Great Things

Snow day - a great day

I love a good snow day. Having lived in Seattle for the past seven winters, we didn't get much snow but when we did the entire city shut down and played. While six inches of snow doesn't do a lot to slow down Boston or Toronto, it cripples a hilly city like Seattle where people don't know what a snow tire is. The last snow day I enjoyed was in January 2004 when there was enough snow for people to snowboard down the hill that I lived on. Amazing! 

A usable media center

I have to first confess to not having tried using the media centre PCs that MSFT is putting out but my life as a media consumer has to get easier than it is now. My first problem is how difficult it is for me to buy and install a TV these days. I want a nice 42 inch plasma screen with great sound so I can enjoy Duke basketball come November and watch the occasional movie. It seems that I need an electrical engineering degree and 80 hours to actually figure out what to buy and how to install it. Sony, who used to my friend in this space, hasn't delivered anything useful to solve the problem. Dell and Microsoft have never been the best at usable design and plug and play. Maybe Apple will put out the I-TV. 42 inch flat screen with great sound that is hooked up to a massive hard drive connected to the web. I buy it at the Apple store, come home, open the box, hang it on the wall and plug it into broadband + power. Maybe it even plays music.

That brings up my second problem, no Tivo in Canada. Ok, that is just the beginning of my second problem. How much would you pay for access per month to access on your TV a) every TV show ever shot  b) any film every produced including ones opening in the theatre last night. All commercial free. Why can't I have every episode of MASH sitting on my hardrive ready to watch. What about the Duke-Kentucky Final Eight game in 92 when Laettner hit the jumper at the buzzer? Given I am paying $40 per month for my broadband and another $50 for my cable for an experience that is so, so bad. I would pay $100 per month for this service. And I can guarantee you that I am not spending $1200 a year consuming film and TV right now.

Some entrepreneur with good connections in Hollywood and a flair for design is going to solve this problem soon. I can't wait.

Strategic News Service - great technology newsletter

It is difficult and time consuming figuring out what media (mainstream, independent, blogs) to consume in order to stay current. One source of information that I find to be enormously useful as I think about the future of the technology marketplace is the Strategic News Service put out by Mark Anderson.

Mark is very smart, very well-connected and has the ability to take complex issues and make them simple. He sees patterns before others do and he tells his readers why those patterns are important. Finally, his community of readers are bright, forward thinking people who are trying to change the world. Only downside is the cost to subscribe which is $600 annually. I choose the media I consume very carefully and this one is worth the cost and more.

 

Best Radio Station on the Planet - kexp.org

Put simply, KEXP plays great music. If you are local to Seattle, tune in at 90.3 on the FM dial. If not, then listen over the web. It is the radio station of the University of Washington. Whoever does the programming for the station finds and then plays great new music. They have basically no commercials. The only time they are annoying is the "annual" pledge drive that happens two or three times per year. Anyway, you should give money because you are supporting independent radio that delivers superior programming. Their website is outstanding; they have streaming archives, playlists, reviews, live streaming, podcasting and so much more. Please support radio stations like this one that are trying to bring us music that matters instead the s#*% that we are forced to listen to on commercial radio every day.

John Richards, the guy who does the morning show, is particularly stellar. His daily email playlist is a welcome gift to your inbox every morning.

Great food: pesto

Made a killer pesto for dinner last night. The key differentiator here is the addition of mint. This stuff is great with a simple dish of pasta, on a do-it-yourself pizza, or as a sandwich spread. It keeps in the fridge for a week or for two months in the freezer (don't add the cheese until after freezing if you go this route).

2/3 cup fresh basil leaves
2/3 cup fresh parsley leaves
2/3 cup fresh mint leaves
1/3 cup pine nuts
1/3 cup parmesan cheese
1/2 cup olive oil
2 cloves garlic minced and ground with 1/2 teaspoon of salt
1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar
salt and pepper to taste

Dump all the ingredients in a food processor and hit it. Key tip on making it stick to the pasta a little better is to add 2 tablespoons of the pasta water to the pesto before mixing.

Tofino - great places

So it occurred to me to write about what I think are some of the greatest places on earth to visit, to eat BBQ, to watch a sunset or do whatever. The first spot on my list goes to Tofino, British Columbia, Canada. I hate to write about this place because I don't want anyone to find it before I own a shack on Chesterman's Beach...but bloggers seem to feel the need to share.

Eat: Sobo, Wickaninnish Inn, Tough City Sushi

Sleep: Long Beach Lodge, Wickaninnish Inn, Osprey Beach Suite, The Middle Beach Lodge

Do: Sea kayaking

Shop: Storm Surf Shop

To Do: Surf, beach walk, eat, sleep, listen to the surf

Sunrise on Chesterman's in February 2005.

Visit here and you will be happy regardless of whether the sun shines or the wind and rain blows. The geography is truly awesome.

Learning to blog

It is embarrassing that I claim to be an internet guy and I am just really discovering the blogosphere right now but better late than never is what I always say. My take so far is that there is an enormous amount of noise but also an enormous amount of value. The value of branded old media is that the do a good job of curating and analyzing what is important for me to read. I enjoy the New York Times and Wall Street Journal every day because they organize news for me into a digestable format. What I am finding interesting about the blog world is that a) I am hearing things way before I read about them in old media and b) I can get enormous detail on topics that are too obscure for old media to worry about.

More for another day.