Noah's Blog

A while ago, I found out about an interesting site called Huffduffer It basically allows you to create a custom podcast feed based on single audio clips/episodes you find around the web. In short, you can tag single podcast episodes from shows you normally do not subscribe to in a feed-at least that is how I use it.

You can add a bookmarlet to your bookmarks tool bar and when you are on a page with a podcast episode or any audio clip link you can click the bookmarklet and it will add that audio file to your huffduffer feed. You can also make your account public (like I did) so that others can enjoy/subscribe to your huffduffer account. I’ve linked to my feed below in case you’re curious. In any event, I highly encourage you to check them out since it offers a great way to easily get audio files downloaded to my phone from sites/podcasts I wouldn’t normally subscribe to on a regular basis.

My Huffduffer Page

I’ve decided to add a series of whiskey reviews to my blog. Once I add the ability to sort by category, it might be a bit easier to navigate the reviews only. But for now, I present to you my review.

This is not the first whiskey or scotch I’ve had by any means, but it is my first “formal” review. As will be tradition with my whiskey reviews, this was drunk neat, with a sip of iced water between sips.

The Balvenie Doublewood: Aged 12 years. Speyside Single Malt Scotch Whiskey, 43% ABV

Price per 750mL in Cleveland, OH, USA: $53

• Color: Light Amber
• Nose: Fruit, mostly raisins hits first, followed by dried apricots, banana, grapefruit, and hints of strawberry; additionally, there are notes of oak, vanilla, and citric acid (4/5)
• Palate: Sherry hits first, followed by our friend, dried fruit; mostly apricot and grapes; as it sits longer, I get hints of pepper, cardamom, clove, and butter toffee (66/75)
• Finish: The fruit comes back on the finish and lingers with notes of grape jam, banana creme, sweet oak and spice, which is mostly the clove coming back (7/10)
• Mouthfeel: Oily, with a softness about it (5/5)
• Value: At $53 for 750mL, this is definitely a deal for me, would buy again (5/5)

Total Score: 87/100

I thought this was a very enjoyable whiskey. It’s flavorful and not too complex. For the price, it’s a good deal and can be enjoyed by fans of all types of whiskey, not just scotch.

A couple of years ago, I decided to buy a new keyboard. One of the podcasts I used to watch was dl.tv. It has since been off the air for a number of years now, but I remember Patrick Norton talking about Unicomp.

I ended up buying a Unicomp UltraClassic. It was one of the better things I bought for my computer. There isn’t really a good way to describe to someone why they should buy a more clicky, mechanical keyboard. I can assure you, however, that after you try one, you will certainly understand the appeal.

I recently decided to bring my Unicomp to work since I realized that I was doing most of my typing there instead of at home anymore. The only thing is that now I feel like I need a new mechanical keyboard at home. I certainly don’t need one, but it sure is tempting. I’m still thinking about it, but for now, I’m back on a standard rubber dome keyboard at home.

After a long hiatus from Minecraft, I decided to attempt to “reboot” my server so to speak. One of my good friends, Ian, sent me a tweet:

@noahw i've been playing a lot of minecraft cause unemployment and let me tell you, i have such ideas if/when server goes back up— Gristle McThornBody (@ebobenson) January 28, 2015

Which sparked my interest to get our old server back up and running. I was sad to see that CraftBukkit (Which is the backbone of Minecraft I used to add some additional features to our server) had been sent a DMCA takedown request

It seems lucky that another project called Spigot not only took the place of Bukkit, but is supposedly a little bit faster. My hope is that in using Spigot and the latest version of Java 7 (rather than 8), our server can continue to run and stay stable, which was something I was having a hard time accomplishing using vanilla Minecraft server and Java 8.

In today’s world, starting a blog should be easier than it ever has before.  One has countless platforms in which to choose, all with more features than any web developer of the early aughts could have ever dreamed of.  So why did I find it so incredibly difficult?  Ignoring the fact that one must have creativity and motivation to continue a blog, I had a hard time just trying to get a blog setup that even looked nice.  Why is it so hard: the software is too much.

One can argue that Microsoft word is a well-developed and mature word processing solution capable of so many different things.  So why, then, would somebody ever choose to use Notepad (a product also developed by Microsoft) when Word is arguably so much better?  It’s the same reason why people prefer physical buttons to advanced touchscreens in cars: sometimes simpler is better.

I had an incredibly hard time trying to find blogging software that was simply enough for my to easily integrate into my current site design and was simple enough to customize or add features if I wanted to.  I am one person. I don’t need multiple content editors, a review process, add-ons, modules, galleries, etc.  I wanted something to share content, that is all!  So what you see here is a custom blogging solution I’ve written in VB.NET.  It is a simple application that allows me to post my content and organize it on my website in a simple, date-ordered list.

I plan to document this software and share it on my site as open-source code as soon as I have the time to do so.  I will be posting a short series on the software as I add new features and get things documented.  Stay tuned!