27 July 2007
26 July 2007
Erik Mongrain - Tap, Thump, Ring, Wow
This just blew me a way. I'm impressed on a number of levels with this guy. I could easily listen all day.
digg this
del.icio.us
20 July 2007
Chow
Great site for foodies.....I particularly like the format they keep the page fresh with lots of new content and rotation. I'm a fan of the chow pick section.
08 May 2007
29 April 2007
Getting on the Technorati Favorites Bandwagon
It's all about the link train, other bloggers give this a try if your just a reader of this blog please click here to add me to your technorati favorites....don't know what that is click anyway and find out.
Here are the rules:
1) Write a short introduction paragraph about what how you found the list and include a link to the blog that referred you to the list.
2) COPY the Rules and ENTIRE List below and post it to your blog. To avoid duplicate content and increase the amount of keywords your site can be accessible for, go ahead and change the titles of the blog. Just don’t change the links of the blog.
3) Take “My New Faves” and move them into the “The Original Faves” list.
4) Add 3 Blogs that you’ve just added to your Technorati Favorites to the “My New Faves” section. Remember to also add the “Fave Me” link next to your new blogs (i.e. http://technorati.com/faves?sub=addfavbtn&add=http://www.yourfavesdomain.com)
5) Add Everyone on this list to your Technorati Favorites List by clicking on “Fave the Site.” Those who want good kharma will fave you back. If not, you will for sure get the benefits of faves from the bloggers who continue this list after you.
My New Faves
mind for design - fave the site
in one ear and... - fave the site
diy happy - fave the site
The Original Faves
Bobs [ReformatThis] - Fave the Site
Everyday Weekender - Fave the Site
Armen’s Blog - Fave the Site
Gary Lee - Fave the Site
Dosh Dosh - Fave the Site
Nate Whitehill - Fave the Site
Ms. Danielle - Fave the Site
Jeff Kee - Fave the Site
Scribble on the Wall - Fave the Site
Jimi Morrisons Head - Fave the Site
Jon Lee - Fave the Site
Samanathon - Fave the Site
Eat Drink & Be Merry - Fave the Site
The Man of Silver - Fave the Site
Hannes Johnson - Fave the Site
My Dandelion Patch - Fave the Site
Nathan Drach - Fave the Site
SiteLogic - Fave the Site
Julies Journal - Fave the Site
Stephen Fung - Fave the Site
Ed Lau - Fave the Site
QMusings - Fave the Site
Restaurant Review: Auberge du Soleil, Rutherford, CA
Rutherford, CA
Christine and I decided to try this place to celebrate our 5th anniversary. The place has a reputation for great service and good food with excellent presentation. I'll review the meal itself in a second, but let me get somethings out first.....location was incredible as you can tell from the picture its beautiful, what you can't tell is that you are looking out over the entire Napa Valley and it is fantastic. complimentary valet service was nice. We were seated in a table overlooking the valley and really got to enjoy the view. On to service, we had this french waitress who wouldn't smile, clearly not having a good day. The sommelier was a guy named Chris, he was quite informative. I must admit we probably had 12-15 different people provide us service over the course of the meal, so they are definitely attentive. There must have been problems in the kitchen the night we were there, because the cadence of the meal was totally off....we ended up waiting between courses for an eternity. We decided to go with the 4 course fixed price. Here goes: the food was 'OK', price was ridiculously high, we probably would only return for sunset drinks...for the same price we could have ate at French Laundry or Le Bec Fin, and I can't even put this place in that league. The chef started us with an amuse buche then quickly into our first course I had Hamachi Sashimi on Lemon Gelee with Cucumber Jus, Christine had an Asparagus Soup with Lemon Creme next I had Tai Snapper with pork belly and Christine had Halibut which was excellent. For the main I had bacon wrapped veal tenderloin and Christine had Liberty Farm Duck...we both preferred the second to the main. For dessert I went with the sorbet which was refreshing and Christine had the phyllo wrapped chocolate dumplings which she loved. Overall if the meal came out in a timely fashion and a we had a lead server that was having a better day we would have rated this one higher.
Our rating:
Expected so much more: 2.5 stars out of 5
28 April 2007
Winery Review: Rubicon Estate - Rutherford, CA
Winery Review: Robert Mondavi - Oakville, CA
Restaurant Review: Celadon Napa, CA
Napa, CA
To start off I had flash fried calamari with a spicy chipotle chili glaze and pickled ginger, at first I thought this was going to be like a very typical calamari dish and was going to leave me craving for a good traditional red sauce, but I was wrong....the chipotle glaze which was a little oily was out of this world....the pickled ginger was a perfect complement...this was a great start. Christine had the endive and pear salad with blue cheese, candied walnuts and honey mustard vinaigrette and she thought the combination was well suited and liked it. For the main I had the roasted duck breast with wild mushroom risotto and black truffle jus, the duck was slightly overcooked but all in all I was quite pleased, great flavor pairings...Christine had the mongolian style barbecued chicken breast with basmati rice and grilled pineapple salsa and thought it was a great way to do chicken....not typical and great flavor. Service was decent, we had a bit of an annoying waitress...the drinks were great however. All in all the restaurant was great and we would definitely go back....sit outside if you can.
Our rating:
Great, would definitely return: 3.75 stars out of 5
26 April 2007
Sweet....a place to go when this one is ruined...and only 20 years away at light speed
23 April 2007
First Fork Art now Carved Crayons
A while back I reviewed some Fork Art.
Here is something along the same lines, Carved Crayons from Pete Goldlust take the everyday and making it much much cooler.
17 April 2007
last.fm
01 April 2007
Farecast, Remember The Milk, bubbl.us, Rollyo, and more...
Ok just booked some travel, for a wedding anniversary trip to Napa Valley, I've talked about farecast before and I just used it to time the absolute best price on this trip, not only are they spot on with the fare indicators, but the interface is fantastic....every airline and reservation service should model this UI, needs a small tweak here and there, but all in all top notch.
To Do Management:
I've also been using Remember The Milk religiously. This is far and away the best to do list manager, again great UI, keyboard shortcuts, shareable, rss-feed, great Netvibes widget.
Mind Mapping:
A few years back I used Mind Manager to facilitate some brainstorming sessions and it worked pretty well, more recently I had the need to do something similar and leveraged free mind (an open source mind mapper). I just got turned on to Bubbl.Us I guess it was only a matter of time before this space became web 2.0 savvy. I love it.
Search:
Rollyo is a Roll your Own search engine that federates across sites of your choice, with a web 2.0 social network built in. I have basically been using a shared Guitar Tab search engine, which is awesome, and a Mr. Fix-It search engine for a home project I am doing.
Food:
You must check out Wheel of Food, basically enter a zip code and a query (like, Atkins or Asian) and the wheel of food spins.
30 March 2007
17 March 2007
Knit hats
In any event its an awesome gift, I can vouch for the quality, quick turnaround and great price.
Enjoy and when everyone is asking you where you got the hat remember wonderfunk!
27 February 2007
Shameless plug
Not so shameless....it comes as no surprise, I am a huge google fan, and of course leverage a number of the tools coming out of the googleplex. I am asking each of you to check out the Free GooglePack....I know you already have some of these tools so why download....well easy you can opt out of the things you already have from the web page. So do me a HUGE favor and click the button to the RIGHT--->> in the sidebar and go get yourself some great software for the right price $0.
For those of you not familiar, GooglePack includes: GoogleEarth, Picasa, A Photo Screensaver, Google Desktop, Google toolbars for IE, Firefox, Norton Antivirus , AdAware SE, Adobe Reader, GoogleTalk, Skype, GoogleVideo Player, and an HD Image Player. You don't need to include everything, you can easily pick and choose what you need.
Get the googlepack, you will be pleasantly surprised.
Dennis
wonderfunk
String Theory in Two Minutes or Less
What a great contest.
microdose if you are reading I think this contest is tailor made for you.
Discover Magazine has a brilliant contest challenging people to video tape themselves explaining string theory
I am listening to: Presidents of the United States of America
25 February 2007
Yahoo Pipes Beta
Pretty cool aggregator+
In their own words:
Pipes is a free online service that lets you remix popular feed types and create data mashups using a visual editor. You can use Pipes to run your own web projects, or publish and share your own web services without ever having to write a line of code.Here is an aggregate pipe I created....if you like this blog you will probably like this pipe....it is a subset of what I read daily.
What I am listening to: Wild Fire
by Nelson DeMilledigg this del.icio.us
24 February 2007
perrine pods
Enter perrine architecture with their perrine pod (available Mar 1) Not only is this cool on one story, but they are stackable to 30 stories and the expandable to your hearts content. Think life size lego home on steroids with a great look. Anyway if you spend some time and poke around their site, they have already thought of some cool ideas.
From the architect:
Anyway, I'm a fan....I wish the price point wasn't outrageous, but hopefully this will come down over time, or someone will blatently rip-off the idea and provide it more affordably. digg this del.icio.usPicture a design so sophisticated and fabulous that it seems futuristic, yet so simple and uncomplicated that you wonder why no one has thought of it before.
"My design is about appreciating the beauty of simple, uncluttered space." The perrinepod is very functional, very sexy, very simple, with the form of the spaces inside following the function, there's no pretense, just simple, beautiful designs. It's a really cool thing to have no falseness - for example, the bathrooms are simply designed as a place to wash, backed up by quality materials.
Living spaces have become as transient and irrelevant as clothes. It's no longer a look for a generation, the look of 'now' only lasts for a three to four year period.
That approach is not sustainable and people are putting themselves under a lot of unnecessary pressure trying to keep up. The Perrine Pod is the antithesis of all of that - simple design, beautiful materials that will remain classic. It's not a 'look at me' statement, but a home that is comfortable, stylish and above all, functional."
- Jean-mic Perrine
19 February 2007
Steve Jobs Blasts Teachers Unions
From WebProNews.com
Steve Jobs Blasts Teachers Unions
Submitted by David A. Utter on Mon, 02/19/2007 - 06:35.
Apple's CEO has a problem with public schools that he sees as rooted in the unions that prevent principals from firing underperforming teachers.
Even though Jobs shared a Texas stage with Dell's co-founder and CEO, Michael Dell, the iconic Apple executive stole the show at an education reform conference. He criticized teachers unions and textbook publishers during a talk that received applause from attendees.
An AP report on his remarks cited Jobs' observation that no amount of technology could turn around classroom performance. Jobs compared the inability to fire poor teachers to a small business that couldn't get rid of its bad employees.
He called out unions for specific criticism:
"I believe that what is wrong with our schools in this nation is that they have become unionized in the worst possible way," Jobs said.
"This unionization and lifetime employment of K-12 teachers is off-the-charts crazy."
Some observers commenting on Jobs' remarks saw money as the cure. Said Robert Scoble:
If you want better schools, pay teachers $80,000 a year or more, AND give the staff power to get rid of bad apples (bad pun, given the cause of today’s post, I know) and you’ll see school quality turn around in an instant.
Don Dodge disagreed with the money argument:
The problem is not money. Schools already get more than 50% of the local budgets in most cities and towns. Health care is the same deal. We spend more per capita on health care than any country in the world. The problems with education and health care are not lack of funding. The problem is lack of incentive.
Dell chose to keep his remarks less incendiary. He said a less-competitive job market for principals contributed to the problems in schools.
digg this del.icio.us18 February 2007
Silverjet - great idea in air travel
To top it all off they are the first airline to go Carbon Dioxide Neutral.
I love it when companies shake it up and while not ignoring capitalistic instincts. Then again I guess we need to check back in 5 years to see if they are bankrupt, but until then I'm a fan.
14 February 2007
Reinvigorate, RubyForge, Protopage vs. Netvibes, Splashr, WikiWalki, Pad Thai for beginners, TicTrak
Catching up....I have a bunch of links I have been meaning to blog about, so here they are, enjoy:
Reinvigorate
I got an invite to this private beta...looks great from a stat collection and analysis standpoint. I'll let you know more in a view weeks.RubyForge
Great site, I have recently being using a tool called tracks, so I had to install Ruby onProtopage vs. Netvibes: conclusion coming soonRails on my PC, and since its already there, I started looking for other cool tools that I might like. RubyForge has been a very valuable tool for finding them.
I am wrapping up my multi-month comparison, and will write about my results shortly.splashr
Ok so I got a new camera and I have been snapping shots left and right. Nevertheless I have been actively leveraging my flickr account. I ran across this tool and I love it particularly for distributing a nice dispaly of tagged shots.WikiWalki
A community edited trail guide.....Finally, now it just needs to get populated.Pad Thai for Beginners
My favorite dish! Last year I got on a kick and must have made twenty different types of Pad Thai....here is my gift to you. Pad Thai is a great canvas for experimentation....Have fun.TikTrac
Time tracking is a hassle, but its a necessary evil as well sometimes. Try TikTracAlmost forgot this wild instructable....bound to get lots in trouble for v-day
listening to: The Gorillaz
digg this del.icio.us
07 February 2007
The World Is Flat
Reasons to remodel
04 February 2007
01 February 2007
Find a Conference or Meeting with this great web 2.0 tool
Their words:
Confabb combines an aggregate database of major conferences, conventions, and trade shows sorted by industry with social networking tools designed to empower conference attendees to improve their overall experience.My thoughts: Finally, the task of finding a relevant conference especially when your work changes domains frequently has always been a hassle, well no more.
digg this del.icio.us
27 January 2007
Rodrigo y Gabriela
Rodrigo y Gabriela these guys are incredible. I haven't been blogging about what I am listening to lately but this will be what I am listening to for a little while certainly.
Top 10 truly useful Firefox Extensions and 5 more for Web Developers
Actually this took some time, there were some tough ties.
Here they are:
1. Platypus combined with Greasemonkey
I just love this, the platypus UI makes it easy to select your page eliminations, and then facilitates easy install of the script for use by Greasemonkey. For me nothing comes close to this combo.2. Morning Coffee
If you are like me and fire open a couple of pages immediately upon opening your browser, or know that you have a few sites that you will use for guaranteed reference through out the day then this is a great extension.3. NoScript
I hate anything executing without my permission, this extension solves that problem.4. Paste and Go 2
Pretty self explanatory, but useful.5. IEView
This is great, if you work for a company that drinks the Microsoft Kool-Aid then this script is for. Invariably there are a ton of web pages that only work on or are optimized for IE....this lets you click into them or have domains auto-open in IE. Great and useful extension.6. DownThemAll
Excellent multi-threaded background download manager, allows for Reg-Ex filtering, etc.7. Fasterfox
Definitely speeds up the experience, minimally lets you see page load.8. ForecastFox
Every once in a while you need to leave the cool luminous glow of your PC and go outside...this extension helps.9. MouseGestures
I thought I would totally get addicted to Gestures, that didn't happen, but I still have four or five that I use constantly! Great flexible extension.10. Map+
Nothing revolutionary, but it lets you highlight an address and map to it from some pre configured starting points....useful.and 5 for WebDevelopers
1. WebDeveloper
2. MeasureIt
3. Colorzilla
4. CSS Viewer
5. View Source Chart digg this del.icio.us
17 January 2007
More Tokyo
a view from AquaCity
pastry and confectionery shops are enormously big here
Ginza
Wendy's surprisingly popular, however they top every burger with a fried egg....
The art piece outside of our building....a 10ft garden gnome with an interesting hat
14 January 2007
Tokyo Day 1
Currently in Tokyo on business, here are some shots:
My car from the airport, crazy with electronics (not visible from this picture) but of course the car had DVD Nav, Multi-adapter phone charger, LEDs everywhere, mp3 stick radio, receipts printing with each ez pass toll....the Japanese don't have more electronics, they just seem to use them more effectively.
View in Ginza from the cab.
From my room at night.
Some contrast....Cherry Coke is still Cherry Coke, albeit with a totally different look (which I like) and an Ice Tea I bought at the local convenience store....made by Sapporo, seems as though all of the iced teas are made by beer companies (or vice versa)
08 January 2007
50 things to do before you die
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