"Ultimate" what?

Following the links from the previous post, I ended up at Carolyn Tillie's Ultimate California Wine Blog. Ultimate? ULTIMATE?

Russian River Valley appellation wineries covered: 0.
Alexander Valley appellation wineries covered: 1.
Dry Creek Valley appellation wineries covered: 0.

As someone who proudly lives at the intersection of these three great appellations (here's a map), I sincerely hope that "ultimate" is a goal, not something she considers herself to have already achieved. And if she's ever looking for someone to go tasting at local wineries with her, I hope she drops me a line.

The Guide to Black and Hispanic Women in Web Design

After my recent "Where are the women?" rant, Molly said that she'd tried to find women designers of color to be on the panel but was unsuccessful. In response, Tiffany Brown has started The Guide to Black and Hispanic Women in Web Design. The list is currently a lot shorter than it could be, so if you qualify, drop her a line and add yourself.

Also worth checking out by Tiffany: Cultured Wino: A blog about wine and other yummy things. As someone who lives in the middle of California Wine Country, this one grabbed me right away.

Not just a novelization

I want this book, now. Serenity, by Joss Whedon:

Joss Whedon, the creator of Buffy and Angel, is finally coming to the big screen with his directorial debut, the blockbuster sci-fi adventure Serenity.

Set 500 hundred years into the future, the film centers around Mal Reynolds, captain of the ship-for hire Serenity and its eclectic crew of galactic misfits. When he takes on two passengers, a young doctor and his mysterious, telepathic sister, he gets much more than he bargained for…

Titan's official companion contains a preface from Joss, his in-depth account of the making of the film, and his full screenplay, illustrated throughout with stills, storyboards and production art.

Out September 30^th, of course.

This and that

If I had the brainpower or the attention span, this would be several different posts. I don't, so it isn't.

• Thanks to all the people who gave me "feel better" wishes in the comments to yesterday's post. Tom downplayed what happened; let's just say that tongue stitches hurt and when the oral surgeon says, "The tongue's going to hurt a lot more than the tooth, because the tongue's a sensory organ," that's an understatement.
• Biopsy results should be back March 2.
• I've mentioned "biopsy results" too many times on this blog for my liking.
• If you make your iChat comment say, "Owwwww," lots of people write to you with nice "feel better soon" comments.
• Google Maps now work in Safari. Yay!
• This tip from 43 Folders about Remind sounds like it might make a very interesting Dashboard Widget.
• I just got the premiere issue of Make Magazine in the mail, and I'm looking forward to reading it as soon as my brain is a little more alert (and yes, that is an article of mine in there, thank you).
• Yes, I plan to do live Oscar™ blogging on Sunday. Since when does not having seen any of the movies stop me?

Mac Celebrity Deathmatch: Snell versus Ihnatko!

From My Personal Getaway:

Adam Jackson: Finally, if there was one person in the Macintosh industry (media, writer, or CEO of Mac product company) you could be stranded with on an island, who would it be?

Jason Snell: Andy Ihnatko, because his remarkable personality and sense of humor would make the whole horrible experience more bearable. And then, when he had ceased to amuse me, I could kill him and eat him.

This, in a nutshell, is why we love the Mac community. Although we here would be willing to put money on Andy being the victor. Here's our rationale: the food supply on that island is likely to be limited. Deprivation and weight loss will ensue. We figure that by the time that Jason is no longer amused, you would be able to count his ribs. But Andy? He'd just be down to his fighting weight.

Advantage: Ihnatko.

Ouch

Dori had some oral surgery this morning to extract a tooth that broke while we were in Los Angeles last week. She's okay, and Percocet helps with the pain, but she'll probably spend the rest of the day in bed. Send her your healing thoughts, please.

New iPods

As expected, Apple announced new iPods today. Here's a comparison chart.

So far as I can tell, the goal is to make you say, "Hey, I can get a 512 Mb iPod shuffle for only $99. That's pretty cheap for an iPod."

"Oh wait, for only another $50 I can get twice as much space — I'll get the 1 Gb iPod shuffle for $149 instead."

"Oh wait, for only another $50 I can get four times as much space — I'll get the 4 Gb iPod mini for $199 instead."

"Oh wait, for only another $50 I can get 50% more space — I'll get the 6 Gb iPod mini for $249 instead."

"Oh wait, for only another $50 I can get over three times more space — I'll get the 20 Gb iPod for $299 instead."

"Oh wait, for only another $50 I can get 50% more space — I'll get the 30 Gb iPod photo for $349 instead."

By the time you're done, that little $99 purchase has turned into the $449 60 Gb iPod photo, a $19 dock connector to FireWire cable (available separately), a $39 dock (available separately), a $19 AV cable (available separately), a $39 remote (available separately), and a $29 carrying case with belt clip (available separately) for $594. Ouch! (and yes, virtually all of those accessories used to be included).

Future car thoughts

I bought my current car almost seven years ago, and at the time, I told Sean that if he went to a college we approved of, he could take it with him. Seven years ago, that day seemed like a long way off.

With the college tours last week, though, that day is coming a lot closer, so I was happy to hear that none of the schools we looked at allowed freshmen to have cars on campus. OTOH, that's just delaying the inevitable, so when someone mentioned in the comments below that pix of the 2005 Miata are out, I had to take a look. While I won't be getting a replacement any time soon, it's nice to know that the new model still looks good — but I haven't ruled out a Mini Cooper Convertible yet, either.

Old: XMLHttpRequest, New: Ajax

I've blogged here before about XMLHttpRequest, and a frequent complaint about that term (besides "which letters get capitalized, again?") is that's it's too unwieldy and needs a better name. Jesse James Garrett and Adaptive Path have a suggestion: Ajax, a new approach to web applications.

The name comes from Asynchronous Javascript And Xml, and while it's better than XMLHttpRequest, I still wish someone would come up with a name that's more Google-unique.

21st century Airstreams

A lot of people know that my "office" is a 1957 Airstream trailer, so I frequently get sent Airstream links. This one, Airstream: The 21st Century Trailer, has some nice pix and a good story about where the company and its trailers are now.

Welcome, Indie 500 visitors

A few weeks ago, we (well, Tom) wrote a post called Torture is wrong. So is Gonzales as Attorney General, which said what we thought was obvious: torture is a bad idea.

For that, this blog got included in the Indie 500, a list of 500 (or so) independent political weblogs, and we're honored just to be included in that list. (Think you should be included too? Write to jenniebeeATverizon.net).

Today, I found out that we're the Indie 500 Blog of the Day. Thanks for the honor, and for y'all visiting here for the first time, feel free to look around, make yourselves at home, and come back any time.

So long, Hunter

Hunter S. Thompson rests. But not in peace. He wouldn't want that.