I spent a few days last week in Manhattan meeting with lawyers and accountants.
On one hand, that doesn’t sound like a lot of fun. On the other hand, it was terrific.
New York has its Mojo back.
It could have been that there was so much energy, activity, and a sense of bigger things to come ...
Or, it could have been this massive slice of bacon they serve at Peter Luger's.
I had friends in from Asia and they wanted to experience some Dallas nightlife.
Mooyah Burgers and Hard Eight Barbecue wasn't their speed.
With a little help from some friends whose palettes are a little more up-scale than mine, they dined at Charlie Palmer's at the Hotel Joule.
You Know It's Fancy When ...
Notice the tablet computer.
That is an interactive wine-list called the eWinebook. It sorts and sifts by type, country, region, vintage, or price.
Once you narrow down your selections to a few choices, a live person is available to help you make your decision.
On one hand, it helps the consumer feel better about their choice; and on the other, it increases the restaurants average wine bill. To a "Win - Win" proposition. Cheers.
The march of technology continues ...
They say memory is the second thing to go, as you get older … but I forget the first.
However, based on how hard it is getting for me to see at night (and the fact that I now have little flashlights stashed all over the place), my guess is that eyesight is the first thing to go.
It turns out that my vision wasn't as bad as I thought it was; but my choice of lighting was worse than I realized.
In an attempt to be environmentally conscious and have light bulbs that supposedly last longer, I started purchasing these strange curly fluorescent bulbs. My mind told me that they were fine, but my experience proved otherwise.
Recently, I switched to the natural spectrum bulbs from Verilux, and it's like somebody finally turned the light on. Externally, they may look the same, but they make a big difference. I can read again, my eyes don't hurt at the end of the day, and that strange tint on photos or web-cam videos is replaced with a much more natural palette of colors.
Apparently, there's a lot of science behind this; but it only took flipping the switch for me to know that it makes a big difference.
Coincidentally, I'm reading a book by Temple Grandin, an autistic woman with insights into how natural surroundings either calm or disturb animals and humans. According to her book, it turns out that one of the primary anxiety triggers is fluorescent lighting and its incessant flickering.
We spend so much time thinking about what we put in our bodies (like organic foods or vitamins), but to feel healthy we also should think about what we surround our body with ... and a full natural spectrum of light is a good start.
Here's a link to the website where I found natural lighting. Hope that helps.
I wanted to create a list of the coolest iPhone apps. However, cool doesn't necessarily mean useful. Instead, this is a list of the applications that I use most.
This week I'm listing the lighter and more fun iPhone apps. Here is the link to the list the business and productivity apps that I use most.
I limited myself to the top two applications per category. Hope you find some cool stuff in here.
Social Media
Food & Fun Finders
Games: Strategy
Games: Puzzle
Games: Pattern Matching
Games: Text
Music
Photo Fun
Health & Fitness
Relaxation
Sports News
Shopping
Even if you don't have an iPhone, check-out the links to see what is available. I am amazed at how much of my computing and basic research are now done on a Smartphone.
That's it for now. Let me know if I forgot your favorite or you found something worth sharing.
Sometimes new technology seems like science fiction. Other times, science fiction introduces us to new technology.
I remember watching Minority Report and having a sense that I was watching a future closer than it seemed. There's a scene where Tom Cruise is walking through a shopping area and each time he passes a store there is a personalized ad; and in other scenes there is a "Terminator-Like" text that overlays the physically real world. That is called "Augmented Reality".
Well, your phone may not be as cool as that, yet; however it's getting there pretty quickly.
The next picture doesn't look like much; but it's using the iPhone's built-in camera and GPS unit to recognize highly rated restaurants in real time. The application doing this is Yelp. This feature is currently hidden by default; but you can turn it on by shaking your phone vigorously, until the "Monocle" feature activates.
Soon, I imagine this will be enhanced further with a discount coupons and the ability to place orders before you walk in the door. Nonetheless, it's an example of what's coming.
Where Else Will This Be Useful?
Imagine what this could do to the real-estate industry (as price per square foot, tax rates, etc. overlay the properties as you drive by). Or, imagine traders looking at a chart displaying the most relevant indicators, patterns, setups, and triggers for the company or market they are analyzing. It gives a whole new meaning to real-time business intelligence.
