Steve Piatz's Blog

A potential waste of time

About Me

My Career

I consider myself a software engineer although my degree is in electrical engineering. What little of my career I spent on electrical engineering was spent in areas around integrated circuit design and development. Also, I am a licensed Professional Electrical Engineer (retired). I have spent nearly my entire career working on complex software systems in high-tech industries. The last part of my career was spent working on System Software for supercomputers.

I’ve worked with a lot of programming languages from common ones like Fortran, C, C++ and Python to the uncommon like Jovial. There have been a lot of machine languages (assembly code) for both common and uncommon computers along with various types of firmware for some really uncommon computer architectures. On the scripting and markup side of programming I’ve played with HTML, PHP, Javascript and a few others. As for databases, I’ve worked with SQL databases as well as a few others. I’ve worked with a number of the Open Source tools used by the software development community.

Much of my time working with computers has involved UNIX-like systems; either one of the systems derived from the original Bell Labs versions of UNIX or a form of Linux. Many of the underlying computer architectures were advanced for their time; multiprocessor parallel systems, parallel vector processors, and massively parallel systems of several forms.

With an strong engineering background, my technical skills are fairly well developed. That generally allows me to easily internalize the concepts of complex systems and describe them to others. Unfortunately, that means I also frequently have the ability to see the deficiencies present in many of the systems I encounter in day-to-day life. It can be frustrating at times when the poor implementations and bad design choices are so obvious.

On My Own Time

I seem to find lots of things to occupy my free time. I try to get some exercise almost every day by trying to get to the gym for light exercise at least five times a week. Outside the gym, I enjoy bicycling, walking and hiking.

Traveling is always enjoyable. I’ve visited a lot of islands in the Caribbean, many on past SCUBA vacations and some via cruises. Various road trips have taken me around the USA to all 50 states and to some parts of Canada. The rest of the Americas don’t get visited as often. Places in Europe have been frequent destinations. Africa and Asia haven’t been as frequently on the itinerary.

My Hobbies and Interests

As a homebrewer I make beer, mead, cider and even an occasional wine. As an active member of the Beer Judge Certification Program (BJCP) I have judged beer, mead and cider at many fermented beverage competitions for commercial or homemade beverages around the world.

I am a member of several local homebrew clubs; the Minnesota Homebrewers Association (MHBA) https://mnbrewers.com/ and the Saint Paul Homebrewers Club https://sphbc.org/. I am a past officer and president of the MHBA. Some years ago, after a major change in the BJCP Beer Style Guidelines I was agreed to write a long series of articles for the MHBA newsletter providing some details on each beer style and recipes for making each of them. You might still be able to find some of those article lurking around on the internet. Someday, maybe I’ll resurrect my archived copies and post updated versions.

As an avid DIYer, I am comfortable taking on fairly challenging DIY projects at times. The challenge of fixing or repairing many things is frequently fun and I volunteer as a fixer at local Fix-It clinics as well as at a local charity. My woodworking skill are moderate, definitely not a fine furniture builder but I am getting better and think I have move beyond being a wood butcher.

I enjoying cooking; developing and modifying recipes to get what I want and a enjoy finding more uses for my smoker. In the past, I have dabbled in cheese making, pickle making and sauerkraut making. At times, I play around a little with a very small garden patch.

My Publications and Presentations

I am the author of The Complete Guide to Making Mead: The Ingredients, Equipment, Processes, and Recipes for Crafting Honey Wine. I’ve written articles for several homebrewing magazines. Also, I’ve given presentations on or taught short classes on fermenting beverages such as beer and mead in several countries.

External publications and podcasts

Not everything can be found online. Here are a few of the podcasts I’ve done:

Some of my articles and presentations can be found online though you may need a subscription to see everything.

My BJCP Activities

I’m currently a BJCP Grand Master X judge, the second highest ranked BJCP judge in the world. Obviously, that means I have been judging for a while. Each BJCP Grand Master level advancement requires credits for service to the BJCP. Those credits must include a portion of examination grading.

I spent many years involved in the grading and administering of the various BJCP examinations. The idea of becoming a Grand Master Judge wasn’t in my thoughts when I started grading exams. There weren’t any Grand Master judges at that time. I started grading exams to learn more about judging and to learn more about the BJCP examination. While I was a member of the BJCP exam grading team, I helped develop or refine all of the BJCP examinations https://www.bjcp.org/exam-certification/exam-program-overview/bjcp-exam-structure/ and study materials. I stepped down from my final BJCP role as first ever Managing Exam Director in 2019. I received the BJCP Pat Baker award for Significant, Sustained Service to the BJCP for my long service to the BJCP https://www.bjcp.org/news/steve-piatz-receives-pat-baker-award-for-service/.