understructure

We were doing a ton of stuff to a named instance of SQL Server at my office yesterday, our QA SQL server to be exact, which sits on the same hardware as our development server. We didn't really do anything to our development (default) instance, other than reboot both nodes of the cluster about six times. Granted, this is going to cause some issues with connectivity, but as there are only two other developers, we were able to keep busy with other projects during the multiple failovers. For some crazy reason, after I left last night, one of my developers couldn't connect to SQL Server anymore. I put a screenshot up from an application she's developing that connects Access 2007 to SQL 2005 (don't worry, this is a very small application connecting to a database with a very small user base). I tried running NET TIME on her machine and on the node of the cluster that had ownership of SQL, but that didn't work. I couldn't imagine that the time was different between...

Here's a video I made of the homebrew today. Enjoy!

So when I went to get the cherries for my Black Cherry Ale, I noticed that they were a little more per pound than I'd expected. I also noticed that there weren't as many pristine pounds as I'd hoped. Some were a bit wrinkly, some looked a little beyond prime, and some had mold growing on them. Yuck. So I headed to the Ballast Point Brewery's home brew store , and stood in line. After only a few minutes, one of the guys behind the counter recognized me as a brewer, and not just an avid fan of micro brews, and pulled me out of line. I explained my plight, and that I was looking to totally change my beer plan. He pointed me towards some cherry puree, and I figured I'd go ahead as planned. They were out of the UK Progress hops, so we went with Bramlings Cross hops, a similar type of hop in that they're from the UK and have a relatively low alpha acid rating (6% i think for this batch). Also, the guy who gave me the recipe for my light German ale that everyone...

I've been brewing my own beer on and off for over 15 years now. I took a break after my friend Jeff moved to Japan and I replaced homebrewing with marathon training as my main hobby. At this point, I'd had a hand in brewing about 12 different types of beer. This was my favorite. This is a recipe for a beer I did towards the middle of my original stint as an avid homebrewer. I've just brewed my first batch in many, many years, and it turned out very well. But now, it's time to go back to a classic. This stood out back then as the best beer I'd ever made. I'm excited to see how it will turn out this time. Name of Beer : Black Cherry Ale Original Date of Brewing : 1995-06-17 Volume of Beer : 5 gallons Ingredients 8 lbs pale malt syrup 2 oz. u.k. progress hops (5.9 aa) 4 lbs black (Bing) cherries 2.3 ml readily pitchable California Ale Yeast Details Boiled water, added malt, added malt, added 1 1/2 oz. U.K. Progress Hops after returning mixture to boil Nothing...

I finally tried out Google Desktop, including Google Sidebar, on my laptop running Vista. I really love it, especially the fact that I can tell it to Big Brother me and tailor content based on my Web surfing (and program use, possibly). The one pain I found is that, even though FireFox is my default browser, it always launches links in IE. Apparently, it's a known issue and Google's planning to fix it in the next release. http://groups.google.com/group/Google-Desktop_How-do-I/browse_thread/thread/96ff7be4fa9f38e6/b4ff327f534b047e

This is a basic ColdFusion tutorial on how to loop over a list. It's pretty simple once you get the gist of it, but getting started can be tricky. Another reference can be found at Adobe LiveDocs . Basically, there are five steps: Define the list Create a CFOUTPUT block Create a CFLOOP block inside the CFOUTPUT block Do something in the loop block Show the results This tutorial will show you step-by-step what to do. 1. Define the list To loop over a list, you must first have a list to loop over. A list is a combination of different or same-typed values. Usually, lists are separated with commas, but you can use anything to separate lists. I usually use a bell character, but the default is a comma. NOTE: Make sure that you do not have any spaces between your list elements. <cfset radioList = "one,two,three" /> 2. Create a CFOUTPUT block A CFOUTPUT block consists of an open and a close CFOUTPUT tag. This tells the server to interpret anything between those two...

So here I am in San Francisco, right on the water at Fort Mason for one of the "top geek events" in the U.S. (as proclaimed by Wired magazine).  Let me tell you, if you've never had a cocktail mixed by a robot, you haven't lived. Last night, some dudes brought in a serious robot - a biotech machine - that allowed them to make perfectly-layered B-52 shots.  Each layer was measured out in picalitres. Today, Roboexotica's Cockbot 1 is mixing and serving daquiris, Campari/oranges, and screwdrivers. This is actually Cockbot 1. I can't wait for tonight, when a flamethrowing 151 and Kahlua bot will be shooting a yard's worth of fire to ignite highly-flammible liquor. Stay tuned...