I wish I had a real camera. Like a Canon Rebel or something. My Sony Point and Shoot just can’t do what I want it to do. Although I’ve been getting some decent shots. I need to hustle more to afford a $500-$600 camera.
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Homebrew Success!
Posted by – February 19, 2010
Just a quick update to the homebrew beer project: it was a success!
I cracked one open after a week and it tastes very delicious.
I won’t be brewing anymore until after I get back from Atlanta/Las Vegas trip in March. Gives me a little bit of time to see what I want to brew next.
Time To Bottle!
Posted by – February 6, 2010
It’s now February 5th and time to check the beer again. If I get the same hydrometer reading as last time, it means it’s done fermenting and it’s time to bottle it. Let’s find out.
And it is. So now we bottle the 5 gallons tomorrow!
February 6: It took me quite a while to bottle all my 5 gallons of beer, and it gave me a tired back from sitting on the floor doing it. But here’s my results:
52 bottles of homebrew beer!
They have to sit in the dark and carbonate for 2-4 weeks. I’ll be trying one at two weeks and see how they are.
Homebrewing Continued
Posted by – February 3, 2010
It’s been 10 days since I’ve started the beer in the fermenter, so I decided to take a hydrometer reading. The purpose at this stage of the brewing process is to determine if fermentation has stopped. If it has, then you can proceed to prime the beer an bottle it for another two to three weeks. Primary fermenting is normally between two to three weeks as well, and at the end when it’s done fermenting (or you think it is) take two readings twp to three days apart to make sure it is done. If it isn’t done fermenting, there’s a good chance you’ll have some bottles of beer explode. The beer shouldn’t be bottled until the hydrometer reads below 1.006 or, again, your bottles might burst.
I started this beer with a starting gravity of 1.080 which has a potential alcohol yield of 10.8%.
Here is my hydrometer reading now: (clicking the pic enlarges it)
This reads 1.006. It’s only been fermenting for 10 days, so I think I’ll give it a few more days to see if it’ll get below 1.006 to be on the safe side. Then bottling time!
Edit: I forgot to mention, with the current reading, the estimated alcohol content is about 10.4%
FreeForexSMS.com For Sale
Posted by – February 3, 2010
It’s a service that sends an SMS with forex rates to your phone. I don’t have time to finish development. However, it works right now only with EUR/USD. All made in php. Grabs forex data from a free source. Uses a cron job to send the daily sms. I was gonna have a few more abilities, like choosing which pairs you want to send and at what time.
Homebrewing
Posted by – January 25, 2010
I finally got around to brewing my own beer. I picked up a kit last week and got around to making it this past weekend. Here are some pics.
Steeping the grains
Pouring the hops in
Primary fermenting
It has to sit in the primary fermenter for about 2-3 weeks, at which point I then bottle the beer and allow it to carbonate/ferment for another 2-3 weeks. Then we drink it!
The beer I am making is a Trappist type beer, if you’re unsure what that here, here is a wikipedia link: Trappist beer
Edit: Here’s a pic of all the equipment I received to begin with and ingredients, before brewing.
Here is a pic of all the bottles I bought. It takes about 55 12oz bottles for 5 gallons of beer. I ordered theee cases of 24 bottles (which is a total of 72 bottles).
Mind Performance Hacks
Posted by – January 22, 2010
I got a new book recently and I’m currently reading it but I thought I’d share it. Mind Performance Hacks. If you’re familiar with the O’reilly hacks books, you’ll know the format. It’s laid out in separate hacks you can do. 
I really wish I had this book in uni. It would have helped tons.
The main sections are:
- Memory
- Information Processing
- Creativity
- Math
- Decision Making
- Communication
- Clarity
- Mental Fitness
I’ve only read some of the memory section and I’m working on the information processing section right now. Not a small book (308 pages, with small typeset), it’s packed with awesome things you can do to speed up your time.
I would definitely suggest checking this book out if you’re in school (be it high school, uni, whatever), you want to speed up your thinking process, or just want to improve your memory.
