Grass Crown

Just now I went to del.icio.us and noticed the brand new redesign. Based on a Technorati search, it looks like Om Malik, senior writer at Business 2.0 magazine, was the first to blog about it. Read his post at GigaOM.

The redesign gives del.icio.us the digg/Slashdot appeal. You know, a pulse on what’s hot. Plus, since anything can be bookmarked in del.icio.us there’s the potential for more hot stuff than just hot tech stuff like you’d find on digg and Slashdot. I’m definitely down for checking out some non-tech link hotness.

Technorati Tags: del.icio.us, redesign, digg, slashdot

I found a great recipe and the story behind it in the cookbook “Flatbreads & Flavors” this week. The recipe was for a coconut roti called Sri Lankan Coconut Breakfast Bread. I topped the bread with an Avocado Chutney from the same cookbook with fantastic results.

The story is this: coconut rotis are a simple flatbread made of grated coconut, whole wheat flour, and water and are served in neighborhood restaurants all over Sri Lanka despite the fact that Sri Lanka doesn’t have much, if any, of a grain crop. It turns out that the proliferation of the delightful bread is a result of P.L. 480, the “Food for Freedom Law,” whereby recipient nations get American grain (and other foods) at reduced rates. In the case of Sri Lanka, small businesses mixed the American grain with their local coconut crop to make a tasty and cost-effective treat.

Technorati Tags: roti, flatbread, sri+lanka, grain

I took some photos today of the much anticipated Apple Store, Fifth Avenue. Check out my flickr set.

Here’s just a few things to note about the grand opening:

• The opening will be May 19th at 6:00 p.m. (EST)
• Apple will be giving away a MacBook every hour for 24 hours straight (See you there at 4:00 a.m.?)
• The first 2,500 customers will receive a commemorative T-shirt
• The store will be open 24 hours a day and 365 days a year
• BusinessWeek reports that the 10,000 square foot facility could easily clear $40,000,000 per year

For more cool facts and pictures, check out the BusinessWeek slideshow called “Apple in the Big Apple“.

Technorati Tags: apple, fifth+avenue, apple+store, manhattan, nyc, macbook

I’ve been looking for some sources to locate cheap eats in Manhattan and the site addyourown looks very promising. Any user can add a restaurant, so even the smallest, cheapest places that would never end up in a guide like Zagats are eligible to be listed. The site categorizes restaraunts by area and provides an interactive map to browse with.

When adding a restaurant, the site asks for name, cuisine type, entree price, address or corner, and phone number. I wish that it also asked for hours of operation, because that would be very useful here in the Financial District where so many things seem to shut down around 7pm.

Other cities covered by addyourown include Boston, Brooklyn, Chicago, London, Los Angeles, Paris, San Francisco, Seattle, Vancouver, and Washington, DC.

Technorati Tags: restaurants, cheap+eats, manhattan, nyc

Amanda Congdon clarified a rumor about Rocketboom going premium in a comment yesterday on paidContent.org:

“I need to correct this rumor. What I said is that we are considering charging $4/month for premium content: outtakes, a bi-monthly podcast, a full screen DVD quality version of the show, forums, etc. The show, in its current form, will always be free.”

The initial response before this clarification from Barnako.com was negative, but I think offering free and premium options could only be good. I know of at least a few Rocketboom fans who would love to see the show in DVD quality.

Like this post? Digg it!

Technorati Tags: rocketboom, amanda+congdon, paidContent.org

If you like the cover of the Supreme Beings of Leisure’s self-titled album, pictured below, then you’ll love this expanded version and artist David Tazzyman’s other works. Plus, check out other sweet portfolios at pvuk.com.

Technorati Tags: album+art, david+tazzyman, art, illustration

People familiar with David Allen’s book, “Getting Things Done” may like this. It is a little notebook called Wallet Notes that includes a pen and 15 sheets of note paper. It looks like it’d be the perfect thing for capturing to-do items, phone numbers and reminders that you think of while on-the-go.

Technorati Tags: gtd, wallet+notes, getting+things+done

I’ve been a member of the Amazon.com Associates Program ever since I built a website for a book called The Golfing Machine during college. Every now and then I put a link on a website using my associate ID. Today, I checked in on my account to find no activity, but an invitation to join the Products Preview Beta.

This beta is testing out a mouse over action that Amazon.com is calling a preview-enhanced link. During the beta, on affiliate sites supporting these links, like mine, if you mouse over an Amazon.com product that has been linked to, you will have a chance of seeing a floating window with more details about the item. Amazon.com says that, “To accurately evaluate product preview-enhanced link performance, 50% of the visitors to Web sites in the beta program will always see preview-enhanced Basic Display Product Links. The other 50% will always see standard links.”

So, you have a 50/50 chance of checking out the new mouse over action by placing your mouse over any of the following links. These are just a few books that I love and would recommend to anyone:

Freakonomics : A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything

The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress

Ender’s Game

The First Man in Rome

Into the Wild

If you see the preview-enhanced stuff, post to the comments what you think about it. Is it annoying or is it a nice feature?

Technorati Tags: amazon, amazon.com, associates+program, affiliate, preview-enhanced

Here’s a mobile living room to go with that space-saving kitchen. The name of the living room is BOB and it was created and designed by Andrew Maynard.

Hat tip: Inhabitat

Technorati Tags: bob, andrew+maynard, prefab

Pronet Advertising has an in-depth post about Google Trends. The search results are fascinating and something everyone should be able to have fun with. Here’s a few search results to get started with:

WMA, AAC, OGG - Format battle with WMA in the lead.

MP3, WMA, AAC, OGG - Add MP3 and the rest look like peanuts.

Halo, World of Warcraft - Halo gets a huge spike with the release of Halo 2, but World of Warcraft took it slow and steady and is staying on top.

AOL, MSN, Yahoo, Google - Battle of the portals. AOL is way at the bottom.

Atom, RSS - Battle of content syndication markup languages with RSS in the lead.

Got some good search combinations? Post them here.

Technorati Tags: google, trends, analytics, search