2007 September 14 archive at RunawayJim.org

Tonight’s tasting at Nikki’s was a bunch of Belgian ales. Let’s see if I can remember which ones they were… It started with Saxo Beglian strong pale ale, then there was the whole St. Bernardus lineup (Wit, Prior 8 Dubbel, Tripel, and Abt 12 Quadrupel), the Val-Dieu Tripel, Vichtenaar Flanders red ale, Echte Kriekenbier (same as before, but with cherries), Oud Beersel Framboise Lambic, and then Belzebuth Belgian strong pale ale.

Of all of those, I had tried the Abt 12 and Prior 8 before. I had really liked the Abt 12 and wasn’t overly crazy about the Prior 8. The Vichtenaar was my favorite of the night. I think I like the different flavor of it without the maltiness. It had a slight sweet but tart taste to it that was very pleasing to me. Unfortunately, I didn’t have a whole lot of money, and was unable to buy that one tonight. My lease favorite was the Belzebuth (at 13% ABV, it was a bit overpowering for my taste). The others I’ll rate in order of favorite to least favorite - Echt Kriekenbier, Oud Beersel Framboise, St. Bernardus Abt 12, Val-Dieu Tripel, St. Bernardus Tripel, Prior 8. I’m still getting used to Belgian beers, but my tastes are evolving. However, I am still a big fan of good old American IPA’s. Once we have a decent second income and more money, I think I’ll be buying a lot more bigger beers and will definitely start exploring the Belgians.

I purchased a bunch of pumpkin ales and Oktoberfests tonight while I was there. I’ll write about my experiences with those over the course of the week. After I got back, we went to Trinity for dinner and I had their Hefe Weissen and Susan got their Oktoberfest. I wasn’t crazy about their hefe, but the Oktoberfest was better than it was on Tuesday when I was there (when I also got their Imperial IPA, which is a really good double IPA).

Anyway, if you want to try something different, but really good, I strongly recommend trying the Vichtenaar Flanders Red Ale. At a little over $4 per bottle from Nikki’s, it’s not a beer I can buy all the time right now, but it’d definitely be worth it.

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Apple has decided that the new iPods will not work with any media applications other than iTunes. What does this mean? Ultimately, it means that third party applications that might be better (and are likely better) than iTunes will not work with the new iPods that Apple recently announced. A natural side effect of this is that users of operating systems (such as Linux) other than Windows and MacOS X will not be able to use the new iPods as Apple only makes iTunes for Windows and MacOS X.

This is yet another move by Apple to keep their stuff locked into themselves. They try to be all about open source software, but this move locks Linux users out of using the new iPods. Apple started with their operating system that can only be installed on Apple hardware, even though the hardware is the same as any other PC. While there are projects like OSx86, they certainly are not approved or endorsed by Apple and the legality of them is questionable. Apple then moved onto their Fairplay DRM, forcing songs bought at the iTunes Music Store to be played only in iTunes or on an iPod. Now Apple is forcing iPod owners to only sync their media players with iTunes. Apple is slowly proving that they no longer “Think Different” and are no different than other big corporations (Microsoft, for example, as Apple is always touted as the anti-MS). I really think Apple would do themselves a favor if they were to spin off their gadget divisions into a new company and go back to concentrating on computers. I also think they would be doing themselves a huge favor if they were to release MacOS X for all computers as a competitor to Windows. However, they like their proprietary format. Some say it keeps them from having problems with drivers and the like, but I say it’ll help make their products better if they were more open and there were more eyes on the stuff (they might even be able to better cut into the Windows market share).

It might seem like I am an Apple-hater. That is anything but the truth. I just see them for what they are… a big corporation that doesn’t really care about their consumers as much as their die-hard fans like to think they do. I imagine this will be reverse engineered at some point, but even that will be legally questionable under the DMCA.

Discussion at Slashdot

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