nw2s

I finally got a soda contraption together. With a 10lb cylinder of CO2, a regulator, ball lock tap, and carbonator, I can carbonate pretty much anything you can put in a plastic soda bottle! I started with some easy stuff that will probably get me through most of the summer including lime and grapefruit soda, but am also trying to push the envelope a little… I’ve been threatening to carbonate milk product as long as I’ve been tracking down the bits to do it with. Here’s my recipe for a vanilla egg cream or just cream soda if you’re not from New York.

• 3/8 c granulated sugar (6 tbsp)
• 1 c whole milk
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1 c  warm water
• cold water to fill a 1 liter soda bottle

Pour the granulated sugar in the bottle and put about a cup of warm water in and shake to dissolve. Add the rest to fill up the bottle with a little space on top. Refrigerate until well chilled and carbonate to about 40psi. Give it some time to rest in the fridge. If it’s settled some, turn over a couple of times to mix it up. Be sure to release the pressure on the carbonator cap before opening as this is likely to foam up.

Good stuff. Here’s a picture of my rented CO2 cylinder and beer regulator under the sink and the finished product.

I had a client or two who I had suggested CloudFront as a viable solution for content delivery that was affordable and had no long-term commitments. I decided to put my money where my mouth was.

Generally my approach is to keep all the images, swfs, silverlight, etc in a folder called /assets and create custom .NET controls that know to look for a config setting that points to the asset root which may or may not be in the same domain. It will take a little time before I do all that on my own sites, but wanted to share an image all the same…

[Edit] I wanted to note that I finally found an MSBuild task for uploading content to S3! SpaceBlock on Codeplex seems to do the trick. I honestly haven’t tried it yet, but if it works will help my automated Cruise Control deployments greatly.

[Another Edit] I really need to make a Flex version of the satellite tracker!