TechCrunch is currently gloating over Chris Anderson of TED’s disappointment with Sarah Silverman’s TED Talk. I love watching the videos of ideas that come out of TED, but I’m also a fan of Silverman’s shock humor. Anderson’s reaction is completely unreasonable, and it reminds me of Stephen Colbert’s 2006 White House Correspondent’s Dinner speech. Silverman, like Colbert, has a certain brand of comedy, and if you don’t know what you’re getting into when you sign on to one of them, that’s your own problem and it shows a real disconnect.
(This isn’t the first time I’ve embedded this video.)Wing review: Bulldog Northeast and Ginger Hop: Happy Hour Battle
Those who know me or happen to be my friend on Foursquare sure know my favorite hang around town is The Bulldog Northeast. A new favorite since opening last autumn is Ginger Hop.
Despite one being gastro-American and the other Asian-fusion, the two places have some things in common: They’re two blocks apart, part of what I’ve dubbed the Beer Triangle (Mac’s Industrial Sports Bar is the third point of the triangle), have the same 3 p.m. to 6 p.m. happy hour and they both have wings on the menu. Until today, I’d never tried the wings at the Bulldog or Ginger Hop, but what else is one to do on a President’s Day afternoon but eat wings?
Ginger Hop’s wings are listed on the happy hour menu as Hop Wings for just $5. Along with $3 dollar tap beers (I had a Bell’s Two Hearted), I’ll cut the suspense, Ginger Hop wins this battle by a long shot. The wings are just slightly spice and a little bit sticky-sweet; they came covered with scallions and served with blue cheese and celery, and were some of the best wings I’ve had in weeks.
The Bulldog’s wings aren’t on the happy hour menu and go for $8. I got another Two Hearted for $4. Now there aren’t many things on the Bulldog’s menu that I don’t like, but these buffalo wings were way below acceptable. They came in the Bulldog’s signature checkered paper basket; the chicken tasted less than fresh and wasn’t so much coated in a nice thick sauce as swimming in a pool of buffalo juice.
(An aside: try the Bulldog’s short rib sandwich, which is a special this week, but I’m told has a good chance of making it on to the regular menu; absolutely delicious.)
If you’re hungry for wings in Northeast Minneapolis late in the afternoon, do your wallet and a stomach a favor and head over to Ginger Hop.
Which Asus netbook should I buy?
I’m in the market for a netbook; I’ve pretty much got my choice narrowed down to two quite different Asus models: the 1005PE or 1201N.
For all of last year, a netbook was pretty much defined by the following features: Intel Atom N270 or N280 processor10.1 display, 1024×600 resolution
1 GB RAM
160 GB hard drive
An inability to play streaming HD Flash video
A webcam
Windows XP
6-10 hours of battery life The new year brought a couple small changes: Intel Atom N450 processor
250 GB hard drive
Windows 7 Starter Here’s how the 1005PE and 1201N stack up:
| Feature | Asus 1005PE | Asus 1201N |
| Processor | N450 1.66 GHz | N330 1.6 GHz dual core |
| Memory | 1GB | 2GB |
| Storage | 250GB | 250GB |
| Advertised Battery Life (Real-Life Test Time) |
14 hours (11 hours) |
5 hours (4 hours) |
| Operating System | Windows 7 Starter | Windows 7 Home Premium |
| Display | 10.1 inches, 1024×600 | 12.1 inches, 1366×768 |
| Can Stream HD Flash Video | No | Yes |
| HDMI | No | Yes |
| Price | $390 | $484 |
If you have any experience with either model I’d love to hear it. For me, the main apps for a netbook will be Google Reader, Gmail and Windows Live Writer. An app like Reader definitely benefits from the extra 168 horizontal lines of vertical resolution of the 1201N, and the ability to stream HD Flash video and output it through HDMI is certainly a nice-to-have; but I’m not sure either of those make up for the less-than-half-as-good battery life, the not-as-compact package or the $100 premium.
What do you think?
(Google Reader in Chrome at 1024×600 resolution)
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Facebook vs. Twitter vs. Buzz
Facebook vs. Twitter vs. Google Buzz is far from a perfect comparison, but won’t you help me fill in this chart?
| Biggest Strength | Biggest Weakness | |
| Full integrated. Photos, videos, status updates, groups, profiles in one (fairly) easy-to-navigate interface. | ? | |
| Crazy simple. | ? | |
| Google Buzz | ? | Unruly. Still doesn’t know my social circle after years of Google trying to figure it out. |
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We can has 1 Gbps Internet in Minneapolis?
Earlier on Google Buzz I asked if cities can make pitches to Google to get in on the 1Gbps fiber-to-the-home connections that company plans on bringing to as many as 500,000 people. I assume no one saw that because it was on Google Buzz, but I digress.
Turns out cities can apply here.
Stacey Higginbotham suggested Austin, Texas get in on the action.
I think Austin needs to let Minneapolis have some fun for once.
Cities have until March 26 to respond. So how do me make this happen? Who do we call? Who gets the City Hall interested in this?
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Amazon cloud gets cheaper
Amazon Web Services is the only business I can think of that regularly e-mails me to tell me they’ve lowered their prices. Kudos.
———- Forwarded message ———-
From: Amazon Web Services <no-reply-aws@amazon.com>
Date: Tue, Feb 2, 2010 at 2:20 AM
Subject: AWS Lowers Outbound Data Transfer Pricing
To: “doughamlin@gmail.com” <doughamlin@gmail.com> Dear AWS Customer,
From: Amazon Web Services <no-reply-aws@amazon.com>
Date: Tue, Feb 2, 2010 at 2:20 AM
Subject: AWS Lowers Outbound Data Transfer Pricing
To: “doughamlin@gmail.com” <doughamlin@gmail.com> Dear AWS Customer,
As you know, we are constantly working to drive our costs down and become more operationally efficient. We then pass on those cost savings to our customers in the form of lower prices. Today, we are pleased to announce that we are lowering AWS pricing for outbound data transfer by $0.02 across all of our services, in all usage tiers, and in all Regions. These changes are effective February 1, 2010.
The new outbound data transfer pricing will be:
- First 10 TB per Month: $0.15 per GB
- Next 40 TB per Month: $0.11 per GB
- Next 100 TB per Month: $0.09 per GB
- Over 150 TB per Month: $0.08 per GB
Amazon CloudFront, the easy-to-use content delivery service, continues to have its own outbound data transfer pricing schedule in order to offer the lowest possible rates for each edge location. Effective February 1, Amazon CloudFront will also reduce its outbound data transfer prices by $0.02 per GB across all edge locations and for each usage tier.
Please see the pricing section for any of the AWS infrastructure services on the AWS website for more information. Thank you, as always, for your support.
Sincerely,
The Amazon Web Services Team
We hope you enjoyed receiving this message. If you wish to remove yourself from receiving future product announcements or the AWS Newsletter, please update your communication preferences.
Amazon Web Services LLC is a subsidiary of Amazon.com, Inc. Amazon.com is a registered trademark of Amazon.com, Inc. This message produced and distributed by Amazon Web Services, LLC, 1200 12th Ave South, Seattle, WA 98144.
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