Beer Beer Beer Beer... Chain?

In the past few weeks I have had the lovely opportunity to visit some beer spots around our city of Corvallis, Oregon. We do have quite a bit of a selection around here and that's what I like. Choice! Lots and lots of choice. We also have an event called Corvallis Beer Week. This event is where lots of craft breweries from areas all around Corvallis get to show off by joining up with hot spots to show off their best beer. From tasting rooms to full restaurants. Sometimes there are tap takeovers and sometimes just one or two taps. Local community breweries are showcased.

Now something that chain restaurants are usually reputed for are mixed drinks. Not so much for their choice of beer. One of my stops for Corvallis Beer Week really impressed me though! Buffalo Wild Wings.

What goes better with chicken wings than beer right? I specifically chose Buffalo Wild Wings because they have a reputation for friendly service, good chicken, and a progressive attitude. I really wanted to see if the reputation was deserved. Well I certainly agree with the friendly service. The bartender Sarah O. and my waitress Sarah both made me feel very welcome with friendly smiles and great service. This should be the hallmark of a good chain restaurant and Buffalo Wild Wings seems to hit the nail on the head. The chicken was pretty good too!

But what about the beer? On rather short notice, (only a few weeks) Buffalo Wild Wings had managed to get Hop Valley a tap onboard the rather packed list that included New Belgium, Pyramid, Widmer, and Boneyard just to name a few. The classic large commercial beers were there too, but I am happy to say that craft beers were well represented. It can be really tough to get a tap into a chain restaurant and Buffalo Wild Wings reputation for a progressive attitude here seemed to be deserved as well. 

Brandon from Hop Valley was a great representative for the company. He was thoroughly knowledgeable about all Hop Valley beers and ingredients that go in them. It was incredibly pleasant to talk to someone about the beer process and differences in each brew. 

Brandon was handing out some pretty interesting swag that included T-shirts, glasses, hats, and beer koozies. I have to say I really love Hop Valley's design work. Their logo is beautiful. 

And of course, the beer. This is Citrus Mistress. I noted in my beer app Untappd that Citrus Mistress had "Lots of citrus, lots of hops, fat bitter through the middle, nice for wings!"

Since I didn't have a whole lot of room, what I wanted to say but couldn't was that this beer can quench mighty fire without ruining the tanginess of the buffalo sauce. At 6.5% ABV this is great for drinking several glasses with a full meal. The citrus complements buffalo sauce for sure!

If the trend of opening up more taps to craft beer continues in chain restaurants then I am sure more craft beer lovers will be willing to stop at places like Buffalo Wild Wings. This really gives me hope. More people should be able to enjoy craft beers even if they do not have a craft brewery close by. I encourage more chain owners and managers to look into making their establishments more welcoming for craft beer lovers!

My thanks to Craft Beer Nation on Google Plus. Lots of podcasts and craft beer info that goes on and on and on! If you want to know more about craft beer and connect with other beer lovers, the Craft Beer Nation Community is available.

And now for something completely unexpected. The Unit Circle

The Unit Circle
The first time you look at this fat..hodgepodge of unrelenting chaos, all you can think is “My god, numbers EVERYWHERE, I'm supposed to remember THIS?”

Well, if you're using Trigonometry, it helps. It really does, please believe me.
Today I want to explain something about the Unit Circle. For all you types who have seizures at the thought of doing high school math, it may not be your cup of tea, but for even a small portion of us, it will become invaluable and maybe even a liiiiiittle interesting. When you want to know how tall something is for instance... or how many stones you will have to buy for that brand new ^%^%ing path from the house to the gate that you have to put in yourself because the estimates from the "pros" would have put your retirement at 103.

I will explain only one part of the Unit Circle. It's called the First Quadrant. I will restrict my explanation to only the angles, not the values that they are associated with.
Plain and simple, the Unit Circle has degrees and radians that are the angles you see inside a triangle. Each quarter of the circle is called a Quadrant. In each quadrant there are points that have both a degree, and a radian. Don't be intimidated by the name "radian" it just means that it has a pi symbol.
The circumference of a circle is 2 times pi, times r. The Unit circle always has a radius (from the middle of the circle to anywhere on the outer edge) of 1. This means the circumference of the whole Unit Circle is 2pi. The very first point we put on the circle is 0. It always starts at the right of the circle, and is the beginning of Quadrant I. The end of Quadrant one is the 90 degree angle right at the top of the circle.
Trigonometry tells us the story of the sides and the angles of triangles. So to get the points of Quadrant 1, we look at two "special triangles." The first is called a 45-45-90 triangle 

 and the second is a 30-60-90 triangle.

 These are both right triangles in which we place one 90 degree angle, and that makes the points that describe the angles on the Unit circle. One 30 degree point right after 0, one 45 degree point in the middle, one 60 degree point, and of course 90 degrees at the end of our first quadrant.

Now we have all the degrees we need. So what else do we need? Well, degrees, believe it or not, are not very accurate. Yes yes, I hear you yelling now "But ships and planes and stuff use them!" Yes, and they do a very fine job. But can you imagine trying to measure the tip of your pencil with a yardstick? This is what it is like for those who are using Trigonometry with sciences in which they need smaller numbers, finer, more exacting detail. Degrees sometimes just won't cut the mustard. So we have Radians. Radians is like using a fine tip sharpie to paint that moustache on Amerigo Vespucci's butt in your textbook, instead of that massive, thick nubbed pen which makes it look like he's...well..incontinent. con..ti..nent....get it? oh never mind.

At any rate, here we are. We know all our degrees, how do we get our radians? Well. We know that the entire circumference of a circle is 2pi. Try cutting that in half. Go ahead. Good!! it's pi. This is half a circle. 
Now, to get to the end of the first quadrant, or a quarter of the Unit circle cut pi in half.. ah yes, pi/2. This equals 90 degrees.

Well, we have two points already. We nearly have the whole thing solved. This may become...a little...tricky.
Cut pi in half again. Don't be shy. Just divide pi/2 by 2. Remember that when you divide a fraction by a number, you can get the answer by multiplying that fraction by the reciprocal of the the other number!

Did you get pi/4? So did I!! Guess what, that equals 45 degrees.

So what now? we have two angles left. How do we get 30 degrees? Well there are 3 points separating 90 degrees or pi/2 from 30 degrees just as there are two points separating 90 degrees from 45 degrees. So lets divide pi/2 by 3.
pi/2 divided by 3 = pi/6. Good job!

We have only one more radian to go to get all the degrees and all the radians on this quadrant of the unit circle. Stick with me, it's a brain teaser.
There is a difference of 30 degrees between 0 and 30, and 15 degrees between 30 to 45, then 15 degrees between 45 to 60. So if we add 30 degrees and 30 degrees, we come up with 60 degrees. Since we already know that 30 degrees equals pi/6, we should be able to add pi/6 to itself, and we will get....pi/3. When you go "but wait...I got 2pi/6!" Remember that 2pi/6 is a fraction and we must reduce. 2 goes into 6 a whole 3 times giving us pi/3.

Now you know the radians and the degrees for the first quadrant. By remembering the changes in the first quadrant of the unit circle, you can figure out every quadrant there after by adding multiples of pi/6, pi/4, and pi/3. But just in case you get stuck with radians, here is a tip. After you figure out all your degrees for each quadrant, you can change those degrees to radians, by simply multiplying the degree by pi/180. for instance,  Multiply 30 degrees times pi/180 degrees. The degrees cancel, 60 goes into 160 six times, and you are left with...

You can do this for any degree on the Unit circle and it will work. But do try to add multiples of pi/3, pi/4, and pi/6. Learn to see the patterns that occur between the fractions, and you will also reinforce your basic math skills. 
By the way ... you won't buy enough stone for the path to the gate. You'll go back twice before you do, then it will rain, making work impossible for two weeks. You'll stare broodily out the window wondering how the gods could hate you so much. You should probably quit your job and become a writer with all those violent thoughts. Make a million bucks.

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The Proposition of Open-source?

Linda M. Horne

May 9 2013

The Proposition of Open-source?

The question of ownership of information is not a new concept. With technology in a make-or-break world there are a variety of reasons that answer the question, "Why would an entity, either public or private, choose to change to open-source software?" Let's begin with what open-source software is (Beal). Open-source software is information which has its base programming available for others to see and use. Licensing is also a part of open-source software. The person who own the software may allow others to modify the code for their own use or even allow them to modify it and then sell it on as long as they allow others to see the code as well. By offering the basic programming, or source code, the owner hopes that the people who collaborate will make the program stronger, more reliable, and more available. The point is not usually financial gain, though as further on we will see financial gain can be a potential side benefit. An open-source program can be cheaper and more reliable than its proprietary counterpart in which only people involved in the ownership of the program are allowed to see and interact with the code.

Economic

In 2003 the city of Munich, Germany decided on a migration of at least 13,000 computers from Windows NT and Microsoft Office to the operating system Ubuntu and Open Office for its processing software. Munich's motivation was economic in nature (Heath). In 2012 they released figures that demonstrated they would save over 10 million Euros in the move. Why the savings? For a business to use the Microsoft operating system, they must pay licensing fees. It's like paying for your own copy of Windows, but the fees are higher, and occur yearly. The fees may include charges for customer support or referral services for migration of native applications that run on the computer. Most applications that the city of Munich uses are web based, meaning they run just fine in a browser and so did not have the usual charges for attempting to get the programs for the Linux based Ubuntu.

Most people now will notice that Microsoft no longer supplies Office at a set boxed rate. They only offer their products online at the Microsoft office site (Office). Now you must pay either a full priced box rate per computer, or pay a per month charge for a premium price. There are no longer student discounts, the home computer price for the software is the same as the student rate. Office applications can be purchased separately, but only for one computer at a time. These were some of the problems Munich had to consider when searching for cheaper software.

Time and Security

Some private individuals such as Scott Rowed decided that security was a big enough issue that switching to an open-source operating system made sense (Laden). After finding large amounts of spam on his computer, Scott attempted to remove it and found it was impossible to find it all. He reformatted the drive and attempted to reinstall Windows. It took him two days for the entire procedure. He decided to divide his computer in half, and then install Ubuntu on one side and Windows XP on the other. He rapidly found out that Ubuntu was far more secure, requiring a password to install anything at all, and all his peripherals (printer, scanner, MP3 player, digital cameras) worked just fine. The open source operating system also took far less time to install and configure than Windows did. Installing Ubuntu took less than half an hour.

Open-source software is not just limited to operating systems and word processing. Sourceforge.net contains a repository of thousands of software items available for download. Business, AV (Audio/Video), communication, Education, Games, Science, Security utilities, and Administration software is included. Bugs can be tracked and commentary or even software fixes can be submitted through the site. So with all these difficulties with proprietary software, why NOT go open-source?

In watching the newest Linux operating system Ubuntu 13.04 come out, many people complain of problems that are just not instantly or easily fixable. Chrome, the browser by Google is one that is required for some educational programs. In the new Ubuntu operating system, the old Chrome doesn't work. There are missing libraries that contain information that Chrome needs. This requires the user to go find these missing libraries. If a user is not a computer jockey, this may seem nigh impossible. A proprietary software company can usually spend more money on a customer service center where easily accessible representatives are available. An Open-source software provider may or may not have that ability. Fortuitously, the Linux community is an experienced one in terms of interaction and problem solving. For users who are overwhelmed, there are many boards, blogs, and social media outlets that are willing and quite able to provide common-sense solutions to tricky problems.

Hardware is another consideration. Proprietary hardware does not always play "nice" with open-source software leading to more confusion. The drivers for some graphics cards may not work correctly. Open-source drivers may or may not work with proprietary hardware. In order to prevent alternate operating systems from being installed in competition with Windows, Microsoft created the UEFI secure boot sector called UEFI Secure Boot, in which open-source operating systems have enormous difficulties attempting to install (Tung). Open-source hardware manufacturers are required to get permission from Microsoft in order to turn secure boot off. Permission may be revoked at any time. This leads to another reason some entities choose to go open-source.

Politics

There are certain entities that take open-source very seriously. The open-source initiative (OSI) at http://opensource.org/osd provides a community with directives that each of its members agrees to. The people who are a part of this community utilize open-source not just because of economic or technical reasons, but because they believe it is the right thing to do according to their values. They believe that, "The promise of open source is better quality, higher reliability, more flexibility, lower cost, and an end to predatory vendor lock-in." (Such as UEFI Secure Boot)

In 2005 Dana Blankenhorn, a professional business journalist, remarked that the key to open-source is transparency. That the key advantage to open-source [software] is that you can see the code. It doesn't mean no regulation, it means you can tell that regulation is being followed and the process becomes "fair." (Blankenhorn) A good example of this is a mathematician who was an assistant professor at Harvard also noted that transparency was an issue for his profession. William Stein says that the proprietary software tools available didn't allow mathematicians to see how a computer calculation was performed, so in collaboration with the University of Washington he decided to create his own open-source tool. Sage is not just more affordable, it is collaborative and transparent so that programmers can make a more reliable program that does the math correctly (ScienceDaily).

Side Benefits

While the direct purpose of open-source software is not financial, Canonical, the backer of the Linux based operating system Ubuntu has discovered that a side benefit of their operating system is that there are people willing to put money into it for a good product resulting from open-source software. Recognizing that HTML5 is open source, Canonical began developing an operating system that would go mobile for phones and tablets.

Phonedog.com, a major reviewer of phones acknowledges that Android has a spot that an Ubuntu phone could fill. While most Android code is open, not all of it is consistently available. This makes for a frustrating time for developers and an opportunity for Canonical to actually make an impact with a mobile system people will be willing to pay for (Bonar).

As Canonical and other open-source software developers become more major players in the technological arena it is conceivable to think that a significant amount of consumers will continue to become more interested in open-source projects. Why? Because the issues that proprietary software originally brought to the consumer have now become detrimental problems. These can only be addressed by the affordability, reliability, security, and transparency that open-source provides.

Works Cited

Bean, Vanie. "What is Open Source Software?". Webopedia. N.p. Sep. 26 2008. Web. May 6 2013.

Blankenhorn, Dana. "Open Source Transparency." Moores Lore. Corante. Apr. 19 2005. Web. May 6 2013.

Bonar, Chase. "Hey Canonical: I just tested Ubuntu for phones and I'm sold." PhoneDog. PhoneDog LLC. Feb. 24 2013. Web. May 6 2013.

"Free Software Brings Affordability, Transparency to Mathematics." Science Daily. ScienceDaily LLC. Dec. 7 2007. Web. May 6 2013.

Heath, Nick. "No Microsoft, open source software really is cheaper, insists Munich." ZDNet. CBS. Feb. 7 2013. Web. May 6 2013.

Laden, Greg. "Switching to Linux: One man's personal experience." Science Blogs. National Geographic. Dec. 22 2011. Web. May 6 2013

Office. Microsoft Corporation., n.d. Web. May 6 2013. <http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/buy/ >

Tung, Liam. "Microsoft Windows 8 UEFI Secure Boot complaint: The case for and against." ZDNet. CBS. Mar. 28 2013. Web. May 6 2013.