beer

  • Are social media destroying the rest of the internet?

    That was one question discussed yesterday evening over a couple of pints of Cotswold Spring’s Stunner ale in Bristol’s Seven Stars pub with a couple of friends from the Easton Cowboys. More specifically, it the question could be rephrased as: are the likes of Facebook and Twitter pulling in so much traffic that they detract from everyone else’s content?

    Two of us run websites, so the matter is quite pertinent and can be broken down into a couple of simple aspects.

    Firstly, some people thank that if they just post on their organisation’s Facebook wall, everyone in that organisation will see it. They are, of course, mistaken. Some people avoid Facebook for privacy reasons, in addition to which Facebook’s APIs are so obscure, it’s difficult for an organisation’s webmaster to scrape content from Facebook and place it on the organisation’s website.

    Turning to Twitter, is the ubiquitous 140 character tweet replacing proper debate on blogs? We noted that if one blogs and tweets a link to the post, feedback is more likely these days to come via tweets than from actual comments on the blog. One of the great aspects of blogging is that comments on posts can encourage debate. This debate has now been reduced to soundbites of no more than 140 characters. However, the situation is more complicated than that. Whereas at one time, the ability to comment was restricted to blogs, the traditional media have now started to catch up, allowing comments on articles and thus have more interaction with their readers instead of just broadcasting at them.

    In answer to the question of whether social media are destroying the rest of the internet, only time will tell and the jury is still out. You can help the deliberations by commenting below.

    Finally, note that this discussion took place down the pub. Don’t forget that pubs, cafés and their cultural equivalents elsewhere in the world are the original social networking sites. 🙂

  • GBeers – open source and beer

    GNOME logo
    GNOME – enjoy with a beer!
    Phoronix reports that 2 of my favourite things – beer and open source – are being combined in GBeers (GNOME + Beers = GBeers), a world-wide initiative for GNOME meet-ups with lightning talk presentations taking place while drinking beer. Madrid in Spain recently hosted the very first GBeers event. Other GNOME users and developers are being encouraged by the GNOME project to arrange GBeers in their own towns and cities.

    The proposed format of GBeers events is one hour of lightning talks (with each talk lasting 5-10 minutes. Ed.) on unrestricted topics every month, with the talks possibly being recorded for internet distribution. A further possibility is for virtual GBeers through Skype or Google hang-outs.

    GBeers have so far been organised in Madrid, Las Palmas, A Coruña, Seville (all Spain), Chicago (USA) and Lima (Peru). Further information about this initiative can be found on the GNOME Live Wiki.

    Hat tip: Roy Schestowitz.

  • Of beards and beer

    I’ve had a beard for about and decade and drunk beer for many (over 4) decades longer.

    However, I had never expected to come across such a convergence of the two as has been achieved by Rogue Ales of Newport, Oregon, USA.

    Rogue has a reputation for seeking out new yeast strains for its brews in unusual places and one they found that was successful originated from a most unusual place: the beard of Rogue’s Brewmaster, John Maier.

    Nine beard follicles were carefully cut from John’s beard, placed in a petri dish and sent away for testing.

    Surprisingly the beard samples had a yeast strain that proved perfect for use in brewing. John’s beard has been growing continuously since 1978. The beard yeast is currently being used in test brews to determine the perfect style and yeast combination; the finished product will be released in early 2013.

    Rogue's Brewmaster John Maier
    Rogue’s Brewmaster John Maier

    This sterling work should definitely be brought to the attention of the Beard Liberation Front, the informal network of beard wearers, and their spokesman Keith Flett.

    The Beard Liberation Front is currently scrutinising candidates for Beard of Autumn 2012. I definitely think John Maier and Rogue Ales deserve a special commendation for services to pogonophilia.

    Hat tip: Julien Weston

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