No, That's Not Where They Keep Ted Williams's Head...

Had the fun of introducing someone to Nitro Ice Cream yesterday...These folks started out at Iowa State University with the realization that if they froze ice cream very quickly (using liquid nitrogen) they could make a maximally smooth product, avoiding ice crystals and such. For a few years they've been at the Iowa State Fair selling their product (vanilla only there) to fairgoers, but now they've set up shop in Ankeny, Iowa under the name "Blue Sky Creamery." There they have multiple flavors (yesterday there was vanilla, chocolate, cherry, and green apple), and just as at the fair, the ice cream is made while you watch, with the shiny aluminum device emitting clouds as it sits there.

Should you ever be in central Iowa, by all means go there. I've tried the chocolate, but still think the vanilla is best. (For a chocoholic to prefer the vanilla says something...) Check out their web site and nudge somebody nearby to start a shop. (No, they don't give me any money.)

Sic Transit...

It's a day after the second Gnomedex, and I'm of a couple of minds about it. Part of it's personal--somewhere around eighteen years ago, I was at the very same location, in a group of at least the same size and enthusiasm, all excited about and working on OS-9, the operating system that I managed to devote over a third of my life to until I was laid off last November. The excitement has gone elsewhere; I will but say here that I think it could have been otherwise.

OTOH, the speakers were excellent, especially Doc and Steve and Leo (that's last names falling out of short-term memory rather than faux familiarity and name dropping), and if the enthusiasm has to be elsewhere, I'm glad it's with Linux and blogging and fighting the media conglomerates.