My first can of Flying Dog Underdog Atlantic Lager

I’m not really a lager guy. I usually enjoy big, Hoppy ales. However, I do enjoy a nice cold brew, that’s lighter, to enjoy while watching or after participating in, sports events. I am a big fan of Flying Dog. I don’t always like everything they release but really appreciate their consistent quality. So, I was looking forward to the release of Flying Dog Underdog Atlantic Lager this Spring. I was really excited when they announced that it would be distributed in cans.

I used to be a bottled beer snob. I didn’t believe quality brew could be dispensed from a can. In fact, at work one day a couple of years ago, I reiterated this very sentiment to a co-worker. He challenged this view and suggested I look for Oskar Blues Dale’s Pale Ale. That evening, I realized the error in my initial judgement of beer packaged in aluminum. That’s also why I waited to write a review for Underdog.

I first tried Flying Dog’s new lager, when Laura picked up a six-pack of bottles about three weeks ago. I have also tried Underdog at the Roasthouse Pub in Frederick.

Underdog was pilsner like. It was light and very easy to drink. However, the lager had a bit of a Hop bite to it with a bitter finish. Unlike many lagers, Underdog had a faint citrus smell almost like an ale when poured from a bottle or tap, into a pint glass. Overall, Underdog Atlantic Lager was very refreshing. For me, it has paired well with pizza, steak, pasta, and sandwiches. Think, everyday food.

This is the perfect beer for Flying Dog to introduce as their first canned product.

This brew should easily replace any beer you enjoy with warm weather activities. So far, I have enjoyed sipping Underdog watching the Stanley Cup Playoffs, sitting on the patio for dinner, and an impromptu post-Frederick Keys Hockey Day celebration with some hockey teammates at the Roasthouse Pub in Frederick. I would love to sip on Underdog at a Frederick Keys baseball game, one day. I think it’s a perfect brew for sports venues.

This is the brew of this Summer, folks. I gave Underdog Atlantic Lager a 4 out of 5 on untappd.

Laura and I each purchased a 16GB iPhone 4S to replace a Blackberry Curve and HTC Droid Eris, respectively. I am currently using about 11GB of the 16GB available on my iPhone. The biggest use of storage on my iPhone is the 6.8GB of music I carry with me. For the most part, I am using my iPhone as a communication device. I primarily use social networking apps and email. I take a fair amount of photos with the more than adequate camera on the iPhone 4S but not enough to be of any significance. I also tend to remove the photos from the iPhone once I’m sure they have been synced with iCloud and I have imported the photos into our iPhoto library. My primary use for iCloud has been syncing reminders and backing up my iPhone. I was already a heavy Google Apps for Your Domain user from using the Droid for so long. It made more sense to me to keep my email, contacts, and calendars in my Google Apps account rather than migrating to iCloud.

Apple’s offerings are usually tightly controlled with not much room for customization in the interest of maintaining a consistent and predictable product quality. No matter what your opinion is of Apple or its products, you have to admit, their product management approach is effective. Apple offers three iPhone 4S models based on storage size; 16GB, 32GB, and 64GB. With each model and for any of their devices capable of running iOS 5 and compatible with iCloud, they offer 5GB of free cloud storage. iCloud storage can be upgraded by 10GB, 20GB, or 50GB for an annual fee.

Given Apple’s product and service lineup, I decided that I could base my analysis on the premise that most people are going to buy an iPhone through a wireless provider, on a 2-year service contract. So, the assumption is that the average user would pay for 2-years of iCloud service. Then I looked at the raw storage available to the iPhone user as they might purchase iCloud upgrades.

This table shows the raw storage available for each iPhone model for each iCloud upgrade.

This table shows the total cost for two years for each iPhone 4S model with each iCloud upgrade.

There are some interesting configurations and price points here if you only look at raw storage available. A 16GB iPhone with an 10GB iCloud upgrade can come close to the 32GB model in raw storage at 31GB available while beating the price of the 32GB model by $60. With a 20GB upgrade, a 16GB iPhone would have 41GB raw storage available while saving the user $20. In the most extreme case of a 16GB iPhone with a 50GB iCloud upgrade, the effective raw storage available would be 71GB and cost the user the same amount as a 64GB iPhone. There are similar comparisons for the 32GB model. The one that caught my eye was a 32GB iPhone with a 20GB iCloud upgrade which would beat the 64GB iPhone by 13GB and $20.

So, does it make sense to try to balance the on-board iPhone storage and iCloud service upgrades? While the numbers above look promising, they are based on raw storage. How data is stored in the iPhone and iCloud needs to be examined.

The on-board iPhone storage is used to store the iOS and various metadata and data repositories required for the operating system and apps to function. So, the user has to essentially give up that storage as a cost for running the device. Add on any photos and videos captured, games and apps themselves, and music to quickly use up more storage.

Most users will take advantage of the iCloud synchronization and backup capability to keep their iDevice universe consistent. This is the intent of the service as deployed by Apple. Once syncing and backup features for things like contacts, email, reminders, photos, and apps are enabled, iCloud storage is quickly used. A user could disable all but the music and photo syncing and then manage the data locally stored on their device. The problem with that solution, besides the manual management of data, is iCloud doesn’t really extend the storage available. It simply provides a central place for iCloud enabled devices to copy data to and from. For me, a 16GB iPhone user, that’s not an elegant enough solution to justify an iCloud upgrade. An upgrade would make more sense if the iCloud was deployed as a cloud-based file system rather than a service that pushes or pulls data stored on one device to another.

My advice is, look at the available iPhone models and choose the one that fits your general smartphone use. If you are primarily using it to communicate amongst various services like social networks and email, 16GB is probably all you will ever need. If you are a multimedia user listening to and creating music, watching or making movies, and taking hundreds of photos, you might want to think about a 32GB or 64GB model iPhone. iCloud is a great service for keeping multiple Apple devices in sync and backed up. The iCloud upgrades are lined up to provide just that; a syncing and backup service for each model.

Sumpin’ Sumpin’ Ale is best described as a smooth, grapefruit Hop ale that has a hidden wheat and malt flavor to start. It was not overly aromatic and poured smooth with very little foam in one of my steins and a pint glass. Sumpin’ Sumpin’ Ale started with a strong grapefruit flavor and finished with a dry aftertaste. The malt wheat and the Hop fruit notes were surprisingly sweet and made the taste and feel of this brew almost tropical. Since the brew is so smooth and tasty, it hid it’s 7.5% ABV very well. I would advise being careful with this sneaky brew.

For those who enjoy good IPAs or wheat beers, the Sumpin’ Sumpin’ Ale is probably a good balance of the two flavors. The brew definitely has the heavier feel of the wheat but contains many of the characteristics of a Hop-laden IPA. I gave Lagunitas Sumpin’ Sumpin’ Ale a 4 on untappd. It’s definitely a beer to pick up if it’s available.

Do not be fooled. This is not a heady, black IPA like 21st Amendment’s Back in Black that pours a dark brown. Black Iron IPA was named for the railroads that helped transform the West. It poured as a standard IPA with a somewhat dark copper color and some foam in one of my pint glasses. There is some Hop aroma there but it’s overshadowed by malt.

For an IPA, it was very smooth. Almost too smooth. Folks that are looking for a “starter IPA” would probably enjoy Black Iron. On Grand Canyon Brewing’s site they describe the brew as, “a lot of English Pale malt. Amarillo and Centennial hops are packed into our hopback during transfer to our fermenter to add a smooth hoppy flavor.”

As a smooth IPA, it paired well with the impromptu, veggie pasta dinner we had. Neither side overpowered the other. I gave Black Iron IPA a 3 on untappd. By no means a bad beer but I like more Hop bite in IPAs.

Laura picks many of the beers that I try based on the label or name. Obviously, Hop Stoopid is a pretty humorous name for a beer. On the label, the Lagunitas description of the beer mentions something about hop extract being used and how that’s only reserved for the failing big 3 thus, it’s not wise to use. Hence, “stoopid”.

Despite the name, this IPA was no joke. I’m a Hop fiend and this brew did not disappoint. It poured smooth with very little foam in my Caps stein. The fruity, floral Hop aroma was very pleasant. The large hop flavor was well-balanced with a rich Malt. On untappd, I commented that Hop Stoopid was, “Spicy and boozy.” Coming in at close to 8% ABV, it started with a Hoppy bite and finished with that warm, whiskey feeling.

Hop Stoopid paired well with the pre-NHL hockey watching meal of steamed shrimp, last night. Laura picked up some Creole cocktail sauce to go with the shrimp. The sauce claimed to be “bold and spicy” on its label. I think the Hop Stoopid completely overpowered any boldness the cocktail sauce might have had. Nonetheless, Hop Stoopid complemented the Old Bay on the shrimp. This combination will be filed away for Summer consumption.

As a hockey watching brew, Hop Stoopid was very smooth and a great brew to sip during breaks in the action. I got two steins worth of drinking out of the 22oz bottle. I had the second fill while flipping between the second periods of Hockey Night in Canada and the Capitals game.

Overall, I gave Lagunitas Hop Stoopid a 4 out of 5 on untappd. Since it comes in the 22oz bottle, it’s a dinner and activity like sports watching, brew. I definitely recommend it to my fellow Hop lovers.

My LaserJet 4 working on my iPhone

Objective

Share our HP LaserJet 4 with our iPads and iPhones.

Notes

If you’re using iOS devices for any type of business you’ll probably have to print a document or two eventually. Unfortunately, in order to do so via conventional means, you’ll have to buy a new printer that is AirPrint-ready or $20 software.

Today, while reading arstechnica.com I came across some news from CES that Lantronix was producing an AirPrint print server to make any networked printer AirPrint-ready. It’s going to cost $149. That prompted me to share my method for making our perfectly good, networked LaserJet 4, AirPrint-ready.

You’ll need a Mac. I’m still running OS 10.6.8 on my Mac Mini. You also need to share your networked printer from your Mac.

• Create a bash script with the command to create a new Bonjour service that supports AirPrint: /somewhere/airprint-hack.sh

#!/bin/bash
dns-sd -R "airprint LaserJet 4 @ mini" _ipp._tcp.,_universal . 631 txtvers=1 qtotal=1 rp=printers/LaserJet_4 ty="HP LaserJet 4 - Gutenprint v5.2.3" note="Office" printer-state=3 printer-type=0x1016 Transparent=T Binary=T Fax=F Color=F Duplex=T Staple=F Copies=F Collate=F Punch=F pdl=application/pdf URF=none

• Create a new plist file that executes the script at startup: /Library/LaunchDaemons/local.mini.airprint-hack.plist

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple Computer//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">
<plist version="1.0">
<dict>
        <key>Label</key>
        <string>local.mini.airprint-hack</string>
        <key>ProgramArguments</key>
        <array>
                <string>/Library/LaunchDaemons/airprint-hack.sh</string>
        </array>
        <key>LowPriorityIO</key>
        <true/>
        <key>Nice</key>
        <integer>1</integer>
        <key>UserName</key>
        <string>root</string>
        <key>RunAtLoad</key>
        <true/>
        <key>Keeplive</key>
        <true/>
</dict>
</plist>

• Load the plist into launchd

 sudo launchctl load /Library/LaunchDaemons/local.mini.airprint-hack.plist

• It should load dynamically but I restarted to test that the printer was available via AirPrint at startup.

Hints

• I used Bonjour Browser to figure out what the Bonjour service for my shared LaserJet 4 looks like. Then, created the dns-sd command to insert into the bash script based on the Bonjour Browser output.
• Using this method, you’ll end up with two Bonjour services for the same printer. I’m not sure what the impact is since I only have the one Mac.