at least there is a schematic.

Posted at 10:53 pm on Jun 4th, 2008 by zoinks

jeez, is zoinks the new steve?

Posted at 5:33 am on Jun 5th, 2008 by pedro

Good post! I just put my 40 pints into a keg yesterday, but another keg wouldn’t hurt…

Posted at 6:34 am on Jun 5th, 2008 by Tom

Dear Mr Obrien…

Recently I have started commenting on your site regarding my displeasure with it. This behavior is well within my character, though usually only directed at those I despise (which is most people)and not usually left as a “comment”. Bearing in mind the high regard which I usually reserve for this site, it is un natural for me to despise that which I hold in high regard, yet here we are. The path I bear witness to you taking is a path which destroys the fundamentals of the “site” we (we being a subjective term used to describe all your critics–the long time followers of this site who resist change and will bitch and moan to prove it as well as those of us whom hold their tongues) have supported, loved, and followed and I can no longer remain silent about it. We feel left out…go read what your critics are saying (not just me) and you will hear the same thing over and over. THIS is HACKADAY, or at least its supposed to be…..so what in the hell happened?

Do you want to know what has gotten you more readers than any other single thing you have done? It is simply that you CLAIM to produce 1 hack every day (by virtue of the name; Hack-a-day) and for a good long time, you delivered on that promise: a feat in and of itself!!. Now however, without warning……nay, while promising MORE hacks, you have given us less than 1 hack a day, while filling the site with rubbish.

Its as if it just took more balls than you had to keep the promise of “a new original hack every single day”, because you did such a damn fine job of it before now, one is left to wonder if you have been “un-manned” now for some reason and as a consequence are more likely to shirk your responsibility to your fans no matter how loyal they might be.

RESPONSIBILITY, Mr Obrien, to your loyal readers, fans, and followers should be important to you. NOBODY asked you to build a site and call it hackaday, but now that you have built a site and called it hackaday, your promise is made, sir, and I for one feel that you are not living up to that promise.

Maybe you should change the name? Or better yet, how about just giving us what we want….what we have grown to expect as well as what the name implies? 1 hack every day, plain and simple, complete with diagrams, schematics, working drawings, pictures, and circles and arrows on the pictures telling what each one is about. We dont expect you to spoon feed us, but we have grown to expect that you will have something for us to chew on. If you are going to stop now, you owe it to us to inform us, and then change the name to something-elseaday so we can all figure out what happened.

If you are going to screw us, then at least kiss us and tell us you love us first.

I read your site because I was forced into early retirement as an electrical engineer. Systemic Lupus and JRA leave me crippled and without much in the way of equalibrium–to say nothing of coothe, tact, or social grace. I sound exactly this coarse no matter if I love or despise you, so please dont take it personally. Your site has provided me with many hours of occupation during a time in my life when my brain was all I had (I was bedridden for many months in 2006 and all I did was read hackaday and eat and sleep in those days) and I could not be more grateful to you for that. Now, I cannot imagine a world without the “hacks” I have grown to know and love. Yet, here we are.

If I didnt love what you have accomplished so far, I would not be so upset to see it leaving now. If you stood before me today I would shake your hand for yesterday and slap you upside your fool head for today. YOU made me love this site—–I did not want to, but who would not love a new hardware hack every single day? The anger I feel about the shoddy contributions of today mirror my affections for this site and its past. With rare exception…..nearly every “article” was a how-to-hack article for months and years past. Them was good days!

Today….I get to read about oink being shut down (after reading the same thing on AOL and Rense.com) and underwater microphones (where someone successfully hacked a microphone into ——a microphone). These are bollox days. I used to hear about things on hackaday first….not second or third. You are failing at being consistent if nothing else….and that, sir, is enough for me to justify throwing out the baby with the bathwater.

What good are “new writers and contributors” if they are not posting original hacks THEY themselves have done, exclusively for hackaday readers?

Hackaday has always been a calm spot by clear waters in the jungle of the internet…..a clearing where one could focus on one thing and one thing only—-hacking vicairiously through others. Now, its as if I cannot see the clearing because of all the garbage. It feels unfamiliar and makes me feel distant from the very thing I came here to enjoy. Regardless of what you might believe, “hackaday.com” does not belong to you, it belongs to ALL of us loyal readers and followers, and without us you are just talking to yourself.

If it brings hackaday back, I would be willing to step up and come out of retirement (I have nothing but time now and have been repairing computers for the elderly and handicapped for free for months just to curb my own boredom) and will contribute 1 new original how-to-hack per week—-written up and published online with circles and arrows just like I described above. I wont provide links to articles on other sites or content that is not 100% original, and will even send you the “hardware” once it is finished (so you can brand it with the hackaday logo and take full credit for it) and then you can auction it on ebay and give the proceeds to charity or whatever—-its something I think EVERY contributor to the site should be REQUIRED to do and I am willing to put my elbow grease where my mouth is if it saves hackaday from its current state of bastardization in this undignified manner.

YOU, Mr Obrien, should answer me personally (dont send mr percival or one of those other traitors to do it) if you want to take me up on my offer and keep me (and those like me with strong opinions about what is happening here) visiting and loving this site……or at the very least, find someone who will provide the hacks you so find so difficult to produce; otherwise I (and those like me as well I suspect) are taking our happy eyes to boingboing and instructables.com instead of hackaday since thats where we seem to get directed anyway!

Either tell your new dudes to start towing the line and hack-up (or for Gods sake find some hacks somewhere), or hire ME as a contributor, or get back in the drivers seat and do it yourself, or SOMETHING…..or else I shall be forced to throw out the baby with the bath water and publicly boycott your site, while writing long eloquent letters like this one to your advertisers telling them about your lack of continuity and the ill effect it will have (indeed, has already had) on your loyal fanbase.

Yeah, I am that kind of jerk….one with more time than anything and a profound hatred of “change” in those things I love. The love I bear for this site make me your harshest critic,,,please go back to the way it was so we can remain friends!

You may actually even grow to like me when I am not calling you a sodomite, but I doubt it because I am just not that like-able.

Whether you agree or disagree with me, after this long letter and my years of faithful following, I expect a personal reply, Mr Obrien. If we must part ways, I expect to hear it from you personally first to insure I have plenty of anger to fuel the future boycott of this site and its advertisers.

So either tell me you love me too and give me my hacks back, or else make sure the door hits me firmly in the backside as I leave so I am at least not left wondering as I am (we are)now.

Awaiting your reply..

Your Now Harshest Critic

Zoinks
(speaking of behalf of many of your loyal readers inclu

ding myself)

Posted at 6:52 am on Jun 5th, 2008 by zoinks

Why is Zoinks in such a bad mood? My main “complaint” is that the black/white pictures held up by tape don’t show very often any more. Some of the new writeups have been really good.

Posted at 7:50 am on Jun 5th, 2008 by Adam

rm -rf *zoink*

Posted at 7:54 am on Jun 5th, 2008 by Adam

@Zoinks

Can I suggest that you go to http://www.hackaday.com/category/daily/ and browse your daily, taped up hacks to your hearts content. I have no objection with more than one hack a day, but there is always the daily feed to satisfy your hack-addiction.

Posted at 8:12 am on Jun 5th, 2008 by Leo

@Zoinks,

For crissakes, follow #7’s advice (I was a little late in finding it too), and shut the hell up. I’m through being civil. You’re long post is an eyesore.

Go to the daily catagory- it’s JUST THE DAILY HACKS. its a new catagory that holds the core of the site, the daily hacks, with tape/b&w pics and all. the main site you are constantly bitching about is some less detailed hacks, related news and such, which o’brien has the right to add as not only is it his damn site, but he kept his promise and then some. He just moved the core of the site a bit.

Now shut the hell up, goddammn it!

Posted at 9:47 am on Jun 5th, 2008 by Joe

I built one of these back in my college days when I first started homebrewing. Mine was a 3-liter pop bottle. It’s hard to clean and keep sanitary, hard to regulate pressure (with such little volume), and you pretty much have to have a kegging system in place already in order to fill it up (can’t really bottle condition in plastic). PITA.

If you plan to transport homebrew, you can just fill/cap bottles or 2-liter jugs and be on your way. With quantities that small, you gotta figure it’s gonna get drank relatively quickly, so why not just pour it?

Posted at 9:52 am on Jun 5th, 2008 by bean

Two words….

Carbon Dioxide.

Works great, is cheap even for college kids (if you can afford the keg of beer, you can afford the small tank and regulator)

and pump beer kegs SUCK and give you SUCKY beer. C02 is king.

Posted at 10:15 am on Jun 5th, 2008 by fartface

Zoinks “will contribute 1 new original how-to-hack per week—-written up and published online with circles and arrows just like I described above. I wont provide links to articles on other sites or content that is not 100% original, and will even send you the “hardware” once it is finished”

Do it then.

Or start your own “zoinkaday” website and show us your skills.

As the saying goes “it’s time to sh*t or get off the pot”

Posted at 11:00 am on Jun 5th, 2008 by putuporshutup

I only read about a 4th of zoinks’s “life story” and here is my take on it:
1. you are in control of your computer so if hack a day doesn’t make you happy then gtfo
2. your proper english was spoiled by saying stuff like “If you are going to screw us, then at least kiss us and tell us you love us first.”
3. we don’t care about your health problems
4. we don’t care what you did when you were stuck in bed for months on end.

get my drift?

Posted at 11:34 am on Jun 5th, 2008 by Mike

and to add to that:
5. it is true that some hack a day posts are better than others, but nonetheless I still check back a few times a day because usually it is several hacks a day instead of just one. will obrien and all do this because they feel like it, not for our sake. they are not obligated to do it so we should be grateful for the fact that they do, period.

Posted at 11:37 am on Jun 5th, 2008 by Mike

The Internet is the only place I know of where people will spend large chunks of their valuable time writing complaints about something they got for free. ;)

Posted at 12:57 pm on Jun 5th, 2008 by Orv

OK, enough of the off-topic discussions.

I really like this simple hack. One thing I thought that would augment the utility of it would be to coat the thing in polyurethane, epoxy, or some other sort of oxygen barrier. Your brew would keep much longer that way.

Posted at 2:13 pm on Jun 5th, 2008 by zishmusic