beer | O'Really?

June 29, 2019

The Small Scale Experimental Beer Machine aka “Manchester Beerby”

Filed under: technology — Duncan Hull @ 7:22 am
Tags: 1948, aberdeen, alliance manchester business school, ambs, beer, beer machine, beerby, beers, brewdog, brewdog outpost manchester, brewery, bruntwood, business school, engineer, engineering, engineers, freddie williams, kilburn building, machine, machines, Manchester, Manchester Baby, manchester beerby, memory day, microbrewery, outpost, pub, Scotland, small scale experimental beer machine, small scale experimental machine, ssebm, ssem, tom kilburn, University, university green

The Small Scale Experimental Beer Machine (aka Manchester Beerby) has its name in neon lights and was switched on on the 21st June 2019.

A new pub has opened opposite where I work. Set up by some enterprising scotsmen from Aberdeenshire (🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 och aye laddie!), it has its very own microbrewery. They have called the microbrewery the The Small Scale Experimental Beer Machine (SSEBM).

As I work in a Computer Science department, this pleased me no end, because it is an appropriate nod to the Small-Scale Experimental Machine (SSEM) aka the Manchester Baby: the world’s first computer with random access memory (RAM).

Both of these machines were switched on on the 21st June (memory day), one in 1948 the other 71 years later in 2019. Unlike the Manchester Baby, you will actually be able to drink the output of the “Manchester Beerby” 🍺 and it is going to be a lot more quaffable than anything you might find in a cathode ray tube. [1]

The pub is in the heart of a new Bruntwood development called University Green, a pleasant leafy space with retail and restaurants centred around the Alliance Manchester Business School (AMBS). Like most things in the green, its a bit pricey but the beer is good, the food is tasty and the staff are friendly. Brewdog Outpost Manchester is a relaxing place to hang out.

I wonder what the engineers of the Manchester Baby, Tom Kilburn and Freddie Williams, would make of the Manchester Beerby? 🍻

References

Williams, Frederic Kilburn, Tom (1948). Electronic Digital Computers. Nature. 162(4117): 487. DOI:10.1038/162487a0

December 20, 2018

Dry January: Can you switch off all your social media for a month? #DigitalDetox

Filed under: economics,google,Googleology,publishing,technology,web — Duncan Hull @ 8:55 am
Tags: 2018, 2019, abstain, abstention, addiction, alchohol change, alcohol, android, Apple, beer, blogging, booze, cambridge analytica, Christmas, cold turkey, detox, digital detox, digital wellbeing, Donald Trump, drink, drinkaware, drinking, drug, dry january, facebook, festive, fomo, gin, google, health, health psychology, instagram, internet addiction, iOS, iPhone, january, jaron lanier, lose weight, macos, mental health, new year, panopticon, psychology, rehab, save money, self control, sleep, sleep better, smartphone, social lubricant, social media, temporary abstention, ten arguments, toxic, toxin, toxins, trump, tweeting, twitter, voluntary, voluntary panopticon, wellbeing, wellness, wine, winterval, wordpress

Dry January: can you abstain from toxins like alcohol and social media for a month?

Here in the UK, there is an annual tradition known as Dry January. It’s pretty simple, in the wake of all the festive indulgence (🍻), around 4 million people voluntarily abstain from alcohol for the month of January. Why? Because they can save money, sleep better, lose weight [1] and even raise money for charity in the process. If you haven’t tried it yet, Dry January is an enlightening (and enlivening) challenge.

But dry January needn’t just stop at alcohol. Other toxic social lubricants are also available. Have you ever wondered what life would be like without the distraction of social media? Ever tried going without? Go dry by switching off all your social media for a month – just to see what happens. Is social media as toxic as alcohol? Could going cold turkey (🦃) for a month be beneficial to your health and those around you? Switch it all off, meaning:

No LinkedIn
No Facebook
No WhatsApp
No Instagram
No Twitter
No Blogging
No “voluntary panopticon“
No [insert your favourite social media here]. How far you take it will depend on how you choose to define social media…

Abstention requires a bit of planning and preparation, but if you tell your friends now, you could experiment with switching off all your social media for the month of January. Will you be able to handle the Fear of Missing Out (FoMO) [2]? Will your quality of life improve?

The idea of digital detox has been around a while and there are several ways of doing it. You can either go the whole hog like Jaron Lanier and just delete everything [3]. If that’s too drastic for you, try using blockers or timers set to zero minutes. Since the most toxic forms of social media are typically found on smartphones, there’s a few options for detoxing:

On Apple devices, if you’ve got iOS version 12 you can use screen time. Otherwise try self control or similar.
On Android devices, take a look at wellbeing.google and the accompanying Digital Wellbeing application.

Abstaining from alcohol can be beneficial for your physical and mental health. [2] Abstaining from social media could probably help too. Why not give it a whirl and see for yourself?

As this is last (and first!) post here for 2018, have yourselves a happy winterval and a healthy new year in 2019.

References

1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fear_of_missing_out
2. De Visser, R.O., Robinson, E. & Bond, R., (2016) Voluntary temporary abstinence from alcohol during “Dry January” and subsequent alcohol use. Health Psychology, 35(3), pp.281–289. DOI:10.1037/hea0000297
3. Lanier, Jaron (2018) Ten Arguments For Deleting Your Social Media Accounts Right Now. Bodley Head, ISBN: 978-1847925398 jaronlanier.com/tenarguments.html

O'Really?

June 29, 2019

The Small Scale Experimental Beer Machine aka “Manchester Beerby”

References

December 20, 2018

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