Wednesday, October 31, 2012
How Wine Became Modern: Design + Wine 1976 to Now; an SF MOMA Exhibit
OmmWriter brings its clean, calm writing interface to Windows
OmmWriter attempts to take that aesthetic and make it somehow more spiritual, with three picturesque backgrounds and ambient background audio tracks (there are seven of each in the paid version).
I'm of two minds about this app. On the one hand, yes, it's beautiful. But if you want music as a background to your writing, why not pick your own soundtrack with Winamp or Foobar2000 running in the background?
OmmWriter also offers three keyboard-clicking sounds, which are kind of nice. None of these features are groundbreaking, really. OmmWriter could be seen as a way to gently ease into the world of distraction-free writing -- in case something like WriteMonkey's dark background is just too oppressive for you.
After the fold you can see a video showcasing several of OmmWriter's features and creative soundscapes.
Continue reading OmmWriter brings its clean, calm writing interface to Windows
OmmWriter brings its clean, calm writing interface to Windows originally appeared on Download Squad on Fri, 01 Apr 2011 13:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Half off 1 Year of Unlimited Shipping from Wine.com
Steward-Ship is kind of like Amazon Prime. For a flat rate of $49 ($24.50 with this offer) Wine.com will ship wine to you for a year. Steward-Ship can also be used to ship wine and gift baskets to other addresses since it's tied to your account rather than a single receiving address.
I've had Steward-Ship for a couple years now and, especially when you can get it for half off, it's a good deal. What I like about it is how it enables quick shipment of just a bottle or two without having to fret about building towards a mixed case to reduce the per-bottle shipping costs. Like last week when I wanted to get a bottle of 2010 Cosme Gigondas shipped out here. Other retailers had it for a few dollars less. But none would ship a single bottle out for free. So Steward-Ship worked nicely.
Yes, Wine.com's prices are a little high compared to other retailers. But if you keep your eye out for coupons and especially half off vouchers they've run the past couple years, a year's worth of wine shipments for $24.50 is a nice deal.
You can buy Steward-Ship now without place a wine order. Just add Steward-Ship
50% off Wine.com Steward-Ship membership. Enjoy free shipping on wine and gifts all year. Join Steward-Ship and enter code SSAFF in cart. Offer ends 8/26/2012
Security firm RSA attacked using Excel-Flash one-two sucker punch
The exploit, which used specially-crafted Flash embedding in Excel spreadsheets, was first reported on March 15 and has since been fixed. RSA was hacked sometime in the first half of March when an employee was successfully spear phished and opened an infected spreadsheet. As soon as the spreadsheet was opened, an advanced persistent threat (APT) -- a backdoor Trojan -- called Poison Ivy was installed. From there, the attackers basically had free reign of RSA's internal network, which led to the eventual dissemination of data pertaining to RSA's two-factor authenticators.
The attack is reminiscent of the APTs used in the China vs. Google attacks from last year -- and indeed, Uri Rivner, the head of new technologies at RSA is quick to point out that that other big companies are being attacked, too: "The number of enterprises hit by APTs grows by the month; and the range of APT targets includes just about every industry. Unofficial tallies number dozens of mega corporations attacked [...] These companies deploy any imaginable combination of state-of-the-art perimeter and end-point security controls, and use all imaginable combinations of security operations and security controls. Yet still the determined attackers find their way in."
What we'd like to know, though, is whether the attack on RSA was caused by Adobe's lackadaisical approach to patching Flash -- or was it the other way around? Was it the RSA attack that first brought the zero-day vulnerability to Adobe's attention?
Security firm RSA attacked using Excel-Flash one-two sucker punch originally appeared on Download Squad on Wed, 06 Apr 2011 06:55:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Closing In On 30M Users, Waze Goes Big On Social: Adds Facebook Connect, Pickup Requests, Location Sharing & More
Apple's launch of its new mapping service, the ensuing backlash and management shakeup, have been anything but its proudest moments. Adding insult to injury, As Kim-Mai reported two weeks ago, Apple's pain quickly turned into a gain for other map makers. However, for most, this was only a temporary blip. Only one company was able to sustain increased marketshare: Waze, which saw its share of U.S. iPhone users jump from 7 percent to 10 percent.Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/-LmhRuz5lsU/
KEY KINGSTON TECHNOLOGY COMPANY L1 IDENTITY SOLUTIONS LAM RESEARCH
Kendall-Jackson Humanizes Their Brand
Kendall-Jackson Humanizes Their Brand originally appeared on Winecast. Licensed under Creative Commons.
Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Winecast/~3/x4ruIoL8u44/
LAND SOFTWARE Larry Brooks LAWSON SOFTWARE LEVEL 3 COMMUNICATIONS
Windows Home Server 2011 released to manufacturers
Built on the Windows Server 2008 R2 base, Home Server 2011 features a simpler dashboard, a better backup solution, dead simple remote access to your home computers, and Silverlight-powered remote media streaming. For a more detailed look at what's new in Windows Home Server 2011, you check out Microsoft's official breakdown.
Drive Extender, of course, didn't resurface for the final release of WHS 2011 and that's something a lot of power users are still pretty irked about. Even without Extender, Windows Home Server offers a boatload of useful functionality and might be a good fit for your home network. Manufacturers have already begun building hardware, so you should be able to pick up a device in the very near future.
An evaluation download for Windows Home Server 2011 will be made available in April -- we'll let you know when the links are ready.
Windows Home Server 2011 released to manufacturers originally appeared on Download Squad on Wed, 30 Mar 2011 08:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Source: http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2011/03/30/windows-home-server-2011-released-to-manufacturers/
Tuesday, October 30, 2012
Australian Wine: The Once and Future King?
You’ve never heard of Campbell Mattinson: He’s a young, urbane Australian wine wordsmith who forsakes the academically erudite and plaintive wine writing style of legends past for a muscular writing style that is jocularly loose yet incisive, showing every bit of the wunderkind talent of his global English-language contemporaries, Jamie Goode and Neal Martin.
Likewise, you probably haven’t heard of Mattison’s *new* wine book, Thin Skins: Why the French Hate Australian Wine first published in Australia in 2007 and now just released in America.
Seemingly stillborn upon its October publishing date in the states and updated with a scant epilogue where the author notes, “The headiness described in the early passages of this book is now long gone,” the book formerly offered in situ context on the boom and looming bust of the Australian wine landscape and is now something of an ipso facto think piece on the manifested reality.
With recency in absentia as one negative checkmark, Thin Skins as a body of work brooks no favors for itself either. Even when first published four years ago, it represented a compendium of articles and profile pieces, individually quite good, but collectively never quite transcending its constituent parts, especially one that supports the premise of the title. And, unlike its subject matter, time has not aged the book into cohesion.
Worse still, brought to the U.S. market by publisher Sterling Epicure, the book is likely supported with little more than the gas it takes a truck to drive a meager allotment of books to an Amazon.com warehouse and the dwindling number of Barnes & Nobles that still populate the landscape, a veritable line item in an editors’ fourth quarter publishing spreadsheet under the header, “wine.”
Thin Skins seems destined for a hastened half-life and quick retreat to the remainder bin at Half-Price Books…it’s an ignoble fate heaped upon by my damnation.
But, I’ve feinted purposefully, misdirecting by caveat because, despite everything I’ve mentioned having some inherent truth(including the author being very talented), Thin Skins is a wildly entertaining book that delivers on providing a teasing glimpse into a distinctly Aussie viewpoint on the factors that led to the Australian wine boom (Parker points, market forces, greed and drought) and in so doing the author makes three key points worth repeating:
1) The Aussie wine industry, save for its Gallo-like equivalents, is NOT happy about their country’s production being viewed globally as syrupy supermarket plonk
2) Our U.S. perception IS NOT reality regarding Australian wine; their wine industry has an abundance of refined, terroir-based wines from small vintners
3) The Aussie wine business will rise again on the international scene (in an entirely different form).
One key takeaway for me from the book is that Australia is remarkably similar to the U.S.
In the U.S., some reports indicate that 90% of the wine sold is “corporate” wine, the kind found at supermarkets across the country. However, what IS different is that 90% of our national conversation about wine focuses on the 10% of the wine production that ISN’T in the supermarket i.e. everything non-corporate – the boutique, artisan and interesting.
Yet, when it comes to Australian wine, we don’t continue our conversation about the small and beautiful. Instead of talking about the superlative, we view their entire country production through the lens of the insipid, the Yellowtail and other critters that cost $6.99 at Safeway.
American wine consumers would be rightfully indignant if the world viewed our wines not as we do, a rich tapestry, but as industrialized plonk from the San Joaquin Valley.
This is where Australian wine is at today—a ‘perception is reality’ mistake of colossal proportions.
While offering an abundance of stories from small producers along the way, Mattison suggests that while it may take time, with Australia having 162 years of winemaking history, the day will come, sooner rather than later, when Australian wine forsakes its near-term reputation and is viewed on the world stage as a wine producing country that can proudly stand next to its New World peers.
I wrote recently that I’ve noticed a slow change in tenor from American influencers regarding Aussie wine, they’re becoming more sympathetic, they’re starting to speak less dismissively and more optimistically and holistically about Australian wine, discussing the merits and great diversity in the land of Oz.
Recent Symphony IRI sales data bears this out as well. According to a Shanken NewsDaily report from this week, Australian wine in the $15 - $19.99 category rose 23% in September. In addition, growth is coming from varietals not named Shiraz (see also syrupy supermarket plonk). Instead, Semillon, Riesling and Pinot Noir are showing growth.
Still, it’s not the land of milk and honey here in the states for Aussie wine, as it once was. Overall sales are down by volume and dollars, but as Mattinson alludes the correction in the U.S. market isn’t going to be pretty, but it will be healthy and it’s quite possible that Australia will decrease in overall volume and dollar sales from persistent decline at the low-end for years to come as the high-end grows, but not at a rate to replace what was lost.
The net sum of that doesn’t balance a spreadsheet, but it does balance mindshare.
Pick-up Thin Skins if you want to get turned on to a great wine writer while also enjoying a greater understanding of Australian wine – where it has been and where it’s going—perhaps not as a future King, but definitely not in its current role as court jester.
Campbell Mattinson’s Wine Site: The Wine Front
Source: http://goodgrape.com/index.php/site/australian_wine_the_once_and_future_king/
Haydn’s Review of the Hard Row to Hoe Shameless Hussy Sangiovese Dry Rose
VMware adds Mozy to its cloud and virtualization empire
VMware's official blog post makes it clear that the company wasn't so much interested in Mozy as a consumer offering. Rather, it's the inner workings of Mozy which piqued VMware's curiosity. CTO Steve Herrod says, "Over the past 5 years, Mozy has built one of the best examples of a globally distributed, large-scale cloud offering." He adds that the move will allow VMware to "further ramp our own cloud-related learning and accelerate new IP, scale, and capabilities" of its existing offerings.
Existing Mozy customers don't need to worry, of course. VMware has pledged to continue running Mozy's service without interruption.
VMware adds Mozy to its cloud and virtualization empire originally appeared on Download Squad on Tue, 05 Apr 2011 11:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Source: http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2011/04/05/vmware-takes-over-operation-of-mozy/
Charlies Angels Charlize Theron Chelsea Handler Gisele Bundchen
iPad Mini: The Difference Is in the Details
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WESTERN DIGITAL VOLT INFORMATION SCIENCES VISHAY INTERTECHNOLOGY VIRGIN MEDIA
Nexus 10 Specs
Here are the complete specs of the Nexus 10:
- Display: 10.055” 2560 x 1600 (300 ppi) WQXGA, HD PLS w/ Corning Gorilla Glass 2
- Dimensions: 6.99 in (177.6 mm) x 10.39 in (263.9 mm) x 0.35 in (8.9 mm)
- Weight: 1.33 lbs (603 g)
- Camera (Main): 5MP, 1080p video
- Camera (Front): 1.9MP, 720p video
- Memory: 16 GB or 32 GB
- Processor: Dual-core A15 Eagle
- GPU: Mali T604
- RAM: 2GB
- OS: Android 4.2 (Jelly Bean)
- Battery: 9,000 mAh Lithium Polymer
- Wireless Dual-band Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n (MIMO+HT40)
- Dual-side NFC (Android Beam)
- Micro HDMI
- 3.5mm headphone jack
- Bluetooth
- Sensors Accelerometer, Compass, Ambient light, Gyroscope, Pressure, GPS
- Standby: up to 500 hours
- Music playback: up to 90 hours
- Video playback: up to 9 hours
- Web browsing: up to 7 hours
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Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/androidcentral/~3/XTaS6OWZgio/story01.htm
Wine Word of the Week: Claret
Wine Word of the Week: Claret was originally posted on Wine Peeps. Wine Peeps - Your link to great QPR wines from Washington State and beyond.
Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/WinePeeps/~3/-RcQHChgm64/
Monday, October 29, 2012
What to Do With Your Dog During Hurricane Sandy
WESTERN DIGITAL VOLT INFORMATION SCIENCES VISHAY INTERTECHNOLOGY VIRGIN MEDIA
Why Android Jelly Bean 4.2′s Multiple User Account Switching Is Tablet-Only? (Hint: Nokia Patented It For Phones)
One of the coolest (and most useful) features of Google's Android Jelly Been 4.2 update is multiple user account switching, offering up the option to have several users share access to a device, while keeping their settings and content walled off from each other. It's something we've been used to on PCs forever, so it's bound to be welcomed by Android users. However, we've learned that the new feature will likely only apply to tablets, certainly as far as Google's Nexus range is concerned. Phones need not apply. The reason -- and this is purely an educated guess on my part -- could well be that back in the day Nokia already patented the idea (via its acquisition of Symbian). Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/VT3cFb1X64A/
Livescribe Sky Wi-Fi Smartpen Hands On: Digital Note-Taking Gets a Little More Magical
Family Guy Chelsea Handler The Young and the Restless True Blood
More New Wines from Tablas Creek Vineyard
Cueboy Quest is an adorable 8-bit style physics game
You play an 8-bit cowboy whose goal on each level is to get to the door (and thus to the next level), but the door is often locked. To get it to open, you must shoot at one or more targets, and those targets aren't always in your line of sight. For example, on one level the the target is a balloon which is stuck all the way at the other end of the screen. You must first nudge it free, and then watch it float up and try to shoot it before it floats clear off the screen. Your bullets are chunky pixels that have some weight - the have arcing trajectories, so you don't always hit exactly where you aim.
There's another level where you must jump on the balloon as it floats up, use it as a platform to get to the other end of the screen, and then turn to shoot it very quickly before it flies away. Each level is very short, and most of them are quite easy. And not only are the graphics 8-bit blocky, but they're large too. Simply beautiful!
Cueboy Quest is an adorable 8-bit style physics game originally appeared on Download Squad on Tue, 22 Feb 2011 17:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Source: http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2011/02/22/cueboy-quest-is-an-adorable-8-bit-style-physics-game/
To Successfully Launch A Product, You Have To Tell A Compelling Story
"The art of narration and dramatic presentation, together with a keen sense of the oral epic style, became a characteristic quality of the Russian people." —Vladimir Propp, Morphology of the Folktale At the end of a week filled with product launches and press conferences, it's hard not to compare those marketing events. Without even talking about the products, some were much more compelling than others. And it all comes down to the story that you tell, as a company. Failing at that task will greatly endanger your product.Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/M2kdwpnyw6g/
Frederic Bolley INTERNATIONAL GAME TECHNOLOGY INTERNATIONAL RECTIFIER INTERSECTIONS
Sunday, October 28, 2012
Air Canada launches iOS 6 Passbook support for boarding passes
Air Canada has launched Passbook support for their electronic boarding passes, and submitted an update to their App Store app that will include iPhone 5 support and allow for on-device Passbook generation as well.
Customers who check-in on mobile.aircanada.com, aircanada.com or at and airport kiosk and access their Electronic Boarding Pass with a supported device (iPhone or iPod touch on iOS 6) will receive the Passbook version of the Electronic Boarding Pass. The Passbook version works just like our existing Electronic Boarding Pass and will allow customers to identify themselves at airport kiosks, check-in counters, enable them to pass through security and board their flights.
Passbook is a new feature of iOS 6 that collects all tickets, coupons, gift cards, and similar vouchers, all in one place, for convenient mobile access, including notifications and live updates.
Air Canada also says they have more Passbook enhancements planned for 2013. Frankly, I hope they have better ones as well. The current version of the Air Canada app is one of those all-too-common websites in a thin app wrapper and that's never a good user experience. (Which is still the biggest problem facing Apple's Passbook in general.)
I'm not going to hold out much hope that the Passbook updated version of the Air Canada app includes, you know, an actual native app, but the sooner large organizations learn that loading a web view into an app just isn't good enough, the better it'll be for everyone. There are tons of great development houses out there. Hire them, don't handcuff them, and let them make you great apps.
Kudos to Air Canada for the rapid integration of Passbook, relatively speaking. Now let's see them really wow us.
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Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TheIphoneBlog/~3/zezFPm47Jr8/story01.htm
2007 St. Emilion Premier Grand Cru Classé
Source: http://www.wine4freaks.com/35/2007-st-emilion-premier-grand-cru-classe/
Josh Coppins KEY KINGSTON TECHNOLOGY COMPANY L1 IDENTITY SOLUTIONS
US Navy tests first 11-meter missile-firing sea drone (video)
Advances in unmanned military tools and vehicles have come on leaps and bounds, but, until now, we haven't seen a weapon firing drone operating in the seas. A recent test taking part offshore near Maryland saw several missiles launched from a new remote-controlled inflatable-hulled ship. While the Navy has used drones before for mine clearing and other defensive tasks, the small boat (similar to that pictured above) is the first experiment to involve true offensive capabilities. The almost zodiac-like craft has been an ongoing project over recent years, and contains a fully automated system which the Navy calls a "Precision Engagement Module" which uses an Mk-49 mounting with a dual missile launcher manufactured by Rafael. The hope is that such vehicles could patrol the coastline, or serve as a first defense against pirates, and other such small, fast-moving seafaring dangers. If you want to catch it in action, head past the break for the video, but don't be fooled. While it might look like a series of misses, the Navy claims this is just a trick of the camera angle, with all six missiles apparently making contact.
Continue reading US Navy tests first 11-meter missile-firing sea drone (video)
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US Navy tests first 11-meter missile-firing sea drone (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 28 Oct 2012 05:18:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/knxHaLv6zuk/