March 2006 Archives
This post on the Flickr Blog shows the real power and potential of the web and social computing. It isn't about "my buds and me gettin f'ed up tonight - lol."
Technorati Tags: blogs, flickr, Flickr, photo, photoblogging, photoblogs, people, web
Finally an explanation for my apparent lack of genius from the National Institute of Mental Health.
The brains of very intelligent children appear to develop in a distinctive and surprising way that distinguishes them from less intelligent children, a federal study reported yesterday...
...The new study found that the cortex continued to thicken in gifted children until around age 11 or 12, much later than in children of average intelligence, whose cortex thickening peaked by age 8.
So here's my theory - really gifted kids mature much later than "underachiever" kids. Maybe even sometimes the "underachiever" kids will be much brighter later in life. In my case it seems that I'm probably super-super smart and just a late-bloomer. Happy Day!
OK - maybe not - but it's a nice idea isn't it?
Technorati Tags: news, intelligence, brains, stupid, stoopid
All my friends are more creative than I could ever be. This week I was fortunate to spend some time with a couple of close friends in Covington. It was a great time, but bittersweet. It made me remember how many incredibly gifted friends I have - and how un-creative I am most of the time. Maybe I should just give up and become a frustrated, but well-paid corporate sell out. Wait - it's too late for that.
Here's a list of some of my friends' creative contributions (in no particular order):
Update!!! I just discovered another of my friends has a spot online:
A relative newcomer to the Knoxville scene; Taste of Havana has tons of potential. Wonderful flavors - hearty main dishes - rice and beans to die for. The meals are usually excellent - although occasionally inconsistent.
The baked goods (with the exception of the heavenly Cuban bread) leave a bit to be desired. Lack of good service help seems to be the root all the issues mentioned here.
Update: There has recently been a whole new crop of great servers at Taste of Havana. This helps the minor gripes I listed above. Taste of Havana should be on your "try this weekend" list!
A Taste of Havana
10420 Kingston Pk.
Knoxville, TN 37922-3261
(865) 693-4796
Tonight after a not-so-quick trip down Kingston Pike to buy track spikes for our son, we needed to grab a quick meal before heading home. Fortunately Mrs. TechnoWannabe reminded me about the NY pizza place also on Kingston Pike where we were battling rush hour traffic.
Roman's serves up a true NY-style pizza and several other pizza parlour favorites (e.g. stromboli, subs, etc.) We took a quick pit stop at Roman's (next to the cheap theater and Big Lots). There was a different guy there making the pizza, but the quality was great as usual.
There also some good lunch specials featuring pizza-by-the-slice and a few other quick items. I'm glad I'm not close enough for delivery - I'd be fat as a house in no time.
A nice side note: Roman's overs a decent selection of Jones Sodas, odd energy drinks and even Orangina (a favorite of mine from way back).
This is definitely worth a visit.
Roman's Pizza
(865) 539-1784
179 N Seven Oaks Dr
Knoxville, TN 37922
This afternoon I finally got around to trying Lemon Grass in Maryville (just 15 minutes from West Knoxville). It was a pleasant surprise. The exterior is plain and a bit dingy - and that's being nice. But we all know that's necessarily not a bad thing when looking for a good place to eat. Actually, the inside is pretty decent anyway.
Now for the important part - the food:
We had basil shrimp spring rolls, several types of sushi, beef salad and pad prik pork. Everything was excellent except the sushi - which was pretty mediocre - but I guess that's my fault for ordering sushi at a Thai restaurant. All the dishes were fresh and flavorful. The pad prik pork was actually nice and spicy, just the way I ordered it (not often the case in a few area establishments).
Service was prompt, professional and friendly.
Lemon Grass
912 W Lamar Alexander Pkwy
Maryville, TN 37801-4532
(865) 681-8785
While most of us are still amazed by Google Maps with satellite view and Google Earth on a regular basis, Google doesn't want the experience to grow stale. Google Mars allows us to view detailed maps (in 3 different flavors) of the Red Planet. It works very much like Google Maps, although it seems the site is currently overwhelmed by the opening rush. Now - who will be the first blogger to plant a flag on the map and what will be the first Google Mars spam item? More details available at vnunet.
Technorati Tags: mars, google, Google, googlemars
I was fortunate enough to recieve an invitation to the now-closed beta of Writely (The Web Word Processor). At first blush, the interface and features are outstanding. There seem to be a wealth of killer collaboration and publishing features here. As a matter of fact, I'm writing and posting this entry through Writely's built-in blog posting capability.
Expect a more thorough review in the near future as I use Writely for more substantial tasks.
And, for those of you who are green with envy right now and can't stand to wait any longer - post a comment with a request and I'll send you an invitation.
Technorati Tags: blogs, editing, editors, google, useful, web, webdesign, writely, writing
Despite Google's recent political troubles - they are still among the kings of cool and useful web gadgets. Writely, a web-based word processor, promises to be one of their most useful. New users are being put on a waiting list until all functionality is moved to Google's infrastructure, but it's doubtful that will be a long process - make sure you get in on it now.
From the Writely site:
Share documents instantly & collaborate real-time.
Pick exactly who can access your documents.
Edit your documents from anywhere.
Nothing to download -- your browser is all you need.
Store your documents securely online.
Offsite storage plus data backup every 10 seconds.
Easy to use.
Clean, uncluttered screens with a familiar, desktop feel.
Technorati Tags: editing, editors, Google, technology, web, wordprocessing, writely, writing
It's been interesting to watch the development taking place at Turkey Creek on the West end of Knoxville: interesting and depressing at the same time. Don't get me wrong, I'm excited to see World Market moving in - it's like Pier 1 but cooler and with tons of cool snacks and cooking ingredients from all over the planet. At the same time though - I'm seeing a pretty disturbing trend, even for the suburbs. How many of the retailers slated to move in to the shipping center are already represented in Knoxville? Many of these places are already within a 5-10 mile drive from the new location (e.g. Bonefish Grille, Wok Hay, Stir Fry Cafe, etc.) I've been doing a little research to find out what's coming that we don't already have here. World Market is cool - but why not dream big? Apple Store? Urban Outfitters? What would you like to see?
Here's a list of what is already planned from what I can tell:
- World Markets
- Borders Books and Music
- Talbot's
- New York & Company
- Bed Bath & Beyond
- Belk
- Chico's
- Bonefish Grill
- Wok Hay
- Another generic Mexican restaurant
Any other information floating around out there? And what about this Northshore Town Centre? There hasn't been much buzz about who's moving in on the retail side?
Technorati Tags: blogs, burbs, dining, knoxville, shopping, suburban, suburbs, tenn, tennessee, tn
Try PXN8 for free, online photo editing. There are several of the most frequently used filters and operations from your favorite photo applications, plus a couple of cool features that'll give your photos that uber-cool I'm a Flickr pro look. When you're finished editing you can save the photo on your hard drive or easily upload it to Flickr directly from PXN8. Speaking of Flickr, it'd be great if they'd reproduce this functionality on the site or just buy PXN8 and integrated the software, hint hint.
Technorati Tags: editing, flickr, Flickr, photo, photoediting, mashup, PXN8, pxn8
When space Legos came along, I felt I could replicate the world. Compared to the huge, crayon-colored bricks I'd been using for several years, space Legos felt so precise, so real. Tiny one-lug pieces, antennas, wings, legs and all those other nifty bits set me free. But I must admit - as creative as I was - I never came up with anything as cool or weird as these Top 10 Strangest Lego Creations.
Consider the Tennessee Vacation Site your main destination for travel in the Volunteer State. I can't believe I'm writing this, but the site has scads of interesting content and a very solid and current design. This wasn't put together by I.T. weenies working for the state in their spare time. It's worth a look whether you live here, are planning a visit or just want to learn a thing or two about good site design. There's even a section called "My Tennessee Vacation" which allows the user to create a vacation profile to easily bookmark and retrieve event and destination info.
Technorati Tags: design, tenn, tennessee, tn, travel, vacation, web, webdesign
Newsvine aggregates "official" news feeds from the AP and others along with community-provided news seeds, discussions and real-time chat. It's the news on a community and social level - moving it from monologue to multilogue. This is definitely worth checking out and signing up for. Mike Davidson, CEO of Newsvine has a very detailed write-up here.
p.s. I may be a bit biased on this one, as it comes from my dream city, Seattle - but seriously give it a look.
Technorati Tags: aggregator, newsvine, startup, web, web2.0
Ma.gnolia is a social bookmarking and networking site by several of the authors at A List Apart. Much like del.icio.us, its focus is on finding and tagging those websites you just don't want to lose and you'd like to share with others. Del.icio.us made the biggest splash in this pond some time ago, but don't write off any late-comers until you've seen Ma.gnolia in action. You can even import your existing del.lcio.us tags using a very simple interface. Here's my Ma.gnolia profile.
Technorati Tags: del.icio.us, internet, ma.gnolia, taggers, socialnetworking, tagging, web, web2.0
Technorati Tags: internet, personaldna, personality, startup, web2.0
A recent article in the Metro Pulse asked, "Who gets to decide what's Knoxvillian?" The author's point seems to be that Knoxville is a diverse, progressive city which defies dietary classification: especially by outsiders. While there are some really good dining choices here in Knoxville, I'd be inclined to argue that there are really two types of food that could potentially "define" Knoxvillian cuisine.
Technorati Tags: dining, food, knoxville, tenn, tennessee, tn
SubSystm serves up a live "iPod autopsy" video for your viewing pleasure.
Technorati Tags: Apple, autopsy, iPod, reviews, tech, technology, toys
