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Larsblog

Ægir, Flåm

It's far and away the most spectacular brewpub I've ever seen. Part of it is the location, at the end of a Norwegian fjord surrounded by tall mountains that seem to tower over the little village. But it's just as much the brewpub itself, a dark, bulky wooden structure looking vaguely like a stave church that's lost its tower, decorated with wooden dragons on the roof, in true dragestil. Inside it's no less unusual, as we'll get to in a moment. ...

Read | 2010-08-05 20:33 | 5 comment(s)

The sixth German Gose

When I heard there was a third gose in Goslar I didn't want to believe it. After all, we travelled to Goslar in 2008 specifically to try the two goses from Brauhaus Goslar, carefully hunted down both the pale and dark versions, and tried them both several times. I then crossed Goslar off my list of "places to visit before I die," and was ready to move on. So to be told that there was another gose in Goslar was not what I wanted to hear. Especially not that it was only available in a place I'd already tried to get in, and failed because it was reserved for a private party. ...

Read | 2010-07-17 11:44 | 2 comment(s)

My report on OOXML and ODF

Disclaimer: Work on this in the Norwegian government has been going on for years. I worked on this for four months, producing a 45-page report. This blog posting oversimplifies most of the way through in the interests of brevity. ...

Read | 2010-05-09 20:47 | 13 comment(s)

Traditional Nordic beer

In the Nordic countries there is a whole style of brewing that has so far almost completely escaped the attention of beer enthusiasts, although some tips of the iceberg are showing above the surface here and there, if you look carefully. I'm referring to the traditional homebrewers, who have just about nothing in common with the new wave of US-inspired home brewers. What makes these brewers so interesting is that the beers they brew belong to styles that are almost completely unknown outside of these communities. ...

Read | 2010-01-16 14:48 | 13 comment(s)

Brewdog Tactical Nuclear Penguin (32%)

When I saw that Dr. Jekyll's Pub in Oslo was arranging a tasting with Brewdog, featuring their Tactical Nuclear Penguin beer, the world's strongest at 32%, I knew I had to go. Unsurprisingly, so did Knut Albert (his blog posting is here) and Geir Ove. The tasting was given by James Watt, who is responsible for Brewdog's marketing. ...

Read | 2009-12-17 08:41 | 5 comment(s)

How to find good pubs in London

It's hard to find the really good pubs in most places in the world of any size, but London presents special challenges, for a number of reasons. First, there is the sheer size of the city, which has a population larger than many countries. Second, there is the enormous number of pubs (about 4000, according to many sources). And, third, there is the vast difference in quality between the average pubs and the really good ones. ...

Read | 2009-10-18 13:26 | 6 comment(s)

A path language for Topic Maps

I sketched a little path-based query language for Topic Maps this summer, mostly to explore what such a language might look like. My TMQL co-editor, Rani Pinchuk, asked me to write up a more detailed description of it, and that's what this blog posting is. ...

Read | 2009-09-23 11:01 | 13 comment(s)

Datatype validation with TMCL

It's long been generally assumed that TMCL (the Topic Maps Constraint Language) should be able to validate datatyped values, but very little thought has so far been devoted to exactly how. It may look like a trivial issue, but in fact datatypes is an enormous tangle of complex problems. To pick one example at random, consider the ordering of time durations in XML Schema. This posting is an attempt to consider what TMCL should and, equally important, should not do. ...

Read | 2009-07-20 14:37 | 3 comment(s)

Sigma 30mm F1.4 EX DC HSM

I didn't know much about lenses, having only ever used the one I bought with the camera. I was fairly pleased with it, but discovered that taking photos of our newborn daughter (indoors, necessarily) gave disappointing results. The problem was the same one that made me give up my compact camera: not enough light. I could use high ISO, and get grainy photos, or low ISO, and get blurry ones. ...

Read | 2009-07-17 21:14 | 2 comment(s)

Innis & Gunn tasting

Innis & Gunn has met with a divided reception among beer enthusiasts. Some really like it, some think it's not bad, and some hate it. Personally, I quite like it, and it's one of the very few beers that are oak-aged and fairly widely distributed. So when Dr. Jekyll's pub in Oslo announced a tasting with Dougal Sharp, the creator of Innis & Gunn, I signed up. ...

Read | 2009-06-21 19:23 | 12 comment(s)

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