomach tightened up and I felt physically ill and started to panic about what had just happened.
Then I saw the cat out of the corner of my eye, and it was just sitting there looking at me, in no apparent pain.
Then I looked down again at my foot, and I saw what had happened.  That damn cat had finally figured out a way to get the glass fermentation lock+stopper off the 5-gallon beer fermenting in the pantry, and had been dragging it around with her and she dragged it right under my foot.  Sure enough I had cut myself on the fermentation lock.

So learn from me: Do not let your cats go near your brewing containers!

That kind of stuff just makes me cringe.

I have to say that the mead was the most satisfying -- only because as good as the beer was, and as fun as it was to make, it didn't rival the best store bought beer.

>Really? I'm pretty shocked.


you show me how to brew a beer better than a pint of Guinness poured from a bar tap and I'll eat my hat.

Guinness is tough to compete against. Kilkenny as well. There are a few store-bought beers that are really, really good. But the majority just don't compare to what you can do at home.

I certainly would love to know how to brew something better than Guinness...

But it's not hard to brew a beer that you can drink warm. That's really a solid test of a great beer - can you drink it warm? Guinness is fine warm. Bud Light? Not so much. :)
1679
I suppose everyone will have their own take on Cthulhu and Lovecraft, but what I see as the bedrock is "hopelessness".

Everything else springs from that. There is no hope. Now... what horrors and insanity will grow in that fertile bed of despair?

Discovery and learning are merely the beginnings of the downward spiral into insanity where at the bottom, there is nothing but an abyss of despair in which any flickering idea of salvation is quickly extinguished.

But, that's just my own take on it.
1680
Living Room / Re: Homebrewing
« Last post by Renegade on July 20, 2014, 08:54 PM »
If you have a good store in your area, it's smart to ask their advice. I do at mine. They haven't steered me wrong yet. And why reinvent the wheel if you don't have to?  8)

I'm an info-leech. :) They know a heck of a lot more than I do, so, might as well pick their brains!

There's one good store relatively nearby... not close, but... driveable.

http://www.liquorcraft.com.au/

There may be more, but Brewcraft seems good. They've got all kinds of goodies there! :)

However, if you're really into it, at least keep a notebook. It's a big help. Trust me.

Once we finally move, I'll start keeping track better.

It's ok by me too. I'll just leave half an inch in the bottom of my glass - and dump it if it's too sludgy. I can always get another glass if I want more.

When I bottle, I try to get a variety of different amounts of sediment in the bottles. Makes life a bit more interesting. e.g. Oooh! I wonder what this will be like! :)
1681
Living Room / Re: Homebrewing
« Last post by Renegade on July 20, 2014, 08:48 PM »
There are many brewers who like a sample of their bathes "raw." And sweet wort is like candy before it's hopped. Even non-beer drinkers like it. I'm surprised nobody bottles it for sale.

Very! I had a taste of it before hopping yesterday. "Candy" is an appropriate description.

In bad news, the local supermarket has dropped malt extract from the shelves... sigh... my coffee just isn't the same.

I'm an ale/double-bock/porter/barley wine type myself. I like my quaff complex tasting but with a touch of sweetness (like a good Scotch ale), amber or darker in color, and with a goodly amount of body. If a spoon almost stands up in it, it's perfect. And if any pond life is swimming around in it, it's a real plus in my book!


Hahaha! "Pond life!" :D


FWIW I try to make things you can't get (or get easily) in a store. Why duplicate what's available when there are so many good craft beers available for sale? I go for the more exotic brews when I'm cooking something up for bottling.


I'm still in the learning curve, but eventually I'll figure it out well enough so that I can just go crazy and brew exotic experiments.

I do look forward to experimenting with fruit though. I love fruit juice, and living in SE Asia was heavenly. Soursop, pineapple, coconut, mango, star apple, etc. etc. I can imagine making some very tasty drinks!


I'd also suggest taking a look at the American Homebrewers Association. They have a wealth of solid information. And you don't need to be a member to get good info from them - although a membership is inexpensive and gets you full access to everything they have. They even have a beginner's mead how-to here.

They just published an 'official' mead recipe (August 2 is Mead Day!) that looks good. I notice it uses Lalvin K1V-1116 Montpellier yeast which is found in a lot of grape-based recipes I've seen. I haven't used this particular yeast myself, but I've heard other local brewers sing its praises. It supposedly produces a drier brew in fairly short order - so if sweet isn't your thing in a mead - maybe this recipe and yeast is worth looking at. If you start it about now you can crack it for Christmas - although I've found the type of meads I prefer need a good year of racking before they're really worth drinking.

Ah! Thanks for the links! I've read through some recipes and whatnot, and have a few more answers to things I was wondering.

For now I'm being fairly conservative in my beer brewing. The ginger ale is all just one big experiment though. My first batch was really, really, really dry. Like, Sahara dry.
1682
Living Room / Re: Homebrewing
« Last post by Renegade on July 20, 2014, 08:13 PM »
Small batch processing is easy using a gallon jug or several champagne bottles. Use a fermentation lock for best results or some plastic tubing from stoppers at the top all going to somewhere under some water in a container. Champagne yeast is foolproof and excellent for every fruit I've tried. Vierka (German company) had a very good yeast but I have not used it in years. If you have access to a brewing supply store, there are many gallon concentrate cans that are excellent. Corn sugar works well.

I've only got the 1 fermenter, and I didn't want to buy bungs & locks as we'll be moving in the near future and they'd just get thrown out. At the moment it is gurgling nicely. :)

So.... the current plan is to simply cover the bottles with cloth & a rubber band. Not ideal, but it should do well enough.

I'm not sure what brands the yeasts are - I simply got what was available at the brew store on a recommendation from the shop keeper.

I probably should have picked up a clarifying agent, but, meh... I'm ok with sediment.

1683
An article - totally serious, but... well... yeah... just have a peek! :P

http://dailycaller.c...ere-are-the-results/

I Conducted An Interview Completely Stoned And Here Are The Results

:D
1684
Kind of on topic...

http://www.buzzfeed....ugliest-buildings-in

Journalist gets harassed at different sites while taking pics. Because...

You are suspicious, and we are in a post-9/11 world

Right...
1685
Not sure whether to put this here or in the music video thread... but it's fun. :)

No embed because it's about the NSA.

https://www.youtube..../watch?v=8wa_4G0_xi0

1686
Living Room / Re: Homebrewing
« Last post by Renegade on July 20, 2014, 08:08 AM »
Got a batch started today of a Chimay recipe. Tomorrow I might get a batch of ginger ale going. Still mulling over whether to do it with an ale or a champagne yeast...
1687
Also darkly relevant. That should terrify anyone, even if they are not paying attention.
1688
Living Room / Re: Does anyone here use Bitcoins?
« Last post by Renegade on July 19, 2014, 10:11 AM »
Fun Fact:[/b] The post on alcoholic ginger ale I did in large part because it undermines the state. Alcohol is heavily taxed and regulated, and I wanted to put out a method by which people could get around the state and taxation. That post was purely for the sake of undermining the establishment/state. I blogged about it a while back here. But, you probably already figured that one out as it's pretty obvious.

Must have missed that bit of 'obvious' because homebrewing in the US is a legal non-issue. But thanks just the same. :)

On the federal level (and in most states) making your own wine has been completely legal since prohibition was repealed in 1933. Beer was inadvertently left out of the wording of the 21st amendment so there was some question about it in certain places up until 1978. However, home brewing was officially made legal in 1979 thanks to Jimmy Carter. Some states dragged their feet about reconciling their local laws with the federal rule, which unfortunately left homebrewing in a legal gray area in a few places. Primarily in the deep south (i.e. Mississippi and Alabama). But that changed in 2013 when those last two holdouts formally legalized home brewing. In theory production is restricted to an 200 gallons per household annually for personal consumption. But as long as you're not selling any of it, nobody pays that rule much attention.
 8)

I think you're mistaking my intention. My intention has nothing to do with the legality of homebrewing. It has only to do with "go and homebrew because when you do, you're not paying taxes to the state, and you are effectively defunding the state."

To be clear - I am advocating the withdrawl of any activity that you possibly can that benefits the state, e.g. by not buying booze that is taxed (which funds the state) and instead brewing your own.

I didn't want to say anything about the legality of it.

In the blog post... err... I'd better not quote that here. ;) :P

Besides, anyone can easily brew better beer at home than they'd get from the store. :D

But it's also practical. You save money.

Save money... get better beer... defund the state... what's not to love?  :-*

I think I need to talk to the guys at the brew store & see if they'll take Bitcoin! :D
1689
Relevant:



Also relevant:

http://plato.stanfor.../entries/heraclitus/

It is not possible to step twice into the same river according to Heraclitus, or to come into contact twice with a mortal being in the same state. (Plutarch)

People change. Just because someone said something last year doesn't mean that they hold the same belief now.

In fact, the best people do change their minds. They better themselves.

The collection of information like is happening now is... blah. Everyone knows what I'll rant about anyways. ;)
1690
Living Room / Re: Recommend some music videos to me!
« Last post by Renegade on July 19, 2014, 12:40 AM »
I tripped across this a few days ago and it's popping up everywhere.

Rob sent in a press release for it to Cop Block, and I think it spread from there.

NSFW - The video contains extreme, graphic violence. But it's a darn good tune! :)

Call the Cops - Rob Hustle ft. Liv

https://www.youtube..../watch?v=IlY9C6pzxKc

1691
Living Room / Re: Does anyone here use Bitcoins?
« Last post by Renegade on July 18, 2014, 10:19 PM »
Regulating Bitcoin means having a hand in the actual coding of it and writing code and then being able to convince everyone in the Bitcoin economy (or 51%) to accept your version of it.

Actually, this I will disagree with.  Effective regulation- yes.  But you can regulate without it being effective in and of itself- other than a yardstick for prosecution and persecution.

I'm not sure what you're saying. Do you mean that some state could say that, for example, no cryptocurrency may use anything other than encryption algorithm ABC, and that using a CC without that is punishable by XYZ? Then people would ignore that and they could then prosecute? A regulation like that would be absurd as it would try to target code with no teeth...

I can see that point.

But it's about as sane as setting regulations on what kind of light the sun should emit, then fining people for using sunlight that isn't compliant.

While it is "possible", I'm not sure how realistic/practical it is (absent a totalitarian world government). It would be far easier to simply regulate what people do with Bitcoin rather than try to regulate the unregulateable. At least that way the legislators don't look like total retards.

But, you never know... Spanish legislators have levied a tax on the sun. So, I think we can safely assume that there is no glass ceiling on the level of utter idiocy in government. Still... That kind of stuff is pretty extreme.
1692
Living Room / Re: Movies or films you've seen lately
« Last post by Renegade on July 18, 2014, 11:48 AM »
Saw #1 & #2, and now #3 is near ready!!



I'm really looking forward to this!
1693
Living Room / Re: Does anyone here use Bitcoins?
« Last post by Renegade on July 18, 2014, 11:39 AM »
Someone "forked" the NY regs on Github. ;)

https://github.com/o...tlicense-regulations
1694
Living Room / Re: Does anyone here use Bitcoins?
« Last post by Renegade on July 18, 2014, 11:35 AM »
The bureaucraps in NY may wish to have a peek at this:

https://www.youtube..../watch?v=YQscE3Xed64

Yeah... It's anti-anti-people. ;)
1695
Living Room / Re: Does anyone here use Bitcoins?
« Last post by Renegade on July 18, 2014, 11:27 AM »
Aaaaaaand...

Texans flip NY the finger:

http://www.movetoaustin.io/

15 Reasons For Bitcoin Startups To Move From New York To Austin

More at the link.

Like I said... NY is hanging itself.
1696
Living Room / Re: Does anyone here use Bitcoins?
« Last post by Renegade on July 18, 2014, 11:24 AM »
DELL!

https://twitter.com/...s/490162239983599616

Dell is now the world's largest ecommerce business to accept #bitcoin http://www.dell.com  http://fb.me/1d9ojMrZw

 :Thmbsup:
1697
Living Room / Re: Google, designing the font of the future
« Last post by Renegade on July 18, 2014, 11:21 AM »
There's one blog I like where the fellow used an unreadable font - it was just painful. He quickly replaced the font when I messaged him, and it's so much better... Fonts matter. A lot.

Many Chinese and Korean fonts are horrible when used for English (or any Roman alphabet language).

I probably won't download the font as I don't do any desktop publishing, but I may do it if I decide to release any more software.
1698
Living Room / Re: Does anyone here use Bitcoins?
« Last post by Renegade on July 18, 2014, 11:02 AM »
@40hz - I'm not denying that governments can do serious damage. Government is the single largest culprit of mass murder by far. There is NOTHING that government will not do to preserve itself. It is abominable, detestable, sick, perverse, and outright demonically evil.

I don't pretend to think that the murderous psychopaths in government won't sink to the torture, mutilation, and inhuman acts that they have historically done. Yes - it WILL happen here. But we can stop the tiny fraction of people that want to kidnap, imprison, or murder everyone.

For example:



That saves me a lot of typing. He's right.

However, the governments we have in the "West" at the moment aren't completely murderous yet. There is a slim window of opportunity right now before they go full retard.

As for NY, only the establishment gives a crap about it. Nobody in the world of normal human beings cares in the least.

And it's the establishment that we fight against. The same establishment that has funded and carried out the mass murder of 100's of millions of people in the 20th century alone.

http://www.hawaii.ed.../powerkills/20TH.HTM

I'm not exaggerating. The facts speak for themselves.

(The "religious wars" argument is nonsenese - I've posted elsewhere about that. The only religions that mass murder people are statheism and Islam [that's going to piss off people that haven't looked into history much - I don't care - just read up on some history or PM me for links that I won't post here].)

Please don't let your bitterness cloud your thinking so much as to think wishing it weren't so changes anything.

I don't wish. I do. Big difference. My money is where my mouth is. I buy bitcoins and I spend bitcoins. I support the Bitcoin economy. I put my spending power at every opportunity into undermining the establishment.

While I am limited in what I can do, I do everything possible to undermine the establishment. I do not buy mainstream brands like Heinz or Sun Foods. I don't buy food off the shelf - I buy fresh produce and fresh meat.

Fun Fact: The post on alcoholic ginger ale I did in large part because it undermines the state. Alcohol is heavily taxed and regulated, and I wanted to put out a method by which people could get around the state and taxation. That post was purely for the sake of undermining the establishment/state. I blogged about it a while back here. But, you probably already figured that one out as it's pretty obvious.


I've said before the way things seem to work is you can either say whatever you want to people - or get what you want from them. But you never get both.

Not when you bargain from a position of power. The vast majority of power is in the hands of the "people" and not in the hands of the establishment. I'll skip why that is because it's probably obvious enough.


Ver is playing right into the opposition's hands making toothless and naive comments like the one you quoted. Lovely of him to publicly make a statement to the effect that the real intent (and therefor threat) of Bitcoin is to undermine the rule of law and disrupt government worldwide. Thanks dude! You can be sure remarks like his will be quoted and figure prominently in the justifications given for tougher regulation or abolition.

You can regulate PEOPLE, but you cannot regulate Bitcoin.

Thought policing doesn't work.

I don't know what else I can say that I already haven't... but, let me sum it up:

Regulating Bitcoin means having a hand in the actual coding of it and writing code and then being able to convince everyone in the Bitcoin economy (or 51%) to accept your version of it.

Not. Gonna. Happen.

Unless you start the mass murders.

We're a few years away from that. There is time.

Again, perhaps I'm overly optimistic. But I do see hope, and I'll be goddamned if I'll piss that hope away given what is at stake here. Bitcoin is an opportunity, and one opportunity that I'll hop all over.

I actually do "get" your pessimism. I was that pessimistic before. I'm just not that pessimistic anymore.
1699
Shit ... I didn't have time to read or even see the article, so I just fired from the hip as the behavior wouldn't be out of either parties lack of character.

But that's what makes for some good comedy. Something that is just within the reaches of reality, but absurd.

Today, the world we live in is full of absurdities. The article is well within that boundary.

Sad.
1700
Living Room / Re: Does anyone here use Bitcoins?
« Last post by Renegade on July 18, 2014, 09:25 AM »
Leave it to the nannies in New York to sit the babies on their lap for a suck on their tit while their... I'll skip that as it gets overly obscene very quickly. I think you can imagine for yourselves.

New York isn't doing itself any favours. Nobody gives a rat's ass about New York. That state has a solid record of abusive legislation, and that trend isn't going to stop.

From the article:

New York State has released a first draft of its much-anticipated plan to regulate bitcoin and other virtual currencies

LIES!

Notice that they at no point try to regulate Bitcoin. Because Bitcoin cannot be regulated. The state of New York only has the power to abuse its own citizens (or people inside of its borders) and no power over the rest of us outside of New York.

Look at how cars are regulated. There are laws about seat belts and head lamps and all kinds of things that go into cars.

This does not happen in the software world.

Software cannot be regulated like that.

Reality doesn't work that way.

Trying to regulate software is nothing short of legislating "thought crimes" or banning free speech.

Has anyone ever heard of LAME?

LAME = Lame Ain't an MP3 Encoder

LAME has never been prosecuted because it is nothing but free speech. Period.

I don't understand why nobody every brings up LAME in this context. It just seems obvious to me. (And I'm finally bringing it up.)

Bitcoin is the same thing.

Nobody is going to try to say, "Line 27 of bitcoin.cpp must be amended to..." No. Politicians don't write code. If they did, oh god... that's a nightmare...

The kleptocrats with guns will sit there and watch what you do and bludgeon you to death if you DO anything they don't want you to do, but they won't step on free speech that easily, and they can't step on free speech everywhere. The world hasn't reached that level of totalitarianism yet. They're trying, but they're in for a fight.

Reddit thread where buddy announced that:

http://www.reddit.co..._nydfs_here_are_the/

Some good posts:

http://www.reddit.co...here_are_the/cizyqyz

http://www.reddit.co...here_are_the/cizzoyn

http://www.reddit.co...here_are_the/cj001u3

2x more comments than votes up.

New York is screwing itself.

From the article:

Roger Ver, a libertarian who and serial bitcoin business investor, believes that—if adopted— the rules will drive bitcoin businesses out of New York. “These men calling themselves government are not asking anybody to do anything. They are making demands, and will put us behind bars if we don’t obey,” he says. “Bitcoin was specifically designed to strip away power from men who would be so presumptuous to believe that they have the right to rule over others.”

Ver is bang on.

He did an interview with James Corbett of The Corbett Report for Boiling Frogs Post. Worth watching.



Interview starts at 2:07.

This isn't going to work out well for New York. The population there is insignificant compared to the rest of the world. Bitcoin businesses will move elsewhere to friendlier places.
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