Opinion

I will (attempt to) match Gary’s style and review this show as he does wine.

It is important to note that I am talking about the new Wine Library Reserve videos. These are a condensed version of the regular Wine Library TV episodes that roll in around 5 minutes. I am a huge fan of Wine Library TV and here are my thoughts about the new Reserve.

Wine Library Reserve 2008, $0

To begin with, the show is very watered down. In only 5 minutes it is hard to get the full flavor of Gary. The “nose” on this show is really tight and it is hard to get much out of it. We lose one of the most important aspects which is Gary’s unique personality. You get small hints of the flavor, but nothing special that will blow you away.

Additionally, they tried to spice up the show with some new fancy animations. In the end it is way to synthetic and forced. I get these fake flavors in my mouth. It feels like they were placed there after the fact for mere WOW effect. I will admit that some of these can be useful (showing the grape and country) but overall it brings a bad finish.

Like Gary says, trust your palette. This show may not agree with mine but it may be right up your alley. You may like this shorter snazzier version and there is no problem with that. Either way check out both Wine Library TV and the Reserve and make your own judgement. For ZERO bones, either show is worth a taste.

Most of us have heard the phrase “when life gives you lemons, make lemonade.” We sometime fail to realize that there are other things we can make with these lemons. We can make lemon pie, lemon flavored italian ice, lemon smoothies, lemon cookies, etc. The point is that even when you get hit with tons of problems they can be turned into many different good things.

There is a limit to the conversion. There are only so many problems, or lemons, that one person can handle. After a certain point it just gets ridiculous. You can keep making delicious treats but lets face it, nobody would like an entire lemon flavored meal. I don’t want to sit down and eat some lemon cookies with my lemon pie and have lemonade while I prepare my lemon basted turkey.

So remember, when life gives you lemons create delicious food but fix the problem before you create a meal.

The Twitter following is growing larger everyday.  It seems like more and more people that I know, both in person and through the internet, are joining.  One of the biggest hurdles is keeping these people on long enough so they see the benefit.  Here are some tips to make your trip with Twitter as enjoyable as possible.

1. Turn on phone updates. - Twitter works best when you have easy access to it, and what better way then through your phone.  If you are like most humans, you constantly have your cell phone with you.  This provides the easiest access to Twitter.  Once you link up your phone, it will only take seconds to post (send texts to 40404).  The other bonus is that you will receive updates from your friends.  You can choose whose updates get sent to your phone and whose will remain on the web.
2. Follow, follow, follow. - Follow people.  Get your friends to join and follow them.  The fun doesn’t stop there.  It is completely acceptable to follow people you have never met.  You may not know the journalists who write your morning paper, yet you still read their articles.  If you think they post neat stuff then they probably deserve a follow.  I understand that some of you may not know many people on the internet, so here is a list to get you started.  Remember that you can always stop following people down the road with no hard feelings.  Add first and decide later.
   • Biz Stone - He is one of the co-founders of Twitter.  His tweets vary greatly.  It couldn’t hurt to start here.
   • Jack Dorsey - Another co-founder of Twitter.  Again, it couldn’t hurt.
   • Veronica Belmont - Co-host of tech podcast Tekzilla.  She has some real quality tweets.  I highly recommend following her.
   • Annette - It is true that this is my girlfriend, so I may be a little biased.  But, my friends tell me they enjoy her updates more than mine.
   • John Gruber - He generally posts interesting tweets.  Be warned, he posts a bit on the techy side.
   • Amy Jane Gruber - This is a must follow in my book.  Her tweets are absolutely hilarious.  They are so good that me and my girlfriend often discuss them.
   • Scott Simpson - Another must follow.  He posts a real grab bag of material.
   • Scott Beale - Writter of laughingsquid.com.  He often posts links to other sites.
   • Gary Vaynerchuk - If you are a fan of Wine Library TV, then I don’t really need to say more.  Careful, Gary tends to post a lot.
   • Dr. Tiki, Johnny Johnny, Lala - Fans of Tiki Bar TV will like these.
   • Alex Albrecht, Dan Trachtenburg, Jeff Cannata - These are the hosts of the Totally Rad Show.  Great guys all around and good to follow.  Oh and I couldn’t leave out Steve who mans the camera and has mad editing skills.
   • Me - You can always follow me.  If you like the content of this blog, then you may find my updates entertaining.
3. Relax and update. - Don’t hold back.  If something pops into your head then send it off.  Something that you think is mundane may just make someone’s day.  The more you update the better Twitter becomes.  Have fun with it.  This service is meant to provide a good time and if you let it, it can be a blast.

This should be more than enough to get you on your way.  I wish you the best of luck in this crazy internet world limited to 140 characters.  

Twitter, update your friends now. Facebook, update your friends eventually. People utilize Facebook to find out information about their friends or others they may or may not know. They track photos, hobbies, jobs, etc. The problem is that there is a delay. People need to update their profiles with the newest information in order for their friends to be informed. I rarely update my Facebook profile. It takes time and energy to evaluate my life in regard to interests and happenings. On the other hand, I use Twitter the second an idea pops into my head. The point is the data on Facebook is out of date. On the other hand, if you follow me on Twitter, you will find out things instantaneously. You will get links, rants, and music recommendations. People are always Facebook stalking to find information. Instead, they should just follow these people on Twitter.

Twitter may not have photos and all the features that Facebook has, or does it. Sure it isn’t incorporated into Twitter, but I can just as easily link out to my flickr photos. Post up a tweet that says, “Had a great time at the Field Museum, here are some photos.” Now I have started to pull in some extra features. If you wanted even more fluidness, then go to Pownce. There you can get the photos integrated into the posts. You can also expand further on Twitter/Pownce. I continue to find great people to follow by looking at others. My girlfriend and I constantly update each other with who is posting interesting stuff.

In the end, Facebook needs to change up where it is headed. It needs to learn one important aspect of business, things change and you need to evolve with them. Facebook was the first step, before that you would have to take the time and ask each of your friends what they were doing or if they had listened to any interesting music lately. On Facebook you could just go to their profile and look it up instantaneously. Facebook brought you information quicker and easier. Now there are other services out there that improve upon that.

Not many people know about Twitter yet. I am talking about the general population, not the web geeks. Once more and more people learn about these services, you will see a large shift to instant information. It may not be Twitter, but it will share the instant characteristic. The point is that Facebook needs to evolve or they will see usage dive as people satisfy their hunger for information.

I was inspired by this video from Gary Vaynerchuk of Wine Library TV. It really sparked my curiosity and opened my eyes to the speed of data transfer. I am not talking about your up/download speeds, I mean the speed in which you can get information about your friends.

There seems to be this notion popping up on the Internet that one must side with either Twitter or Pownce.  There is no room for both and they are inherently rivals.  It isn’t the general consensus or rule, but it does sway some people’s opinion.

The truth is, they are very different beasts.  The text entry box is about the only thing they have in common.  Once you shed the preconceived notion that they are the same or that Pownce in encroaching on Twitter, you can see the benefit of both these services.

Twitter derives its power from simplicity and the text interface.  This basically makes it a powerful text messaging/notification system.  It allows you to blast quick thoughts, ideas, and frustrations to your friends and followers (large groups of people).  At times Twitter reminds me of a man standing around shouting things into a bullhorn.  I can tune in momentarily to hear what is on his mind or what he is up to.  Overall, Twitter is very simple and very addicting.

Pownce on the other hand doesn’t have the same benefits as Twitter.  It is more complex (not in a bad way) and lack’s a texting interface.  It gains complexity in the fact that you can post much more content such as files, events, and links.  Pownce isn’t really ideal for the quick blurb of what people are thinking as much as re/aggregating content.  It is more like a customizable blog, in which you choose who writes it.  You can search across the Pownce community and become a friend/fan of people who write/aggregate content that you enjoy.  Instead of going to a blog dedicated to photography or lifehacks, you can choose friends on Pownce who will deliver that content.  Pownce also allows comments and ratings which helps create a community much like a blog or other website.

As you can see, these two services aren’t mutually exclusive.  You can incorporate them both into your life.  One as a message service and the other as a customized blog.

You can find me on both Pownce and Twitter.

Robert Scoble wrote a post about professors banning Google and Wikipedia as sources for research papers. He compared these professors to those who banned “newfangled Macintoshes” back in his day.

I completely disagree with this comparison. He is comparing the use of tools to sources of information. I fully support the professors who ban the use of Wikipedia and Google as sources for college research papers.

Wikipedia is a great place to get some quick, general, and shallow knowledge about a topic that has no bearing on their professional career. For example, one could look up the history of Nintendo for their own personal interest but should not use Wikipedia when writing a paper on Nintendo’s affect on the US television market.

The problem occurs when you are writing a research paper for college. Wikipedia does not give you enough depth of information or have any authority behind it. You have no idea who edited it or their bias. Wikipedia does have a decent amount of the facts cited, but then a student should read that website/book/article and cite accordingly. This would provide them with a broader and deeper view of the topic, and the professor would not know that they used Wikipedia. The problem is that they are getting the article in Wikipedia and then the research stops there. That does not give them an extensive enough view on the topic. If they do use Wikipedia, they should take the extra steps and follow the citation links at the bottom of the articles. Some of the time, this will lead them to more credible sources with more information. It is their duty as the researcher to determine if these articles are coming from a credible source.

Additionally, many colleges and universities offer a wide array of databases to their students*. Many college students pay for the use of these databases, yet choose Wikipedia. They should instead go to their library and ask for some assistance with these databases and in finding and determining credible sources.

I was actually shocked that Robert said that Google was a good source for research. Recently, he posted some videos describing that Google is doomed because it is spammed by SEO or Search Engine Optimization. SEO creates the same theoretical problem when a student searches for credible sources through Google. The first three results may be very relevant but not unbiased. They will be able to obtain good articles and research, they just have to wade through most of the optimized sites and those that have a financial investment in the topic. Many college students don’t understand this and believe that the top three results are the most credible. They will then use articles from WebsiteX.com instead of a professors article on Profsite.edu. If they do choose to do an internet search, they might want to try Google scholar and search scholarly articles that have been published and reviewed. While they are at it, they should just use the many databases that are offered by their library*.

Overall, I believe that students are using Wikipedia and Google as a crutch when doing research papers. Those are both places to easily obtain information, but by themselves are by no means sufficient. By banning the use of these websites for research papers, professors are helping their students to research credible sources.

[Original Article and Scoble's Post]

* I do know that some students may be at a disadvantage because their University does not offer these sources.

For those of you who aren’t super obsessed Apple Fanboys, you may not know that one of the biggest Apple events, Macworld, is right around the corner. In fact, it all starts on Tuesday 1/15 and Steve Jobs will tell us about those amazing and shiny new products that Apple has been working on. But I am not talking about Macworld. What interests me are the weeks that lead up to it.

The weeks, or even months, before Macworld is when people start “leaking” information that someone on the “inside” has passed along. In addition, you also see speculation about where the industry is headed and the products that are “definitely” going to be released. Some rumor sites post lists of their readers ideas and speculation, most of which sound as if there origins are in a science fiction story. We hear stories about really cool technology that doesn’t really sound feasible. In the end, most of the rumors and speculation are usually wrong and way off the mark, but this doesn’t negate their value. In fact, these fake rumors are just as important as the products that are actually released.

All these fake rumors were created by someone’s imagination. They dreamt of things that they would like to see invented and instead of shooting down an idea because it was unrealistic, they ran with it. They told others about these ideas and somewhere along the way it turned into, “Company A is going to release product B according to a reliable source.” The fact is, a companies innovation is limited to their creators imagination. If people stop dreaming and start saying “this isn’t possible” or “it can’t be done” then innovation will come to a standstill. Some of the greatest products are a result of people following their imagination.

I don’t believe that all, or even most, of these rumors are started by employees at Apple or other tech companies, but their idea could still make it there. Someone may hear about this idea and try to make it a reality. These creative individuals may even start their own company or find their way into one that is already established.

Remember to take the rumors you hear with a grain of salt, but don’t stop enjoying these fantasy products that may show up in the future.