David Koppel

A problem with LLM use that I don't see mentioned often enough: the only real difference between asking an AI for a solution to a problem and searching for the answer is one requires you to understand the problem and the other doesn't. The "benefit" is not having to learn. #idiocracy

If you're comfortable using a computer and are following a tutorial or using a kit designed for a specific project, it's pretty beginner friendly. The problems begin when you start working on your own projects. And by "problems" I mean countless nerdy rabbit holes to learn :)

#6 is a lightly peated 18 year old Bunnahabhain refill bourbon cask at 59.1 ABV.

#5 is a 15 year old 1st fill px bodega cask bottled at 58.2 ABV from Glentauchers. This had a really lovely finish.

#4.5 a bonus drink. This is the 1st year SMWS is doing a bottling for the Chinese New Year. A 17 year old Glen Elgin. This was really nice and my favorite of the evening so far. I got chocolate and cherries on the palate.

Intermission for some hors d'oeuvres from our host. A really nice charcuterie, some salads, veggies and an assortment of dips, chicken and burger sliders, and some lovely flatbreads. A very nice selection and I'm regretting, a bit, that I'm going elsewhere for dinner!

#4 is yet another 2 in 1. 1 cask aged 10 years then moved to Spanish Oloroso. The other 10 years then moved to heavy toast medium char virgin oak. Both ages to a total of 15 years and originating from Inchgower. 55.4 ABV.

#3 is another 2 in 1, a 17 year old from Benrinnes. 52.6ABV. 1 bourbon cask aged 13 years then moved to a 1st fill Oloroso cask, and the other moved to a heavy char, medium toast virgin oak cask. This was another fun one with fruity notes and a hint of coffee.

#2 is a 16 year old that's another 2 in 1. One cask from Balblair aged 14 years then 2 years in PX sherry, and the other 2 years in medium toast no char virgin oak (toasted heads only). 54.7ABV. I liked this much better and it had some interesting spicy notes.

#1 is a "2 to 1". Two casks from the same distillery (Glen Lossie) aged for 13 years then moved to two different casks; one an Oloroso sherry cask, and one a new, virgin heavy toast, medium char American oak cask. They were aged for another 3 years and then married.

Scotch Malt Whisky Society of America sampling assortment. 6 copita glasses arranged in a semi-circle on a placemat. The glasses are numbered by cask, 1 through 6. There's a glass of ice water and a small tumbler of water with a pipette.

SMWSA tasting at the Glory Beer Bar & Kitchen. Sampling the February Outturn. #whisky #scotch

A small sample bottle of Glengoyne whisky.

#5 is this 10 year old Glengoyne from last year's advent calendar. Gotta be honest here: I hated this. It's been a long time since I had a whisky I disliked as much as this one. There's something on the nose that is just very off-putting, and the palate itself had some unpleasant chemical notes.

#4 was the Glen Garioch again. Because it was really good and I wanted another.

A bottle of 13 year old Glen Garioch bottled by Berry Bros & Rudd.

#3 is a move to the Highlands from Glen Garioch, bottles by Berry Bros. & Rudd. I haven't had many Highlands drams, but I definitely need to fix that. This one is 13 years old and aged in a Pauillac wine cask. There's a lot going on with this one, but it all works well together.

Oh, crap! I just realized today is Burns Night! This thread is now doubly relevant!!!

A bottle of Dramfool's Middle Cut line MacDuff 12 year old scotch.

Only 2 drinks in and I'm already getting sloppy... It's going to be a long day 😂. Anywho, here's the picture for #2.

#2 is... another IB MacDuff. This one is a 12 year bottling from Dramfool. Unlike the previous MacDuff which was aged in a bourbon barrel and then finished in a Jamaican rum cask, this one was aged in a Pedro Ximèmez sherry cask. I love this bottle, but preferred the weird notes in the SMWSA bottle

A bottle of the Scotch Malt Whisky Society of America's Complex Funk, a 13 year old cask strength from the Speyside distillery MacDuff.

First up is a 13 year old MacDuff from the Scotch Malt Whisky Society of America. I've tried MacDuff's own bottling of Grand Deveron and found it... mediocre. Probably because I'm used to cask strength. But I've tried a few independent bottlings and find them to be generally delightful.

A small assortment of about 16 bottles of single malt scotch whisky, mostly from the Scotch Malt Whisky Society of America.

In honor of today's snowmageddon, I am going to practice Finnish kalsarikännit, which I believe translates as "drinking at home in your underwear." My drink of choice is single malt scotch whisky, which I'll be documenting here as long as I'm coherent. #whisky #scotch #blizzard #finnish

A Raspberry Pi Zero board suspended in a soldering station by a pair of alligator clamps. Headers have been soldered to the board and wires have been soldered to 7 pins on the headers.

My Raspberry Pi Zero project is shaping up. The programming is functionally complete, although I'm still refining the code base. The only circuitry that still needs to be prototyped is the LED lighting circuit. All that's left is building the component board, printing a case, and final assembly.

Only 9 more months until we get to listen to holiday music in the stores again!

A few excerpts from Darmok's Christmas Story:

Ralphie and Flick, at the flagpole.

Randy, his arms down.

The Old Man, when the lamp broke.

Santa and Ralphie, on the mountain.

Without knowing more details it might be safest to get them a popular blend like Johnny Walker (depending on your price point I think JW Green might be a pretty good option). It's tough because there's a pretty big difference between bourbon enthusiasts and Scotch enthusiasts in preferences.

Amazing the ways in which popular history repeats:

Ugh. Pi Zero. Not Pi Pico.

A wrapped Christmas present, a roll of wrapping paper, a Glencairn glass with a dram of whisky, and the open bottle of SMWSA's 76.156 - Immensely Old-School.

Kicking off the holiday vacation with some present wrapping and a delightful sherried Mortlach. #whisky #smws #smwsa

A Raspberry Pi Pico W unit with a Waveshare Pi Zero LCD HAT on top. The LCD HAT has three displays. The outer two show graphic representations of thermometers with different levels of red filling the stem. The screen on the left has a light blue background, is labeled "Inside" at the top, and shows a temperature of 60.5F (labeled at the bottom). The screen on the right has an orange background, is labeled "Outside" at the top, and shows a temperature of 85.9F. The middle screen, which is slightly larger, shows a cartoon image of a black cat wearing a top hat. Beneath the cat's face is the name "Dave".

Making some good progress on my Raspberry Pi Pico project. I've got my Waveshare Pi Zero LCD HAT functional with 3 individual displays. Thermometers are dynamic with fill and background color changing with temp. Next up: interactive menus. #raspberrypipico #wearables

"An object at rest cannot be stopped!" - EMBWBAM #thetick

Another ceramic bowl. The inside is mostly a grey glaze, although the very middle of the bottom is a dark green. There's a uneven red blotch partway up the inner surface.

Bowl 2. My favorite! I'm really happy with the interior curve as well as the glaze.

Side view of a ceramic bowl. Grey-green glaze is visible inside, and also shows in two drips that move horizontally across the outer wall of the bowl flowing from left to right.

The interior of the same ceramic bowl. Blue-grey glaze covers about three-quarters of the inner surface.

Bowl 1. There's what my teacher calls the "newbie slump" visible, where the bottom is flat and then angles up into the curved walls. Still, I was pretty happy with the overall size and form. The rim wasn't completely round, though.