• Two 120GB 3.5" PATA Fujitsu (claimed by secretlondon)
  
• 120GB 3.5" PATA Maxtor
• 20GB 3.5" PATA IBM Deathstar Deskstar.
  
• Three 1GB 3.5" narrow SCSI, various.
• Three 9GB 3.5" SCA Seagate, in a SCA enclosure which fits in two half-height 5.25" bays and exposes HD68 and standard Molex power connectors. I'm not sure if I still have the enclosure key.
  
• Two PATA CD-ROMs, one is 1/3-height with a half-height fascia.
• "CPU Switch": a four port KVM which supports both PS/2 keyboard and mouse, and AT keyboard and serial mouse. No cables.
• DDS-1 DAT drive, narrow SCSI, fits in 5.25" bay. (And possibly another that I haven't found yet.)
  
• Some sort of full-length PCI-X RAID card, two SCSI channels, onboard battery and cache DIMM.
• Half-length DAC960 PCI RAID card, one SCSI channel. I used this until 2004 and it was quite a nice bit of kit.
• A large bag of mixed memory: about fifty mixed sticks starting at 1MB 30 pin SIMMs up to 256MB PC133 DIMMs. Most are 72 pin 4MB SIMMs, both FPM and EDO.
  

• 110MB 3.5" PATA Maxtor. An exciting historical item as it's a Maxtor that still works.
• 420MB 3.5" PATA Seagate.
  
• 750MB 3.5" PATA Maxtor.
• 850MB 2.5" PATA Seagate.
  
• 2.5GB 3.5" PATA Maxtor.
• 4GB 3.5" SCA Fujutsu. A pull from a Sun box. I'm keeping the spud brackets though :)
  
• 6.1GB 3.5" PATA Maxtor.
  
• 8.5GB 3.5" PATA Fujitsu.
• 18GB 3.5" narrow SCSI disk in external enclosure.
• 18GB 3.5" wide SCSI IBM.
  
• 27.3GB 3.5" narrow SCSI Quantum. Pull from an old-school Mac, so probably works with the funky firmware on old Macs.
• a BJ10ex portable inkjet printer. Will need a new ink cartridge (about £10.)
• a cute ikkle fanless 486/50 box with 8MB of RAM, 2GB disk and two NICs. (Guess what I used to use this for?)

Note that it is really quick and dirty, most definitely not an example of good Perl code, and I suggest you create a scratch LJ account to test it against first.

This is just an advance warning that there is some fine drinking going on over at the Wenlock Arms at the end of this month. The Wenlock is reviewed here on Improvable Tripe, the Randomness Guide to London, and RBW's Beerdiary. Summary: it's a good'un.

The beer festival seems to have escaped review, but if the 2006 one was any guide, it's rather fine. It's also awfully popular, oddly enough, so if you want a seat, arrive early.

It is extremely likely that ASRBrum and ASRLon will be holding a piss-up during the festival and thus for these purposes, Hoxton will be declared to be a suburb of Birmingham. To that end, I propose a joint ASR* meet-up to occur at the usual 2pm on Saturday 27th October. Be there, or stay sober. I have a small amount of crash space available.

Also, given that beer festivals start running a bit dry on the Saturday afternoon, I also propose a quick warm-up around 7pm on the Friday beforehand for those who happen to already work in the area and need a few pints of oblivion to forget their soul-crushing jobs.

Wenlock Arms
26 Wenlock Road N1 7TA
Tel.: (020) 7608 3406
Nearest Tube: Old Street

Sick of the endless identkit plastic pubs full of plastic people drinking plastic drinks that plague London, we are always up for an unusual and authentic old fashioned boozer with good beer and local colour.

The Wenlock Arms is about five minutes' walk from Old Street tube station, and nestles behind some intimidating council tower blocks and past an industrial unit in a quiet corner of Hoxton that the Nathan Barleys of the world tend not to visit. It is an accomodating little pub, even tolerating Nathan, but he should not overstay as he is not really welcome. This is a Local Pub For Local People, and that is to be commended.

The pub is full of fun local character, with an East End accent much in evidence. Mirror adverts cover the walls and a healtly selection of pump clips adorn the bar to show the variety of beers that have been offered recently. The slightly tired carpet and scuffed base of the bar show that many people have visited the place over the years. A menu sits on the fireplace with, alas, a speaker promising karaoke or other music. It is not in operation on this quiet Monday evening. Other evenings later in the week have live entertainment which is reputedly excellent, and you may wish to check the Wenlock's website for full listings.

The obscured menu promises “Veg Pasty. Meat Pasty”—the kind of meat left unsaid—then a crossed-out "por"—pork what? Oh well, we can't have it anyway—then "saus–" and "hot san–". Clearly “traditional” pub fare, i.e. still stuck somewhere in the 1970s. If it does other food, it was not being advertised. The bar snacks were more interesting in that they included biltong on top of the usual crisps and nuts.

There was more than a little amusement amongst the regulars as to a pint of lager found on the bar. Presumably somebody ordered it, but they were evidently too embarassed to collect it. Over the next hour, the locals tried to palm the damn thing off onto anybody who walked in, but everybody had the good taste to decline. It was loudly noted that this was not the kind of pub that lager drinkers would visit. About an hour later, it was finally quietly disposed of, undrunk.

Listening in, and joining in, to the local banter was very pleasant and entertaning. They're a friendly bunch in the Wenlock. The beers change frequently. The beers we tasted were Old Spot (5.4%, £2.80), Adnams Tally Ho (7.0%, £3.00), Acorn Darkness (4.2%, £2.80) and Liefmans Kriek (£3.80/pint). All were well-kept and the Kriek was a nice find in a bitter-drinker's paradise.

The Wenlock Arms hosts an annual beer festival in September or October which is always very popular.

(This article was previously published in the Londonist.)

“He took down from the shelf a bottle of colourless liquid with a plain white label marked VICTORY GIN. It gave off a sickly, oily smell, as of Chinese rice-spirit. Winston poured out nearly a teacupful, nerved himself for a shock, and gulped it down like a dose of medicine. Instantly his face turned scarlet and the water ran out of his eyes. The stuff was like nitric acid, and moreover, in swallowing it one had the sensation of being hit on the back of the head with a rubber club.”

Strength: 5.4%
Form: 500ml bottle
Price: Unsure, around £1.70 (Sainsbury's, Colliers Wood)

That it came from Sainsbury's rather than my usual supplier shows it's a mass product. I've also drunk more than a few pints of Fullers that appeared to have been made by Sarsons. I must have been drunk, desperate, insane or a combination of all three to pick this one up.

This beer comes in a pleasingly-heavy brown glass bottle, an ideal item to have to hand for if you're daft enough to go out drinking in Colliers Wood. The cap was a struggle to remove, but this was possibly as much due to it not exactly being the first in a quiet Sunday in on the pop. (Its predecessors were a Leffe and a double of "Slider" from Borough Market.)

Pouring it into a glass shows a very dark ale with a dirty brown head. Gingerly sniffing it revealed a pleasing sweet mocha aroma. Perhaps it's not that bad after all.

Quaffing it reveals a quite drinkable ale. The strength provides a pleasant sweetness which goes well with the chocolate flavouring. There's a slight bitter taste that lingers on the tongue and demands another mouthful. The pleasing chocolate flavour isn't just an initial hit that teases and then quickly evaporates, but continues towards the bottom of the glass. The final sip leads me to look wistfully at the empty glass.

Now, if they could only work on making London Pride drinkable...

Rating: 8 out of 10
Reviewed: 2006-11-26

(This review was prepared based on sketchy notes made on 2006-09-30, expanded 2006-10-29.)

Primus: Anchor Steam Bitter, Anchor Brewing Co., San Francisco

Importer: James Clay & Sons, Elland.
Strength: 4.8%
Form: 355ml bottle
Price: £1.65 (Nelson Wines, South Wimbledon)

While this beer does not specifically call me to scream from the rafters, it is an accomplished and quite drinkable bitter that the British really should take note of. I would have had a second had I not just drunk the last.

Rating: 7 out of 10
Reviewed: 2006-10-29

Secondus: Rhatas, Black Dog Brewery/Hambleton Ales, North Yorkshire
Strength: 4.6%
Form: 500ml bottle
Price: £2.15 (Nelson Wines, South Wimbledon)

This is a somewhast cloying bitter and completely unexciting as British bitters go, where the bottom of the bottle failed to arrive soon enough. While I'd happily drink one, a second is out of the question.

Rating: 5 out of 10
Reviewed: 2006-10-29

Tertius: Coffee Meantime Beer, Meantime Brewing Co., London.

Strength: 4.0%
Form: 330ml bottle
Price: £1.69 (Nelson Wines, South Wimbledon)

Why not just give me crack and be done with it? I love coffee. The thick creamy coffee flavour is just oozing from the head even before I hit the beer. The actual underlying beer is hard to taste - a bit sticky and probably not worth bothering with if it wasn't coffee-flavoured - but that's not really the main feature of the beer. I would most happily drink a second, and probably a third.

(And gosh, a drinkable London beer? Can this be so?)

Rating: 9 out of 10
Reviewed: 2006-10-29

Quartus: Delirium Tremens, Brasserie Huyghe Brewery, Belgium

Strength: 8.5%
Form: 330ml bottle
Price: £2.29 (Nelson Wines, South Wimbledon)

This is a rather famous beer, bought on that basis. It turns out to be overly sweet for my liking as many strong beers are, and thus I lose the subtleties it might have. It certainly doesn't taste 8.5%. While a perfectly good beer, it's just not me.

Rating: Unfair to give a score, 7 out of 10 if you insist.
Reviewed: 2006-10-29