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Wednesday, February 27, 2013

SMS-Magic - Downtime Notification - March 3rd, 2013

Dear All,
In our continuous effort to provide reliable services to you, We have decided to upgrade our Server Infrastructure. Please be informed that We will be performing Up-gradation/maintenance work during the period specified below which will affect outgoing and incoming SMS traffic.

Type: Server Upgrade

Customer Impact: High

Date: Sunday, March 3rd, 2013

Time: 7AM to 9AM (IST, Indian Standard Time)

Impacted Services: SMS Magic App on Salesforce , SMS Magic Customer Portal, Zoho Services, Banking Services.

Description: We are upgrading Server Infrastructure for better performance and enhanced security.
We apologize for the inconvenience, and will keep you updated with the latest developments if need arises.

Kind Regards,

SMS Magic Team
[email protected]

For more information on SMS Magic Interact, go to

Follow us on Twitter and Facebook

Update: SMS Magic Server upgrade has been completed successfully. Thanks for co-operation. Please email to [email protected], if you are facing any issues related to our services.

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Bookmobile Heaven

Exile Bibliophile has a Flickr set of over 40 vintage Bookmobile photos.

All deserving of a spot in the big parking lot in the sky.

Another Flickr group Bookmobiles Parnassus on Wheels has more

Michael Lieberman

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Mailman pinned by car driven by drugged-out driver in downtown Seattle

Seattle police say a drugged-out man behind the wheel of a station wagon injured a mailman and a woman in short but wild spree of bad driving Tuesday.

The man, who was behind the wheel of a black Volvo station wagon, was driving south in the 2200 block of Second Avenue and ran into a parked car just before 3 p.m..

The parked car jumped forward, pinning a mailman who had been standing at the back of his truck.

The Volvo driver wasn’t done. A woman who had seen what happened walked up to the Volvo to talk to the driver, but he drove off. The woman got caught in the Volvo, fell and injured her hip.

At Second and Blanchard Street, the driver of a pickup blocked the Volvo to prevent escape. That’s where police found and arrested him.

Officers believe he had been using drugs and were evaluating him for drug or alcohol use after the accident.

The mailman, who is in his 50s, and the woman were taken to Harborview Medical Center for injuries that are not thought to be life-threatening.

Casey McNerthney


text: Canadians – View from the Bleachers This weekly blog is humor writer Tim Jones’ personal search for signs of intelligent life in the universe and his neighborhood. He’s still searching. See what he discovered this week. Sun, 19 Feb 2017 13:08:43 +0000 en-US hourly 1 55699165 So you think you know Canada, eh? Seven myths about our neighbors to the north Thu, 01 Mar 2012 00:08:23 +0000 0 871


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Here’s what the first Macworld looked like in 1985

The ceiling was much lower, there were maybe a couple hundred people milling around and Steve Jobs was nowhere in sight. The most memorable object was a 11-foot-tall model of a Macintosh computer with working screen. Take away that striking sight and the guy soldering semiconductor chips on circuit boards, and this could have been a textbook sellers convention at the Red Lion Hotel.

The first MacWorld in 1985 looked much different than the current incarnation, which peaked with more than 50,000 attendees at Moscone Center several years ago. (Macworld/iWorld 2014 is setting up today and begins on Thursday.) Held at the modest Brooks Hall near the Civic Center during that first year, total attendance was at most a few thousand.

During a search in the Chronicle archives last year, I found a negatives sleeve containing dozens of 35mm images from the first Macworld expo.  Sadly, they’re all black and white. (The Chronicle didn’t start publishing in color until the early 1990s.) But photographer Steve Ringman — known at the paper for his excellent concert photos — went the extra mile for the assignment, getting images from different corners of the expo.

The photos are above. The article that ran in the Chronicle on Feb. 23, 1985 is below. But first, assist me in my search for this kid who went to Macworld in a rad Prince “Purple Rain” T-shirt …

Do you know this kid? (Photo: Steve Ringman/The Chronicle 1985)

Do you know this kid? (Photo: Steve Ringman/The Chronicle 1985)

* If you know this awesome prince of the 1980s, or if you are the kid in the photo, please contact me at I’d like an interview for my Let’s Go to the Q&A project, where I track down people who appear in old Chronicle photos and ask for their memories.

I’m especially impressed by the mid-1980s trifecta of this kid: The white Swatch, Prince “When Doves Cry”-themed shirt and Miller’s Outpost jeans. (Prince would play the Cow Palace just six days later.) Hoping this young fan mowed a lot of lawns in 1985 and used it to buy Apple stock.

* The Chronicle has more photos of early Apple events, including the 1984 Apple Forever conference/rally with Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak and John Sculley at the Moscone Center in San Francisco. We’ll show those and other Macworld photos another time.

* I also scanned the original 1985 Chronicle article about the first Macworld, which ran on the front of the Business section. The trade show received a favorable review from John Eckhouse — the article noted the “big crowds” but wasn’t specific on the size. I’m guessing “thousands of Macintosh fans” equals about 2,000. The article is below …

macworld front1

macworld jump1

Also in the Chronicle: columnist Herb Caen wrote an item about running into Steve Jobs while Macworld was going on. Cuddling of a blond nymphet was involved …

caen jobs1

 Macworld founder David Bunnell provided his own fascinating perspective of the Caen/Jobs meeting on his blog. Check it out here.

If you like this kind of Bay Area nostalgia, or want to make sure you don’t miss any follow-up articles, please follow me on Twitter or become a fan of The Big Event on Facebook. And if you went to one of the early Macworld trade shows, please share your memories in the comments.

PETER HARTLAUB is the pop culture critic at the San Francisco Chronicle and founder/editor of The Big Event. He takes requests. Contact him at Follow him on Twitter @PeterHartlaub. Follow The Big Event on Facebook.

(Photo: Steve Ringman/The Chronicle 1985)

(Photo: Steve Ringman/The Chronicle 1985)

Peter Hartlaub


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December 10, 2012

comfy kale soup with kielbasa, veggies & beans

soup collage1
One of the perks of cooler weather is comfort food and this recipe doesn't disappoint.  It's basically a mash-up of several recipes. I went for the richer version this weekend (don't judge) but later I may try to slim it up a bit. Or not.

I went a little heavy on the kale, as you can tell from the pictures so, like me, feel free to adjust your ingredients according to preference. Isn't that the best way to cook anyway?

-most are approximates according to the veggies I had on hand-

6 oz. of kielbasa
1 tbs. olive oil
(all veggies are cut into about  1/2" - 1" pieces)
3/4 lb. carrots
1 large onion
2 stalks celery
4 oz. mushrooms
1 garlic clove, minced
8 c. broth (I used 4-vegetable stock and 4 chicken)
4-5 small potatoes
2 cans cannolini beans, drained and rinsed
one bunch of kale with the ribs removed and torn into bite sized pieces
1 tsp. smoked paprika
salt & pepper to taste
1/2 c. heavy cream

Cut the kielbasa into 1/2" pieces.
Combine with olive oil into a large soup pot over medium heat until browned.
Remove from pot and set aside.

Into the original pot, add carrot, onion, celery, mushrooms.
Season this layer with salt & pepper.
Saute about 5 minutes.
Add garlic and saute another minute.

Add broth, potatoes, kale, beans, paprika, s&p.
Add the kielbasa back onto the mixture.
Bring to a slow boil and then cover and simmer for a good long time.
Or for about 30 minutes.
(I did a good long time, thus the condition of the kale in the images)

Add the heavy cream about 15 minutes or so before serving.
Enjoy with a crusty loaf of bread, salad, sammy,
glass of wine...milk...margarita...
whatever floats your boat.
Just enjoy.

  1. Yum, I'll eat just about anything with kielbasa and beans. Cool and rainy here this might be just what I need for dinner tonight.

  2. Um, YUM! Can't wait to make this!

  3. Mmmm...looks delicious. I agree - I love soup on a cold day. My family isn't big on kale, but I like it.

    Hey, did you know I've been writing a cooking post on my book blog each weekend?

    Here are some of the recent cooking posts:

    Hope you have a good week!

  4. wow it sure looks healthy and tasty, especially in the cold winter months

I love reading each one of your comments. Thanks for your visit and have a wonderful day.

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var and val are coming to Java

A Hands-on Overview of the New Java Local Variable Type Inference Language Feature

A new JDK Enhancement Proposal (JEP) is making waves in the Java community: JEP 286. The proposal suggests to introduce Local Variable Type Inference in future versions of Java, in order to simplify the writing of Java applications.

In the following post we will explain what it means and how it will affect your code.

The var Proposal

The new language feature suggests adding some syntactic sugar to Java – simplifying it and improving developer experience. The new syntax will reduce the ceremony associated with writing Java, while maintaining the commitment to static type safety.

In other words, you’ll be able to declare variables without having to specify the associated type. Oracle stated that this new feature will allow, for example, declarations such as:

var list = new ArrayList<String>();
val stream = getStream();

That will replace the current syntax:

List<String> list = new ArrayList<String>();
final Stream<String> stream = getStream();

As you can see, the Local Variable Type Inference will allow using the var keyword instead of specifying the type of the variable.

Java is known to be a bit verbose, which is good when it comes to reading and understanding what you or another developer had in mind when a function was written. For those of you who always thought it was a bit tedious, the proposal marks a significant change.

This proposal is not relevant for Java 9, which is already in the making and will also change the way you code.

To JEP or Not to JEP?

A few weeks ago Brian Goetz, Java Language Architect at Oracle, published the survey results for this new proposal. The main question was: “What do you think of the proposed Local Variable Type Inference feature overall?”. 2,453 developers replied, and the result we’re mostly positive:

What do you think of the proposed Local Variable Type Inference feature overall?
What do you think of the proposed Local Variable Type Inference feature overall?

The second part of the survey focused on the future syntax, suggesting 5 options to choose from based on similar use in other languages, such as C#, Scala, Swift, C++ or use let. Most users chose the var/val option:

Possible syntax options
Possible syntax options

Even though most users approve of this new option, reading through the comments section shows developers who approve of this change, asking Oracle to “get with the times”, pointing out this change should apply only to val and even asking for more changes, such as multi-line strings.

The developers who are against this proposal claim that it might be difficult for those who are taking their first steps in Java, or point out that the existing syntax is the “right mix of verbosity and legibility” and that “the diamond operator was a good move”, unlike the current proposal.

Where is This Change Coming From?

One of the most common complaints about Java is the amount of boilerplate coding required to write it. A few lines of Java code can be written with a single line in other languages, such as C++, C#, Scala and Go.

While Type Inference is not a new concept in Java, it is a new concept for local variables.

It was partly introduced in Java 7 (as part of Project Coin) with the diamond operator (<>), which allows initializing lists without a type bound ArrayList<>, and in Java 8 with Lambda Formals. For example, using the diamond operator allowed writing the following code:

List<String> list = new LinkedList<String>();

And of course, on the JEP 286 summary page you’ll be able to find the following justification from Oracle for adding the new feature:

“Java is nearly the only popular statically typed language that has not embraced local-variable type inference; at this point, this should no longer be a controversial feature”

How Will This Affect Your Code?

Oracle knows that the community might take time to adapt and accept this new proposal. While it’s still not clear if and when JEP 286 will become a reality in future versions of Java, it’s enough to make a few developers in the community speak out.

If you’re one of those developers, you’d be happy to learn that this treatment is restricted to:

  • Local variables with initializers
  • Indexes in the enhanced for-loop
  • Locals declared in a traditional for-loop

Oracle states that It will not be available for:

  • Method parameters
  • Constructor parameters
  • Method return types
  • Fields
  • Catch formals (or any other kind of variable declaration)

Due to Java’s commitment to support previous versions of Java, we can assume it won’t break backwards compatibility.

Do Try This at Home

We at Takipi always love to try new things before they hit the market, and JEP 286 is exactly that. If you didn’t form an opinion about JEP 286, you can check it out for yourself right now.

As part of the Adopt OpenJDK program, Richard Warburton and Raoul-Gabriel Urma has publicly posted unofficial builds of the Open JDK with JEP 286 support. That way, you’ll be able to experiment with the new features, get to know what JEP 286 is all about and get a taste of it in action.

Final Thoughts

This new proposal is stirring things up in the Java community, getting a lot of attention. The fact that you can test drive the new feature right now will help developers realize what the future of Java might have in hold.

It is important to remember that this is an early proposal and it’s still not clear whether Oracle will implement it. That’s why we encourage you to participate in future surveys and be an active part of this JEP, and other future Java related features.

I write about Java, Scala and everything in between. Lover of gadgets, apps, technology and tea.
  • mquinsland

    JVM without verbosity? Maybe Java 9 will be spelled S-C-A-L-A

    • ehud lev

      Exactly !!!! I wonder when they add macros 🙂

    • Jason LeCount

      Exactly it. It feels like you could get this improvement plus twenty others by just switching to scala rather than improving java piecemeal…

      I personally feel like somebody has made me type one-handed when having to go back to writing java.

  • Yonatan Graber

    Lombok provides the val functionality for a while: Generally speaking, Lombok reduces significant amount of verbosity, and probably should always be used.

    • Henn Idan

      Hi Yonatan, cool, thanks for pointing it out!

    • TryIO

      please don’t! it’s a good choice when you need to create prototypes, but then you’re gonna regret it…

  • davidriss

    I’ve been writing code using Java for 15 years or more, and one thing I can’t understand is why they keep insisting in not putting a better way to generate getters and setters, which still being the heart of many design patterns in Java. I hate to open a VO java source and see 10 times more lines than it would be needed. I know Java committee would bring a nice explanation on why they keep things that way, but the fact is: more lines of code cause more bugs and requires more effort to understand. Java is loosing field to other languages like Scala or even others because they are too stubborn to accept some changes. Just for the records, I generally use Project Lombok to get rid of getters and setters generation, but I miss an official solution to it.

    • paul

      The problem with giving java first class properties (i.e. an implicit getter and setter for fields) is that fields and methods are treated differently for inheritance: having call an implicit ‘getName’ method would theoretically break existing code which relied on the fact that field access in java does not go through the override dynamic dispatch mechanism (where as a call to an implicit getter would). To be honest it was a bit of a facepalm design decision not to dispatch field access the same as method access but were stuck with it if we want to maintain backwards compatibility.

      • davidriss

        I know, and I wouldn’t expect a real property, but at least an annotation or a property keyword to get rid of tedious and error prone pattern :
        public void setValue(T value) {
        this.value = value;
        public T getValue() {
        return this.value;
        I can’t believe that I’m still being obliged to do that in 2016!

        • TryIO

          The «property» proposal was given for Java7, but it was denied. The reason was due that Java can survive without them, since generally speaking (but this is a huge topic as well) properties used as getter/setter is a bad practice. With JEE8 for instance the evaluation of the JavaBean state won’t rely on getters/setters by default (nowadays – that is JEE6/7 – it is), but on inner-fields, since as you said getter/setter methods are an error prone pattern (and they are able to invalid the state of an object).

          In my opinion data classes (that is all such classes with a list of never-ending properties) are a bad practice too: in Scala you have case-classes, in Kotlin you have data-classes and other langs propose something similar (in Groovy is even worse, since you just need to define the sequence of inner-fields and under-the-hood they are going to be all getter/setter methods by default).

          • Oleksandr Alesinskyy

            Yes, but the same “can survive them” logic is completely applicable to the var/val proposal. Likely, to even greater extent as the “property” proposal does not decrease code readability, and “var/val” does decrease (not critically, but decrease).

          • TryIO

            I think the problem is not readability but designability 😉 if we want to keep defining huge objects with ton of backing fields, Property can increase readability but not design in my opinion.

            var/val is just a shortcut to define local fields in the end and if you’re code doesn’t break law of Demeter and the compiler cares about method returning type (as it has been suggested in the proposal) you’re able to write readable code anyway. This strongly depends on what kind of developer reads others’ code and who wrote that code, but this is a never-ending debate which not depends on var/val.

          • Oleksandr Alesinskyy

            Yes, and the problem is that a developer and the compiler may be of different opinions of a type of such variables.

            Mainly, it breaks (to some extent) on of the main principles formulated when Java was conceived – Java is for readers and not for writers.

          • TryIO

            I didn’t follow you on «different opinions» about compiler, what do you mean?

          • Oleksandr Alesinskyy

            A developer may make incorrect judgement about what a compiler will infer.

  • Mario Pimenta dos Reis

    Java can be more useful and do things in few less lines as other languages can do, Getters and Setters can be smallers. the developers of the new JDK would made Java a new language for better purposes. Lambda was a great addiction i hope they revise Java to make it more modern.

  • TheMeerkat

    I personally don’t se a problem with verbosity. Most of the time we spend on reading code, not writing and in many cases verbosity actually helps to understand the code.
    I had a bit of experience with Kotlin and I found that I was missing been able to find the types of the variables easily).
    I have the same problem with functional style – when you see a long multi-line statement with a lot of functional calls, it is more difficult to understand if you not familiar with the code and the types of what is return by functions are not clear.


text:
by Ted Gonder

Social entrepreneur on a mission to even the odds for future generations.

Read this first

Practical Gratitude

Life is hard. Sometimes circumstances get you into a rut. Earlier this year I was running on fumes, coming off of several failed deals and tough personal circumstances. In my sleep-deprived daze, as an attempt to get out of a funk, I pulled out a notebook and just started listing things I felt grateful for.

“Things i’m grateful for:

 -in Moscow seeing the world (lots of fascinating travel)

 -healthy body despite what I put it through with all this travel

 -more principled and consistent than i’ve ever been (even though i still stumble into the occasional trap of self-loathing)

 -my family loves me and I love my family

 -great friends whom I can call and who call me when things are wonderful and/or terrible

 -can read and have read lots of great books that have helped me put my life in perspective

 -meaningful impact on many lives through my organization’s work

 -less afraid of dying

Continue reading →

How to Take an Emotional Vacation

Strain is a wonderful thing. When we work hard toward what we believe, we earn something that’s far more valuable than money: meaning.

But besides meaning, too much strain for too long with too little rest can lead to injury. In athletics, injury is usually visible - you feel pain and your coach or doctor tells you to ice it, stretch it, and take some time off. Outside of athletics–in the rest of life–injury is more often emotional than it is physical. And emotional injury isn’t so visible.

Emotional injury can happen in one traumatic instance or it can happen over time from the grinding of ungreased gears. In either case, there’s not a lot out there to prevent and treat emotional injury (unless of course you count the antidepressants being popped by one in four American adults). And living in a culture that equates rest to “playing hard,” binge drinking, and the four-hour daily dose

Continue reading →

The Supernova Inside Us

The universe is an incredible thing. It’s huge, and growing, and we’re incapable of understanding almost any of it.

Part of why it’s incredible to us is because we’re responsible for it, at least in our own minds. We certainly didn’t create it, but we did invent our perception of it. We invented the word “universe” as well as the scientific tools to explore it.

The universe and space and nature fascinate us as humans because we like knowing how all of it relates to us. As individuals and as a species, we like interpreting nature to serve our discovery agendas.

Unlike most other earthly species, we can conceive of and interpret our place in nature to serve the ever-evolving views of the world that we use to govern our lives. We possess the conscious ability to view ourselves from outside of ourselves. And when we step up onto this mental balcony, we feel both humbled and empowered by

Continue reading →

The Best Advice I’ve Gotten (and Why the Best Advice Isn’t Advice)

“Do not believe in anything simply because you have heard it. Do not believe in anything simply because it is spoken and rumored by many. Do not believe in anything simply because it is found written in your religious books. Do not believe in anything merely on the authority of your teachers and elders. Do not believe in traditions because they have been handed down for many generations. But after observation and analysis, when you find that anything agrees with reason and is conducive to the good and benefit of one and all, then accept it and live up to it.” - Buddha

As a knucklehead teenager, I had lots of energy but little direction. Not until a math tutor offered guidance did the fog start to clear and the internal compass start to calibrate.

With goals and vision came clarity, curiosity, and ambition. I’d experienced the damning frustration of idleness already and knew I’d be a

Continue reading →

On the Origins of Mentorship

Words only speak as loud as the actions behind them. And actions speak louder than words.

I’ve written before about what a huge impact mentors have had on my life. In fact, mentorship has been so meaningful to me that I decided to build an [organization](www.moneythink.org) that spreads it. Mentors have given much of the advice, perspective, connections, inspiration, and ego-checking I’ve needed to excel. Which is why I felt compelled to write when I learned of the word’s origins.

The word “mentor” originates in Homer’s The Odyssey. In the story, Mentor is a wise character who stands up for his beliefs, imparts wisdom through his actions, and offers advice in times of trouble. When the bystanding majority fails to stand up for Odysseus’ family under attack, Mentor calls them out for their cowardice and omissive crimes. As Nassim Taleb wrote: “If you see fraud and do not say fraud, you

Continue reading →

7 Reasons I’m Obsessed with Big Cats

In the past year, I’ve become fascinated with
large cats (tigers, lions, cheetahs, jaguars, panthers, leopards, lynxes, cougars, mountain lions, ocelots, etc). At first, it was just basic admiration, but the more I learn, the more I am drawn to their way of being. Their grace, their focus, their resilience, their flexibility, their adaptability. The gazelle changes direction and the cheetah follows; prey rarely hears the leopard’s silent stalk; tigers are unassumingly beautiful until they unleash their fluid fury and deliver destiny to their dinner. This all sounds violent and constitutes the precise reason that my mother always hated the Discovery Channel. But something about it–the contradiction between violence and grace, the perfect alignment between intention and expression in the moment of truth–intrigues me.

Photo credit: Suha Derbent: http://www.suhaderbent.com/

I’ve wasted

Continue reading →

Something to Lose

The moment we let ourselves believe we have something to lose is the moment we let paranoia invade.

Think of your nice home burning to ashes, your sexy car stolen and totaled, your exciting job offer evaporating, your partner leaving you, your best friend betraying you.

It’s easy to get lost in a fantasy of futuristic self-pity, anticipating how much worse life would be were you to lose your favorite things. But would life actually be worse? Is there not a silver lining to every loss? Does not the crumbling of every structure create space for new art and play? A crumbled home is an opportunity to enjoy smaller spaces; a totaled car is an opportunity to explore environments by foot and bicycle; a lost job is a chance to sharpen your instincts and consider better positioning; a failed relationship is a chance to look inward and cultivate self-love. Losing things builds character and

Continue reading →

Abandoning Mediocrity and Seizing Opportunity

This post was originally written for the White House Blog in March 2012 - it’s re-posted here as part of a personal effort to have all my public writing in one place: http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2012/03/15/abandoning-mediocrity-and-seizing-opportunity.

I’m honored to have Moneythink recognized as one of the five Champions of Change in the White House Campus Challenge. It’s surreal: three years ago, when Moneythink was just an idea, we dreamed of taking our passion—financial education through peer mentorship—to a national stage. We didn’t realize just how much more relevant our mission would become in those short three years.

Financial illiteracy, economic immobility, and educational inequality are problems that continue to worsen in America’s urban centers as the global financial crisis unravels further. But as with any challenge, the outcome is in the response: we as individuals

Continue reading →

Why Entrepreneurs Should Join the Government

This post was originally written for McKinsey Voices - it’s re-posted here as part of a personal effort to have all my public writing in one place: http://voices.mckinseyonsociety.com/ted-gonder-government-entrepreneur-in-residence/

If you have a compelling start-up idea, the Chilean government will give you $40,000 to move there and build it. The Chilean embassy in your country will grant you a one-year visa within days. When you arrive in Chile, you’ll have free offices, fast Wi-Fi, unlimited coffee and croissants, and a community of intrepid friends. Not surprisingly, the Chilean program has received thousands of applications from entrepreneurs worldwide.

Chile’s start-up recruitment program was the brainchild of a serial entrepreneur whom the government recruited to help ignite a new wave of economic growth in the aftermath of the 2010 earthquake. When I reported on the program

Continue reading →

How to Make Good Decisions without Rational Thinking

“All successful people operate by principles that help them be successful. Without principles, you would be forced to react to circumstances that come at you without considering what you value most and how to make choices to get what you want. This would prevent you from making the most of your life.” - Ray Dalio

When I was younger, I was bad at math. Growing up in this Age of Economics with folks equating “smart” with “rational” often made me feel insecure as to whether I would have the mental horsepower to make good decisions in a complex world. If I couldn’t solve a basic Sudoku puzzle (still can’t, by the way) how could I possibly succeed in the 21st century? The answer so far: good advice, hard experience, deep reflection, reading, intuition, and principles.

 The only way I’ve gotten anywhere in life so far is with this formula:

 –> 1. listen to advice from mentors

 –> 2. work

Continue reading →


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The Blue Piano is one chill summer wine bar

When in Miami, we try to eschew the disco-ball nightclubs on South Beach. Check out The Blue Piano Music Lounge & Wine Bar, which is off the beaten path in the Design District. It’s worth checking in for both the piano players and the serious-ass wine selection. That is, “if there’s some place that you’d rather be” (Billy Joel).  4600 NE 2nd Ave. 305-576-7919,


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Tag: New York Craft Beer

Look who’s Back

  Hello once again, beer lovers! (…and haters. I know you’re on here, too. Register to comment! Stay awhile.) Like Ben, I’ve been away for quite some time. With good reasons, true. With some

TAP NY 2014

One of the most anticipated events on the Upstate New York craft beer calendar is upon us. This weekend marks seventeen years since TAP NY, one of the state’s premier craft beer festivals and the

For all intents and purposes, the Ravens Head Brewing project taking over the Armory in Cohoes is dead and buried. It seems that the source of investment capital that was their lifeblood has dried up,

The Great American Beer Festival

  The Rockies were the first thing I saw as we touched down at Denver International Airport. Cool. The more distant peaks were snow-covered, while behind me, the Great Plains rolled into the far

Runnin’ down a dream

  If you’ve followed me here or on my personal blog, you know by now that I am pretty concerned with the local beer movement. When I first started writing about beer earlier this year, it was

One step forward, two steps back

While mulling over a few ideas I had to write about yesterday, it just so happened that a distressing piece of news fell right into my lap. Coming on the heels of this week’s numerous successes in the


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This IS your grandmother’s knitting

If you put “not your grandmother’s knitting” into Google, over 30,000 items will come up. When knitting started its resurgence and becoming hipper than hip, that headline was used so much, it used to drive me crazy.

I came across this amazing story from Copenhagen, Denmark. There’s a group called “Kaffeslaberras” which is made up of older women knitters, many over 80, who surprisingly are not sitting in rocking chairs and making doilies. “Kaffeslaberras” describes a cozy chat around a coffee table, which is what the women participate in each week. They are all expert knitters and meet to chat and support each others work and creativity. One Christmas, designer Susanne Hoffman, discovered the women’s work at a holiday market and she approached them to make items for some contemporary Danish designers. Read all of the details here.

I love that the designers appreciate the fact that the handmade items are not perfect and that each one is unique. In our mass marketed society, this is so refreshing to hear, isn’t it? The items are labeled with photos of the knitters and say “Made with coffee and cookies.” So cute!

Watch this lovely video featuring Erna, one of the knitters and designer Mads Nørgaard:

KAFFESLABBERAS // MADS AND ERNA (SUBTITLED) from Kaffeslabberas on Vimeo.

Hope everyone’s thawed out from last Saturday’s snow. Looks like a sunny weekend ahead, so enjoy!

Image courtesy of

Ellen Margulies

3 Responses

  1. I love the sign that says, “Made with coffee and cookies”. I wonder if I can get away with, “Made with a delicious bottle of wine” 😉

  2. Voie de Vie says:

    Actually, I think they should go with your tag line!

    And don’t you love query/results as copy fodder? What would we do without our Internet search engines. 🙂

  3. Lindy says:

    What a great concept, thanks for sharing! (I always like to see creative older women being acknowledged!)


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It’s okay to be a “carb snob”

 Sage Colleges nutrition student Claire Cloakley has something to say….               How many times have you heard someone say, “I’m giving up carbs.” But why?  There has been a long time

“Let go” of picky eater worry…

 Sage Colleges nutrition student Elizabeth Katzman shares her experience with a stubborn, picky eater…. It is a rare and wonderful thing when my four-year-old daughter eats a complete and balanced

Organic…what’s in a name?

Sage Colleges nutrition student Sara Ashline, shares her thoughts on what it means to be organic….                   One of the reasons I decided to go into the nutrition field is to educate

Fight Hunger with the ValleyCats-Friday, July 26th

Summertime Blues….

  Here’s advice from Sage nutrition student and summer blogger, Charissa Pratt…. Remember the days when summer meant no school, no responsibilities and sunny days filled with tanning, pool

No more Farmers Markets for me!

Here’s a “tongue-in-cheek” view from Sage nutrition student, Monica Salafia, that may get you thinking. I don’t know what I can’t stand more: the realistic prices of the sustainably harvested produce

Don’t get “Hangry”

Sage Colleges nutrition student, Claire Coakley, tells us to ditch the crash diet…read what she has to say….               Everyone has been on a diet, it’s not fun. Counting calories and

To juice or not to juice?

   Here’s an interesting perspective from Sage Colleges nutrition student, Sara Ashline:   Three years ago I watched the documentary, Fat, Sick, and Nearly Dead.  It was an inspirational


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DO NOT READ THIS POST if you love a wine bargain!

Do you love to find an amazing wine at a bargain price?

If you answered yes, you must immediately navigate AWAY from this page!

Seriously!  Leave now before it is too late!

Go!  Your credit card will thank you!

So you stayed…. prepare for life to change as you know it.

WTSO.  Wines Till Sold Out.

Thanks to faithful reader and frequent commenter Mark, I now have an account with WTSO, and I get push notifications from them on my smart phone.

Wines Till Sold Out = crack-for-wine-lovers.  This online company purchases cases of wine, and then sells them at ridiculously low markdowns!  Only one wine is sold at a time, and when it is gone, you have lost out.  It feels a bit like the home shopping networks, but without a real-time counter, so you can’t tell how much is left.  You just need to order before everyone else gets in on the bargain and leaves you out in the cold.

Stephen and I signed up and have been looking at the push notifications for a few days… thinking… considering… wondering if those wines really would go for $70/bottle, but we could get them for $15-25/bottle.  Really?  Could it be true?

You also get full tasting notes for each wine offered, as well as ratings.

See that beauty to the right?  Domaine de Wardy 2006 Private Selection Red Blend.  The bottle retails at $70, but I got it for $15.  It received a 91 rating.

Smarter than smart this WTSO – if you order four bottles, you do not have to pay shipping.

I ordered four bottles.

I am back to just looking at the push notifications.  I will wait till my four bottles of bargain red arrive before pulling the trigger again.

Mark, I don’t know whether to love you or hate you!

Claire Ziamandanis


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Nothing says Spring quite like soft pastels and sweet Easter treats! Here is some inspiration for an Easter party that kids and adults will both appreciate.

easter inspiration board

L to R: Tiny Prints Egg Holders Easter Party invitation, Cake, Egg Carton Cupcakes, Pastel Eggs, Candy Jar, Pastel Rice Krispie Treats, Bunny Macarons

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Category: Inspiration, Inspiration Boards, Party Ideas & DIY
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Tuesday, November 13, 2007

Ordered Zonbu Thin Client Linux Computer

Zonbu miniature PCI ordered a Zonbu thin client Linux computer as an experiment to see it is practical as a consumer product. It cost $US312.94 with accessories and delivery. The order took 7 minutes 26 seconds to complete, with one series problem encountered, which is reasonable for a moderately complex product (but more than it should take for such an inexpensive one).

The Zonbu was ordered via the web site using a credit card at 3:43 PM on 8 November 2007. Using the cheapest shipping method (USPS Priority Mail International) it is supposed to take 3 to 6 days. It will be interesting to see when it turns up.

   International plug adapter - AustraliaAlong with the Zonbu Desktop (with no monthly subscription), I ordered a USB Wifi Dongle, and an International plug adapter for Australia. One point of confusion is that the "Shopping Wizard" did not offer the adapter plug as one of the accessories in the standard purchasing dialog. I had to go back and click on "Accessories" after the other items. It is unlikely the average consumer would know they need the plug or be able to find it if not promoted. Zonbu need to change the dialog to offer the adapter, perhaps only if the customer enters an Australian shipping address.

The Australian power plugs are also used in New Zealand, Fiji and Papua New Guinea. They are also usually compatible with those for China and Argentina.

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Vintage Chalkboard Pantry Labels by Lia Griffith

In a vintage chalkboard design, here is a full kit of pantry labels to add a stylish touch to your kitchen and even inside your cupboards. Designed by Lia Griffith of, these labels are ready to print, trim and apply to all of your pantry jars. For those of you who have a gluten-free kitchen, Lia prepared another kit for your gluten-free baking flours and gluten-free pastas.

All of these designs can be printed onto full sheet labels. The labels are designed so that you can trim then as a rectangle or follow the bracket shape of the design. One tip Lia suggests is before you begin to trim the labels, peel and replace the backer so it will come off easily once you have cut your preferred shape.

If you want to match your herb and spice jars with this trendy chalkboard design, you can download that kit over at Enjoy

  • Pingback: Printable Pantry Labels in a Vintage Chalkboard Style | Lia Griffith()

  • paige

    Is it possible to cut these on a silhouette? If so, how would that be done? Thanks.

  • ana

    Are these free to print? I am trying to print them but nothing happens…

  • ana

    can you provide a blank template there a few things I would like to add like “Chia Seeds, Wheat Germ, etc… Thank You so much

  • Chanel

    The Chalk board Pantry Label Kit does not work. Its keeps giving me an error when I click to download. Can this be fixed please? I love the labels and would like to download.

  • wlmanager

    Right click on the image that says “download chalkboard pantry label kit” and save link as. Then open, it works fine. Enjoy!

    Worldlabel team

  • Chanel

    Still not working. Says its damaged and can not be repaired. When I tried it your way it still did not work.

  • wlmanager

    I would uninstall Adobe Reader and download a new version. Clear all your cookies. Or try donwload on another computer. There is nothing wrong with the file!

    I will email you the file..

  • Jessica

    I am having a hard time downloading this file can you please email the downloadable images of the vintage pantry chalkboard labels!

  • wlmanager

    HI Jessica, sorry your having trouble. Please right click on download link and save file as. It should work fine :)

    Thank you so much

    Worldlabel team

  • Lisa

    Is it possible to have blank chalkboard pantry labels sent? I love the labels but she has a lot of foods I don’t. Thanks!

  • Debbie

    I love the herb/spice labels! Mine are such a mess!! Any chance of getting some blank ones (or did I not see them?) for other herbs/spices (i.e. store bought mixes or homemade mixes, etc)??

  • Shar

    Having same problems as Chanel & Jessica. Followed your directions to correct. Getting error from Adobe that this file is damaged and can’t be opened. Would you please check the file?

  • Erin

    I also would like some blank ones. I haven’t seen a response yet to those asking. I need Pine Nuts, Barley, Raisins and just “Pasta” as I have no idea what kind I will get month to month! If you do offer blanks, if you could let us know the two fonts used so I could duplicate?

    Thanks so much! Can’t wait to try these out!

  • wlmanager

    Hi Erin
    I will need to ask Lia Griffith about this and will let you know Thank you so much

  • Karla

    Did you ever find out about the blank ones or editable ones. Does she sell them?

  • wlmanager

    Hi Karla

    Please feel free to contact Lia Griffith about this. She has an Etsy store:

    Best regards

  • Taylor

    From the bottom of my heart, thank you so very much, having Celiac Disease I very much appreciate the Gluten Free labels, and having a daughter with autism I appreciate all of the labels as it has saved me precious time.

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  • Kelly

    Hi Lia!! I’m a huge fan of your work, especially these vintage chalkboard labels both for herbs and jars! How can I purchase the blank sheets? And does it come with the same fonts? :) (For both sets?) Thanks!

  • Lisa

    Lia, Thanks so much for the gluten free pantry labels, they are so much prettier than the clear P-Touch strips that I have been using on my storage jars. I’d love to share a link back to the the GF Pantry Labels on my gluten free blog. Please let me know if that would be okay and if it is how you’d prefer it to be handled. I love your designs!

  • Pingback: 30 Day Organizing Challenge | Day 11 - Food Pantry |()

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  • Pingback: 23 Free Printables to Organize Everything | Making Lemonade()

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  • Donna Desforges

    I was wondering if anyone else noticed the spelling error on the small labels, “Spilt Peas” instead of “Split Peas”, kinda funny though!

  • Stephanie

    Hello, I got a funny brown colour when printed! Do I have to print in black & white?


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Monday, June 4, 2012

At Least I Didn't Get Arrested

World Book Night
World Book Night (Photo credit: danbruell)
My plan: I was going to go to this wonderful site I picked and put up the wonderful signs I made and hand out the wonderful free book I picked for World Book Night, and enter into some wonderful discussions with people about reading and about my book o' choice.

It was going to be... wait for it... wonderful.
See, from the moment I heard about World Book Night, I wanted to be involved. Somebody would give me 20 free books, that I would take out into the public, proselytizing the Joy of Reading, while others throughout the US, UK, and Ireland were doing the same thing, on the same night?

It would be like the good ol' days when I lived in a religious cult. (True story. Someday I will share.) Despite years of near starvation, sleep deprivation, dubious theology, and attempted male asshattery, many good things did come from my time in a religious cult. I learned:
  • I was not the only shy person who loathed the idea of going out in public and approaching strangers with a Message.
  • Despite my fears, I could do it anyway. I could even do it well.
  • People I approached were generally as much or more scared of me than I was of them.
  • Smiles are always a good thing.
  • Rejection is survivable.
  • There's no going home until you've passed out all your tracts, er, books.
  • Security personnel headed in your direction never bodes well.

Preparation: I signed up, way ahead of time, and secured my book of choice, The Hunger Games. Wonderful! I figured as close as it was to the movie being released, it would be an easier job to interest light or non-readers in a book with a movie tie-in. (I'm altruistic, but no longer masochistic.)

I made some cute little posters to put up.

I dressed in comfortable but not sloppy clothes, and donned my Book Giver Pin.  Decided my nifty bottlecap earrings would be the closest thing to coordinating with the World Book Night moon theme.

Loaded my posters, some masking tape to put them up, my WBN box (20 books are surprisingly heavy, FYI), and my neatly groomed and decorated self into the car, heading for my location of choice. Parked in the lot, stashed my purse in the trunk, and headed for the entrance of the North Hollywood (California) Metro Station.

SoCal isn't as well-connected via public transportation as it could (should) be, but we do have our hotspots, and North Hollywood is one of them. Each Metro station has individual, unique artwork and themes. NoHo's is Kaleidoscope Dreams.

There are even Metro station tours you can take, with special attention to the art. NoHo itself is very strong on encouraging The Arts - visual, music, theatre. I've been there for plays, poetry readings, indie music performances, art gallery shows... Perfect place for a little love of literacy, right?

So anyway, I dig the NoHo Arts District in general, and thought the Metro Station would be a yes,  wonderful place to give away my World Book Night books. People commuting to work via train would be delighted to get something to read, right?

Took the escalator down, and began taping up my signs to let people know what was up. Guy came over to help me.

At first I felt a little nervous, he seemed a little... strange, but he was polite, enthusiastic about the importance of books though he confessed he hadn't read anything in a while, wanted a copy of The Hunger Games, helped me tape up the signs which did not want to stick.

Then he began explaining about how he had the cure to cancer and AIDS, only nobody would believe him. "You know, of course, that the government really doesn't want a cure for AIDS..."

Nice & Deluded departed after a few minutes, a good thing as he was scaring away my regular customers. Most of whom looked at me like I had two heads. One was happy to take a book after she found out it wasn't a Bible, lol! (Good thing she hadn't met my earlier self.)

My joy did not last long. As I was struggling to get my signs to stay up, I became aware of a snotty female voice announcing over the crappy PA system, "You there, in the lobby. <crackle crackle feedback> You are not allowed to post any signs without the written consent of the Los Angeles Metro system."

I felt humiliated, like I was caught passing notes in class. H'okay, fine. Silly things didn't want to stay up, anyway. So I took down the smaller signs, and leaned the bigger one against the post. Continued offering books to the people headed to the trains, or coming from it, had given out about 8-10 or so, when Ms. Bitchy Attitude starts scolding me over the PA again, "Unless you <crackle hiss crackle> Los Angeles Metro <crackle pop> vacate the premises immediately. <crackle feedback crackle> private property trespassing <crackle> subject to arrest."

108/365 - World Book Night
108/365 - World Book Night (Photo credit: danbruell)
Chagrined and embarrassed - how was it that with all my preparation and planning, it never even crossed my mind that I would need a permit to give away free books at the subway station? I glanced up as I was gathering my box o'books, posters & masking tape, and two tall security guards stood on either side, ready to escort me out, lest my free books and I make further trouble.

Am I the only one who experiences serious heart palpitations and anxiety when surrounded by uniforms when caught doing something "wrong"?

(Actually, the guys were quite nice. Carried my posters. Asked a lot of questions about World Book Night and what I was doing, were quite apologetic about having to make sure I left the premises. They also showed me where I could stand, topside, so I could still give out books without officially being on Metro property.)

Even topside, it didn't take much longer to find takers for the rest of the books, though now I had to compete with a dreadlocked guy handing out brochures about Inner Peace. I just staked out a small portion of the area and prayed Ms. Bitchy wouldn't sicc the topside security guards on me if I accidentally stepped over the line.

North Hollywood is the northern terminus of th...
North Hollywood is the northern terminus of the Red Line in the San Fernando Valley (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
I did find takers for all my books, in a fairly short period of time. In retrospect, the location wasn't as wonderful as I thought it would be, both because of the whole trespassing-possible arrest thing, and because people coming and going were mostly in a hurry. Going into the station, they were headed to shows or night shifts; coming out they were mostly flogged after a long day of work. So I didn't get into the "books are wonderful" conversations I'd hoped to find, not much more than 2-3 minutes spent with each person to see if they were a light rather than avid reader, before they wanted to jet off.

The ideal place to approach people would have been on the subway platform itself, or perhaps on an actual train. Which I will consider, for next year (once I research the permit thing).

Aftermath: I do, definitely want to do this again, and think I'll be better prepared for World Book Night next year. I will never love approaching strangers, even in an excellent cause; I'm still more a shy bookworm at heart. And I don't ever want to see guys in uniform approaching me again, unless they're carrying a boombox and strutting their stuff.

But it could've been worse. At least I didn't get arrested.

Sign up here for the World Book Night Mailing List and you too can get in on the fun, in 2013.
(Or at least let me know if you'd be willing to bail me out.)
Your thoughts?

Enhanced by Zemanta


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Sending Automated SMS to Remind Patients About Doctor Appointments

Posted by Alex Misevski on January 27, 2017

Back in the day, patients were reminded about their medical appointments with postcards send through the mail. However, the postcard method was too slow, and the reminders often got trashed with the rest of the junk mail. After some decades, the use of phone calls become common. Unfortunately, phone calls are obstructive, usually untimely and, worse still, many people ignore unfamiliar numbers.

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Topics: SMS, Automation, Ways to Zang

Zang Beefs Up Business Processes With Enhanced Communication Capabilities

Posted by Lee Ho on January 2, 2017

Imagine the improvements in communications and collaboration among the internal and external users of your business processes and applications if their communications software, e.g., text, email and chat, were built right in. There’d be no more switching between apps to continue conversations or share information. Processes could be integrated, transmissions streamlined and productivity elevated.

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Topics: Communication Apps, UX, Automation

How to Create Automated Surveys Through Voice or SMS to Measure Customer Satisfaction

Posted by Alex Misevski on December 29, 2016

A recent study found that a satisfied customer tells nine people about the positive experience, while a dissatisfied one tells nearly twice as many people about their negative experience. Therefore, perfecting customer experience can do wonders in driving brand loyalty and consequently increasing revenues. Fortunately, developers can create an automated survey that can be answered over phone or SMS to enhance customer experience using Zang’s APIs.

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Topics: APIs, CX, SMS, Automation


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Out of Public Eye, Regional Connector Planning Raising Concerns

By Eric Richardson
Published: Saturday, September 17, 2011, at 11:42AM
Regional Connector - Bunker Hill Station Plan Metro

While this design for the Regional Connector's Bunker Hill station was just released in July, stakeholders are worried that entrances it shows may have already been scrapped to keep the project on-budget. Similar concerns follow the Historic Core station.

With the $1.4-billion Regional Connector deep in the final phases of its environmental studies, Metro's biggest light rail project hasn't kept a very high public profile lately. That doesn't mean there isn't plenty going on behind the scenes.

It remains to be seen exactly what project emerges. A letter calling for serious changes to the project's route and cost-cutting measures in the station design have some stakeholders concerned.

The letter, from the "Community Connector Coalition" and signed by billionaire philanthropist Eli Broad, calls for the Connector to run under 1st Street instead of 2nd and for both the Bunker Hill and Historic Core stations to be repositioned. You can read it in this L.A. Streetsblog story.

Asking around this week, two things became clear: everyone has heard of the letter, and no one is quite sure what to make of it. While the merits of a 1st Street vs. 2nd Street routing are certainly debatable, at this stage in the process any serious changes to the scope would require months of repeated environmental work and potential delays that could make the project's federal funding situation much more cloudy.

While Broad's signature is prominent, multiple sources told blogdowntown this week that the man behind the letter is John Welborne, the man best known for Angels Flight. Welborne's wife Martha just happens to be Metro's top planner, putting her in charge of project's such as the Regional Connector. Welborne is said to have been taking numerous meetings in recent weeks to pitch the coalition's plan. Calls and an email to Welborne were not returned on Friday.

While the group's letter was submitted during the comment period on the Connector's draft environmental impact report, requiring a response from the project team, the speculation around Downtown this week was whether a member of Metro's board would make a motion directing the project staff to study the concept in even greater detail.

In a response to blogdowntown that it then posted on its blog, Metro said that it plans to use its "well-established technical process to review and respond to all letters and comments to the Regional Connector’s environmental document."

Meanwhile, several Downtown stakeholders that blogdowntown spoke to this week expressed their dismay that station designs that have up to now shown two entrances at the Bunker Hill and Historic Core stations were being scaled back to only include a single point-of-entry for each stop.

A Metro spokesman said he would look into the station changes on Friday, but did not provide any updates as of the end of the day.

The change would be particularly troubling at the Bunker Hill station, which sits on the steep hillside between 3nd and Flower and 2nd and Hope. blogdowntown believes the single entrance would be at the top of the hill, greatly reducing the stop's usefulness to those working in the office towers south of the station.

Those same riders would have been close to the 5th and Flower station that was part of the project until last October, when it was cut to keep the project on-budget.

It remains to be seen whether the Regional Connector will make any appearance on the agenda for next Thursday's Metro board meeting. If not, the project would likely make its next public appearance at the end of October with the release of the final environmental impact report. That report is intended to go to the board in December.

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Dashboard not loading and a problem with live writer

May 2, 2016 at 10:04 AM
we use Blogengine.Net since some years an we are now on the Version 3.2. Our Problem is that loading the Dashboard stops in every Browser with "Skript with Long runtime ..." . Whe have more then 1000 Posts in the XML Mode. Perhaps thats the Problem?

My second Problem ist that when i post with LiveWriter and update an existing Post it disapears.

Perhaps someone know a answer. And sorry for my bad englisch grammer. Im from Bavaria.
May 2, 2016 at 4:18 PM
With issues like this, you need to troubleshoot and try things. Moving to DB might help, getting more CPU might help, but it is impossible to tell what needed in your specific case.
The WLW update is likely related to known bug where published date is reset to min value. This will be addressed.
May 6, 2016 at 7:59 AM
ok Thank you. The first Problem is solved. I moved the Posts to a SQL Version. But how i could move the users from one blog to another blog? Or is there a possibility to move an running blog instance from XML to SQL ?


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What is WordPress and How Does it Work

August 1, 2016

what is wordpress and how does it work

What is WordPress

WordPress is a free open source content management system(CMS) which is used to build websites. This system is built in such way that you don’t need any knowledge about coding or programming. Users need a very basic knowledge about website layout to use WordPress. This CMS platform is regularly updated to give the users best experience.

This system was first released in 2003. With times developers have made it more efficient and search engine friendly.

How Does WordPress Work

WordPress is a combination of many functions and features. Below I pointed out the most basic things that make WordPress  so much user-friendly.

WordPress sites work with templates usually known as themes. These themes are developed by many individuals and companies. Based on the theme they provide it free or for a price. Theme development requires expertise in PhP coding and WordPress query.

WordPress is generally popular for blogging because it’s very easy to create and maintain your blog posts through WordPress. You can create and publish as many pages or posts from the WordPress control panel as you want. What a theme does is it represents the layout and presentation of your site. Depending on the theme your website can be a simple blog style layout or a very attractive commercial layout.

Another important part of WordPress is plugins. Plugins are ways to add more features and functions to your website. Different websites need different features. So WordPress made it  easy for the users to search and download their required plugins. Plugins are also developed by individuals or companies.

Depending on the plugin it can be free or paid. There are lots of free plugins which you can use to improve your website. Some plugins are provided with the template you buy or download for free.

Users Management:

One of the great features of WordPress is it’s user management system. When you install WordPress you get the admin privilege of your website’s admin panel which is the WordPress’s control panel. You can assign other users to get this access as well.

You can limit a new user’s role to a subscriber, author, editor or contributor. So that they have limited access to the WordPress control panel. It’s a great feature if you have a site with multiple authors.

Finally, after installing WordPress you can explore and find out many amazing features and tools which really helps to build a website to a level which you can never think of doing by yourself without a help of a developer. It helps you to control every bit of operation of your website.

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Top 6 Solution Provider Selling Strategies

Selling Strategies
January 22, 2015

As sales professionals, we understand the importance of a strategy; however, we sometimes have a tendency to over-complicate the actual sale. Here are 6 basic selling strategies to help you simplify your sales and business approach and win customers in 2015.

The NRF “Big Show” Experience

January 20, 2015

The 104th Annual NRF Big Show held last week, January 11-14 in New York City proved the retail industry is thriving and offering some of the most creative solutions for retailers yet to date. Avnet’s Norman Korn offers a look inside the event and provides his key takeaways.

The Double Life of Data

male hands typing on a laptop
January 12, 2015

Although data, when properly analyzed, has the ability to grow organizations by leaps and bounds, it has the possibility of bringing it to its knees – and it does. Learn the dual roles solution providers play in helping customers gain value from their data, and keeping that same data safe.


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Philip Wintermyer named Tech Advocate Finalist in AZ Top Tech Exec Awards

Wintermyer_Philip-XLRecently, Avnet Director of Web Development and eCommerce, Philip Wintermyer sat down with the Phoenix Business Journal to answer a few questions. Wintermyer was recently named a Tech Advocate Finalist.

What was your introduction to technology possibly being a career?

In 1983, I moved to Shreveport, Louisiana, at the point in my life when it was time to get serious about a career. LSU had a campus in Shreveport, and I spoke with councilors about degree options. They had just formed a computer science department. While I hadn’t had any exposure to computers, I had always been interested in science and technology. I was completely sold during the first semester.

What do you see as your biggest accomplishment in the technology field?

I led an initiative to select and deploy a new content management system to make it easier for business to collaborate.

What has surprised you most regarding the growth of technology during your career?

The rate of adoption and advancement of the smartphone is remarkable to me. To go from a ‘high-tech’ flip phone to the smartphones of today in less than 10 years is amazing.

What do you see as the next big thing in tech?

IoT (or the Internet of Things) is the obvious answer, but I believe the autonomous car has the potential to completely change the way we live our lives and how we spend our time.

What makes a good leader in the technology field?

The ability to accept, manage and help others through change, as well as being a good communicator.

What great sci-fi item would you want to exist in the world of computers today?

“Star Trek’s” transporter. I struggle with six hour or longer flights.

“Star Wars” or “Star Trek,” and why?

Tough question, but I have to go with “Star Trek.” I grew up watching “Star Trek” and reenacting the scenes with my nerd friends.

What question do you hear constantly in your company?

“Can we get it sooner?” The technology industry moves at a fast pace, and my team and I are always looking for ways to make IT more responsive to the business’ evolving requirements.

What question do you wish you didn’t hear constantly?

“Why did you build it that way?” Another area an agile development approach may help.

 Years in Industry: 33

This article originally ran in the Phoenix Business Journal, US, May 13, 2016. Photos and video courtesy of Ken Wood.

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« Bronwen Healy's Hope Foundation | Main | Thank you and Goodnight from the Soiree »

James Moody and TuShare

We've all got stuff we no longer need or want. But rather than throw it in the bin, James Moody has set up TuShare that allows you to share your old items with people who them. He explains how it works to David Hua.

James Moody

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Income Investing
News, analysis and commentary on income-generating investments.

Illinois, Rhode Island Cities Among Riskiest Muni Credits – S&P DJI

As the muni market looks for lessons to draw from Detroit’s bankruptcy filing, S&P Dow Jones Indices today looks for any other municipalities that could be most at risk of following in Detroit’s footsteps. Using only the simple gauge that bonds with higher yields are riskier than bonds with lower yields, S&P DJI comes up with the following list of the highest-yielding bond issues in the S&P Municipal Bond Index:

  • Maverick County, TX
  • Scranton, PA
  • Central Falls, RI
  • Northern Mariana Islands
  • Woonsocket, RI
  • Bellwood, IL
  • Riverdale, IL
  • Harvey, IL

S&P DJI says the yields of the bonds from these issuers in this list range from 7% to over 9.25%. By contrast, it says the average yield  for investment grade municipal bonds across the muni market is 3.12%.

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There is 1 comment

    • Mike, is this article some kind of joke? YOU and the "bond peddlers" as Ms. Whitney calls them, know much better. Let's see the numbers for Chicago, IL. Camden, NJ, Flint, MI, Baltimore, MD, Harrisburg, PA, Stockton, CA, San Diego, CA., etc, etc, etc. Indeed, let's see the STATE numbers for IL, NJ, CA, MD, PA, etc.

About Income Investing

  •’s Income Investing blog helps readers find undervalued securities that offer attractive yields, with an emphasis on dividend-paying stocks, preferred shares, bonds, REITs, Master Limited Partnerships and closed-end funds.

    Amey Stone is Barron’s Income Investing blogger and Current Yield columnist. She was formerly a managing editor at CBS MoneyWatch, MSN Money and AOL DailyFinance. Her responsibilities included overseeing market coverage and personal finance topics. Prior to those roles, she was a senior writer at BusinessWeek where she authored the Street Wise column online and contributed to the magazine’s Inside Wall Street column. Topics covered included economics, corporate finance, Fed policy, municipal bonds, mutual funds and dividend investing. She co-authored King of Capital, a biography of Citigroup Chairman Sandy Weill. She is a graduate of Yale University and Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism.

    Write to Amey at


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Cisco Blogs

Small Computer, Big Opportunity: The Moore’s Law Phenomenon

- June 6, 2013 - 9 Comments

If you’re like me, you probably remember the days when computers meant oversized monitors, loud, humming power supplies, and more cables than you knew what to do with. Thanks to Moore’s Law, those days are long gone. With devices getting less costly, smaller, and capable of more efficient computing power, people and businesses of today and tomorrow have more opportunity to connect to the Internet of Everything (IoE).

Take the Raspberry Pi, for example. This low-cost computer was developed to provide computer science learning experiences for children around the world. For $35, the device features USB ports for a keyboard and mouse and an HDMI port to hook up to a monitor. The Raspberry Pi Foundation officially launched the device in February 2012. By September, more than half a million had been sold, and thousands were being manufactured each day, making computing accessible to everyone.

But even more interesting, when the Raspberry Pi went on sale, hackers and experimenters ordered them by the handful to create special purpose applications. They dedicated a whole low-cost computer to the task and moved the computing function to the edge of the network, shifting how we solve the computing problem. So again, we now have another Moore’s Law phenomena. As computers get smaller, more energy efficient, and less expensive, it causes us to rethink where we put the computing in the network and whether it is centralized or at the edge. Moore’s Law enables this natural progression, allowing us to recentralize through the web and distribute through the cloud.

The Nest Thermostat demonstrates a great example of this. Through a combination of sensors, algorithms, machine learning, and cloud computing, Nest learns behaviors and preferences and begins to adjust the temperature up or down. It can be controlled from your laptop, smartphone, or tablet, and it starts to recognize your preferences, automatically adjusting faster and faster and becoming more and more efficient. You have an entire computer (thermostat) on the wall, a classic convergence of more and more things being connected.

This, in turn, changes what’s happening in the data center and the cloud, because having more entry points enables us to connect more things. Sensor technology is also being affected, becoming smaller and less expensive. Texas Instruments now makes a chip that runs an IPv6 stack for connectivity, has built-in wireless, and only costs ninety-nine cents. Moore’s Law has led to a low-powered, low-cost chip, giving us yet another opportunity to rethink and innovate the use of computing.

With these growing ubiquitous opportunities, we can connect more and learn more. As more devices are added to the network, the power and potential for what they will make possible will continue to grow exponentially. Anything you can measure will be measured. Anything you can sense will be sensed. It’s an economical model making the case to be measured for nearly no cost. This shift will help connect the 99 percent of things that are still unconnected in the world, creating real value for the IoE.

How will the amazing possibilities enabled by the IoE affect you? I’d love to know your thoughts. Send me a tweet @JimGrubb.

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  1. It won't be long before every device we need will come from a chip on our arm.

  2. will the rootkit shown here help to prevent certain hacker's attacks for office computers?? can you comment advice on it?

  3. I Hope I live to see the Day a Chip is wirelessly connected to our brains with internet, video, and sound! unlimited education, everyone equal.

    • Why would you want that?

  4. As LONG as the "Computer" stays out of MY BODY

  5. We should all look forward to the day when Mrs. Sani Abacha will be able to beam her 419 notes directly into our brains.

  6. germanium to silicon to organic (brain in a box) like a taxi cab driver --- never knowing the real world --- silicon computers are just a start = I can see plasma 12AX7 ions and organic computers C2H5OH = much less nano computers No = p+ e- (y = gamma radiation)

  7. the day people start putting chips in their brains is not the day everyone is equal. its is the day unimproved human capital becomes near worthless and to compete and survive in an economy that needs less and less humans, you will have to borrow to put the chip in. either you will owe your brain to the company store or you will listening to pepsi adds in between calcuations. ugh. no thanks. brain improvements will create a horrifying future for people who are not oligarchs.

  8. We are not Borg we will not be assimilated. With hackers getting into everything you really want a chip implanted in your brain. There would then be the capability for some hacker to make your brain explode or make you do something you would not normally do like commit a crime. We would become Borg-like, the purpose of the show having the Borg appear was to show the way it would be if we started implanting chips. Remember Demolition Man he had a chip implanted in his hand. They knew where he was no matter where he went everytime he stop to eat, go to the bathroom. Big brother would be watching and apparently some can't wait. Beam me up Scotty.


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Cisco Blogs

Inflection Point: Cisco Sets the Pace of Mobility Innovation

- March 25, 2013 - 7 Comments

At Cisco, we take very seriously our ability to anticipate and catch market transitions. A few years ago, we saw a market transition that would affect our Service Provider customers in the area of Mobility. With 3G, 4G and Wi-Fi deployments rising, the world was clearly shifting from Coverage, Capacity to Services… and the importance of customer experience rising amongst operators worldwide. As a result, we set in motion a new strategy for our Service Provider Mobility Group (SPMG). The key to our strategy was to develop an architecture that would enable Service Providers to offer a differentiated experience to their customers.

Our Mobility CTO Paul Mankiewich refers to the new mobility operator requirements as “the Grand Challenge.” The inflection point is here. Not only do our key SP customers recognize it, but our competitors are also seeing the tremendous business opportunity represented by the “Grand Challenge,” especially as it relates to emerging Monetization use cases that are propelling the market’s rapid growth.

Our vision to enable new network-based value chains and our holistic, build-buy-partner portfolio management strategy are instrumental to our current Mobility leadership as well as ensuring our future advantage. The good news is that we have an architecture and end-to-end solutions that will help Service Providers deliver a differentiated experience while simplifying and automating the network, and opening it up to be more programmable. The not-so-good news for our competitors is that we have a formidable track record of capturing the #1 or #2 market share positions in our top priority segments and businesses.

Our “diamond in the rough” and one critical pillar in our overall product portfolio is the recently launched Cisco Quantum™ suite. With our relentless focus on customers, we are incorporating important feedback to “polish” this software diamond and change the game for SPs, in part, by helping level the playing field with their existing and potential competitors. The brilliance of Cisco Quantum™ is revealed by the RAN, WAN, and user session layers where we extract the intelligence from these layers in the network, analyze it and make a decision within that layer for optimization and/or monetization.

In addition to warm customer reception for the platform at Mobile World Congress, we are beginning to hear a loud chorus of applause to Cisco Quantum™’s disruptive innovation from Mobility industry followers, influencers, and investors. Here are just a few media examples from the launch:

The Motley Fool: “Cisco Ready To Ride Mobile Internet Market Higher”

Cisco (NASDAQ: CSCO) has announced new product innovations to enable providers to acquire intelligence about mobile internet networks and maximize profit

TechWeek Europe: “MWC 2013: Cisco Products Aim At Monetising ‘Data In Motion”
By Jeffrey Burt
February 25, 2013

Customers stay tuned. Competitors beware. Our steadfast execution to lead the next-generation Mobility market transition and leverage the inflection point is just beginning to heat up. Watch this space for more discussion of SPMG strategy developments and portfolio innovations in the coming weeks and months.

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  3. Thanks for informations. that good

  4. Thank you for this information is helpful to know the developments

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| May 3, 2012, 7:25 am

Cinco de Mayo margaritas: Six great Colorado bars that serve them

[media-credit name=”Cyrus McCrimmon, The Denver Post” align=”alignright” width=”205″][/media-credit]

Margaritas from the El Camino Community Tavern.

It’s time again for the great late-spring party known as Cinco de Mayo, and here are a few suggestions to get your margarita going:

Mezcal, 3230 E. Colfax Ave., Denver, 303-322-5219.

This East Colfax hangout will serve $5 Pueblo Viejo margs May 3-6. They juice their own lines on a massive hand-press in the back.

El Camino Community Tavern, 3628 W. 32nd Ave., Denver, 720-889-7946.

Bartender JJ Ahern makes an acai liqueur marg with reposado tequila and a dash of allspice. Ahern knows his spirits. He won a cocktail contest in Mexico with his blend of lime, coconut, tangerine and peach juices with silver tequila and agave nectar. His popular El Brazo marg keeps it simple, with Herradura Blanco, lime juice and agave syrup.

Read more…

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« Would Arne Duncan Consider Calling for Pause in Common Core Stakes? | Main | House Panel Presses Arne Duncan on Loans, Waivers, Common Core »

Alaska, Hawaii, West Virginia Win NCLB Waivers

U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan has now awarded No Child Left Behind Act waivers to 37 states plus the District of Columbia.

Alaska, Hawaii, and West Virginia are the latest additions to the list, the Education Department announced today.

This means that the vast majority of the country is now operating under their own federally approved but state-crafted accountability plans as Congress continues to refrain from rewriting the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, of which NCLB is the latest version.

For Hawaii, their waiver continues a spate of good news. Last month the state finally secured a new contract with the state teachers' association, paving the way for Hawaii to keep its Race to the Top promises (and its grant award).

The last state to win a waiver was Idaho seven months ago.

Illinois continues to languish in waiver purgatory—the state that's been stuck there the longest over problems meeting the federal department's aggressive timeline for new teacher evaluations. Other states with outstanding applications include Alabama, Wyoming, Texas, Pennsylvania, Maine, and New Hampshire.

One of the biggest remaining question marks is whether Duncan will grant a first-of-its-kind waiver to nine California districts after their state couldn't successfully get one on its own. The districts are working on revising their proposal after getting a feedback letter (which the districts refuse to share) from the Education Department.

Interestingly, the department's news release says that California has notified federal officials that it will not make another go at a waiver, and instead will focus on common standards implementation.

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« Teachers' 'Core' Concern: The Tests | Main | Going Blended in the Classroom »

Happy 25th National Pi Day, Math Teachers (and Other Number-philes)!

Math teachers, take note—today is the 25th anniversary of National Pi Day, which recognizes the mathematical constant pi (Π). According to National Geographic, the first celebration in honor of the never-ending number, which represents the ratio of a circle's circumference to its diameter, took place in 1988 when Larry Shaw, a physicist at the Exploratorium, the San Francisco science museum, noticed that the March 14 date shared the first three digits of pi, 3.14. He began a tradition of celebrating the day by ordering pie for the staff.

This year, the Exploratorium will celebrate by holding a "pi parade." Hundreds of participants will march, and each will hold a digit of pi, reports PBS Newshour.

Schools have taken to celebrating the day, too. The San Jose Mercury News reports that at Mission High School in the San Francisco Bay area, students are having a contest to see who can recite the most digits of pi (3.14159265 ... ). Students will also get a chance to compose "piems," which are "poems that use words that have the same number of letters as the corresponding digit of pi," and to calculate "the volume of baked pies before eating them."

And according to Florida Today, student pi activities this afternoon at Cocoa High School in Cocoa, Fla., included "measuring each other's heads to see how close they are to a true circle," and wearing an "I'm a Pi head" sticker if the measurement was close to 3.14.

Coincidentally, Pi Day is also Albert Einstein's birthday.

Though National Pi Day ends soon, rest assured that July 22, which marks Pi Approximation Day (since the approximate value of pi is 22/7, or the European notation of that date), is just a few months away ...

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Raiders Hold Back Geoducks, 86-72

OLYMPIA, Wash. – The Geoducks put up one of their top offensive halves of the year but it wasn’t enough to overcome an early drought as Evergreen fell to the Southern Oregon Raiders, 86-72, in a Cascade Conference women’s basketball game on Friday night at CRC Gymnasium in Olympia, Wash.

Southern Oregon (15-4, 4-3 CCC) came out strong, building an early lead as the Geoducks (6-7, 2-4 CCC) found themselves trailing early.  The Raiders pushed the lead to 20 points and 35-15 with 2:52 to go in the first half as SOU took a 39-22 lead into the break.

The Raiders kept the big lead early in the second half but the Geoducks began to chip away, pulling back with 10 points midway through the half and then getting back within single digits with 3:40 left to go but it was too much for Evergreen to overcome as Southern Oregon collected the 86-72 win.

Evergreen was led by 16 points from Sammi Clark (Monroe, Wash./Monroe HS/Edmonds CC).  Jessica Denmon (Oak Harbor, Wash./Oak Harbor HS/Skagit Valley CC) added 15 points while Brittany Gray (Bainbridge Island, Wash./Bainbridge HS/Skagit Valley CC) chipped in 12 points.  Sadee Jones (Belfair, Wash./North Mason HS) rounded out the Geoducks in double-digits with 10 points on the night.

SOU was led by 17 points and 15 rebounds from Allison Gida.  Kristen Schoenherr added 16 points while Bree Park added 15 points, all from behind the arc, off the bench.  Autumn Durand rounded out the SOU double-digit scorers with 12 points on the night.

The Geoducks will be back in action on Saturday when they play host to Oregon Tech.  Tip with the Lady Owls is set for 5:30 p.m. at CRC Gymnasium in Olympia, Wash.

Box Score

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Daily Archives: July 12, 2011

Tech news from around the web:

Location-based service Foursquare is to start incorporating daily deals from social shopping companies such as Groupon, LivingSocial, Gilt Groupe into its product, Mashable reports. Foursqaure plans to pass on daily coupons from its partners to the service’s users — taking a cut of the revenue along the way. Read more


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« Previous | Main | Next »

December 27, 2011

Chile daily must pay readers for exploding churros

(Thanks to Jeff Meyerson, who saw them open for the Flying Burrito Brothers; also thanks to Gregg in Austin)

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Dough fried in hot oil sounds like an artery clogger to me.

Indeed it is, Theresa, and a delicious one.

The Exploding Churros toured with the Red Hot Chili Peppers

This is exactly why I have all my Mexican food prepared by professional chefs at Taco Bell.

Too many "huevones" in the recipe?

Snorks @ Jeff & NC.

With a recipe for "Exploding Churros", you'd think they'd have seen this coming.

The gunpowder probably didn't help...

Would you like a naked chimichanga with that?

I've fixed some chili that seemed to explode postprandial. But none that caused burns. Or at least, external burns.

Wow Steve, I'm impressed! Postprandial is not a word you hear everyday.

Neither is whippersnapper, my new favorite word of the week.

Yeah, "Whippersnapper" is a great one. Everyone knows what it means but what does it "mean"? What was a whipper that someone had to snap it?
I'm babbling again, right?

For Jeff : from dictionary.com ==who cite "online entymology.com":

whipper snapper:
1674, apparently a "jingling extension" [OED] of *whip-snapper "a cracker of whips," or perhaps an alteration of snipper-snapper (c.1590). Cf. also late 16c. whipperginnie, a term of abuse for a woman.

Hmm. Thanks for clearing that up. I think.
I got "postprandial" off a calendar.
I get a new one every year even if I haven't used up all the old one.

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First Settlements in DePuy Defective Hip Replacement Suits

Posted September 28, 2012 in Products Liability by

Hip replacements are hailed as a miracle of modern medical technology, restoring mobility to otherwise incapacitated consumers for a good 15 to 20 years. The problems start when the artificial hips are defective and constantly dislocate or discharge metal splinters into the patient’s body.

The first settlements were reached last month with three plaintiffs for $200,000 a piece for defective Johnson & Johnson DePuy ASR hip replacements. Those payouts are just the tip of the iceberg, however, as the multinational company is facing another 8,000 or so lawsuits over the bad hips. Around 6,000 have been consolidated as multidistrict litigation, or MDL, with evidence discovery overseen by a federal judge in Ohio.

An estimated 93,000 people received the new hips over the eight years they were being sold, although the majority of them went to overseas consumers.

DePuy issued a recall of the hips in 2010. Previously, the company had insisted that the metal joints were safe, even though the FDA had refused to approve a similar version over safety concerns a year prior to the recall. As early as 2008, data was showing that the ASR hips were breaking down at high rates after only a few years of use, requiring additional painful surgeries for patients.

Johnson & Johnson has already spent an estimated $800 million on the recall, and the lawsuits could end up running an additional $2 billion.

Painful Metal Splinters

Jonathan Rosenfeld

Jonathan Rosenfeld

So, what exactly is wrong with DePuy hips?  “It’s a metal on metal device,” explains Jonathan A. Rosenfeld, a personal injury attorney in Chicago who is handling Depuy cases. “The joint itself, the ball and socket and the way they are sized and fit together, allows for the hip itself to become fairly easily dislocated.”

That means instead of 15 to 20 years of easy, pain free walking, it’s back to the doctor’s office. “There are people who may have three, four, five dislocations of the hip,” Rosenfeld says. “It’s extremely painful. They have to be put back in the socket under sedation. Ultimately a lot of these need to be replaced.”

Worse, breakdown in the joint can actually destroy the living tissue surrounding the hip and poison the patient. “There’s wear and tear from friction between the ball and socket where metal splinters off and becomes implanted in the surrounding tissue. It can cause pain and suffering, and metal poisoning,” says the lawyer.

Perhaps the worst consequence of defective hips comes when they need to be replaced, since the mere fact that a patient has already had one hip replacement necessarily limits the longevity of future procedures. “To remove the device and implant another one becomes more and more invasive,” Rosenfeld says. Each additional replacement surgery has a shorter and shorter life expectancy before another is needed. For younger people who opted to replace a balky hip with the promise that they would get up to two decades of mobility before another surgery, finding out they really only got a few years and may be signed up for multiple replacements in their future is a tough pill to swallow. To say nothing of the possibility of contracting metal poisoning to boot.

Consumers with received hip replacements should contact their doctors if they aren’t sure what type they received to find out if they are eligible for the recall. The earlier problems are caught, the better. It would also be wise to speak with an attorney to investigate the possibility of a lawsuit against the manufacturer. “Statistics tell us a fairly sizable number of people are going to have problems with the hip,” says Rosenfeld. “The reality is it’s not a bad idea if you do have a DePuy hip to talk to a lawyer to see what your rights are.”

“The product was kept on the market for too long,” he says. “A lot of people received these hips long after the company knew there were problems with it.”

Visit to learn more about medical device litigation and to locate an attorney in your area who can advise you.

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NFL Picks Contest, Week 16: 49ers games will be decisive (until the playoffs, of course)

Too many columns this week, not enough brainpower. So no intro-analysis this week, just right into THE PICKS…

Oops, a few notes: The plan is to take this contest into the playoffs, all the way. Hope I mentioned that previously to our fine contestants.

Also, since nobody is picking the Raiders any more, perhaps not even Al D., it’s pretty clear that, at least for the next two weeks, the 49ers picks are going to be decisive. And they have been the last few weeks, as Annie knows.

1. KILLION (last week 1-2, overall 26-19)/

* 49ERS -5, over St. Louis. Killion comment: Picking against the 49ers is starting to hurt me, so I’m jumping on the bandwagon.

* HOUSTON -7, over Raiders. Killion comment: Not jumping on the Raiders. Can’t blame anyone for jumping off to go to Tennessee.

* NEW ENGLAND -7.5, over Arizona. Killion comment: Belichick sees a division title up for grabs. Arizona has no reason to play hard except to stay warm.

2. KAWAKAMI (last week 2-1, overall 25-19-1)/

* ST. LOUIS +5, over 49ers. My comment: A hunch that the Rams will score a bit more than expected and the 49ers will score about as usual. 13-10 sounds right. Not very compelling analysis, I know.

* HOUSTON -7, over Raiders. My comment: 23-3 and three more Raiders assistants call Tom Cable from their cars as they’re heading the heck out of the hellhole. JaMarcus checks in, too, but it’s just a crank call.

* TAMPA BAY -3.5, over San Diego. My comment: The Chargers should in no way still be alive in the AFC West race. This ends it. With authority: 34-14.

3. BACH (last week 1-2, overall 24-20-1)/

* 49ERS -5, over St. Louis. Bach comment: The Rams are a team Singletary and the 49ers are supposed to beat, even on the road.

* HOUSTON -7, over Raiders. Bach comment: No offense and now no defense. The Raiders are done.

* INDIANAPOLIS -6, over Jacksonville. Bach comment: The Colts offense not at full strength, but should be a TD better than the eliminated Jags.

4. RYAN (last week 2-1, overall 21-24)/

* ST. LOUIS +5, over 49ers. Ryan comment: Niners aren’t built to win by a lot, especially on the road.

* HOUSTON -7, over Raiders. Ryan comment: Last week I made the grievous and unforgivable sin of thinking the Raiders might actually try in a late-season game. O please forgive me, gambling gods.

* DETROIT +7, over New Orleans. Ryan comment: This is the week. This is the week. Straight-up victory.

5. PURDY (last week 2-1, overall 15-29-1)/

* 49ERS -5, over St. Louis. Purdy comment: (I made these picks by throwing my old pair of sneakers at a poster of Mike Ditka)  This is Mike Singletary’s most important game, the only one he’s coached so far where everyone on earth expects his team to win.  Including me.

* HOUSTON -7, over Raiders. Purdy comment: I say just let JaMarcus Russell make up plays in the huddle. How could it work any worse than what’s happening now?

* TAMPA BAY -3.5, over San Diego. Purdy comment: Two former Raider coaches go at it head-to-head and decide they are very happy that right now, they aren’t Tom Cable.

—-My extra stuff

I’ll take Tampa -3.5 as a 10-star play and toss in Houston -7 as an 8-star play, because I need to make up some lost ground fast. Last week, I missed two 7-star games, NY Giants and Baltimore. Overall I’m +10 stars on the seaseon.

I’ll take Detroit +7 over New Orleans as my Special Non-Counting Bonus Pick. Last week, I pushed on my SCNBP with Atlanta. Overall I’m 8-6-1 on SCNBPs.

Tim Kawakami

  • Rumpelstilskin

    Cable gets a call from Kawakami telling him how much he loves his goat tee and how he wishes he could grow one.

  • Bob S.

    I got my Xmas present early, Joe Starkey is retiring.

  • Nnamdi21

    Raiders show up and pound the Texans.

    Eat shitake Kawakami!~

  • Mr Davis

    How do you like me now Kawakami?