boggles

Also, you may not be aware but this is an almost daily question on StackOverflow so I would advise looking there also.

Please exercise caution!

The bottles with the smoothifier look like this:

http://erinp.files.wordpress.com/2008/03/dscn3580.jpg

These bottles do not have a smoothifier:

http://justbeer.files.wordpress.com/2008/01/guinness-extra-s...

Guinness put 20 years of research into the can method.

The 16.9 ounce can (containing 14.9 ounces of beer) is fitted with a small plastic device (Guinness calls it a "smoothifier") which sits in the bottom of the can. This device has a pocket or cavity which is open to the atmosphere via a pin hole in its top. The can is evacuated of oxygen and filled with beer. Prior to sealing the can, a dose of liquid nitrogen is added to the beer. The can is closed and as the liquid nitrogen warms a pressure is created. The pressure forces about 1% of the beer and nitrogen into the plastic cavity.

When the can is opened, the pressure is released and the small amount of beer in the cavity is forced back through the pinhole quite violently. The agitation created by this "geyser" mixes the nitrogen with the beer in such a way as to reproduce the tap handle character.

Prior to serving, the beer must be chilled. Guinness suggests a two hour stint in a refrigerator, with a target serving temperature of 45-50 degrees (if opened while warm, the beer gushes with excess force). This is the one area where flavor will be variable since most American refrigerators hold their temperatures closer to 35-40 degrees.

The colder the beer, the less the flavors are perceptible. The entire contents should be emptied into a 16 ounce glass. The head which forms is exactly like that of the draught version. It should last to the bottom of the glass.

It would be nice if the title reflected that sentiment.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Astroturfing

"Astroturfing is a word in English describing formal political, advertising, or public relations campaigns seeking to create the impression of being spontaneous "grassroots" behavior, hence the reference to the artificial grass, AstroTurf."

They provide a valuable service in terms of taking administration issues out of the picture and letting you just focus on developing your app.

But my feeling is this is not targeted at hackers who are surviving on rice and beans but rather those who are more likely to either have well-paying day jobs that can subsidize their startup hobby on the side or have enough VC capital to not bother with the mundane details of hosting administration and its associated time and financial burdens.

Not that there's anything wrong with that - Heroku has come up with an ingenious business model because it really does satisfy a need in the vanity hosting market where cost is not an issue - but belonging to the rice and beans category myself at the moment, I just find that I'm sadly not their target demographic - as much fun as it is to use Heroku's free option for little toy apps.

Deploying to Heroku really is a delight and I think we will see more services like them start up over the next few years.

I'm not sure the dramatics are called for.