Sunday, June 21, 2009

Dundee Hills Tasting (Thursday - Day 6)

This was the last of our wine tasting for this trip. Six days of tasting over 10 days was enough. Here's where we went...mostly tasting Pinot:
  • Rex Hill Vineyards
  • Domaine Drouhin
  • Domaine Serene
  • Argyle Winery
  • Torii Mor
  • Erath Winery
During this trip we visited 42 wineries..not too bad!

Favorites for me:
  • AVA - Lake Chelan
  • Riesling (sweet) - Terra Blanca Winery
  • Dessert - Zerba Cellars
  • Cabernet - L'Ecole No. 41
  • Malbec - Wapato Pint Cellars
  • Syrah - Lake Chelan Winery
  • Pinot - Domaine Serene

Tuesday, June 16, 2009

Lake Chelan AVA Tasting (Tuesday - Day 5)

On Tuesday, we visited the following wineries in Chelan and Manson, WA:
  • Tsillan Cellars
  • Vin du Lac
  • Benson Vineyards
  • Wapato Point Cellars
  • Hard Row to Hoe Vineyards
  • Lake Chelan Winery
Chelan is about 3.5 hours east of Seattle and is a vacation destination for many here in Washington. They received the AVA designation about 3 weeks ago. Nice to break it in!

Tomorrow is a drive to Portland/relax day. We pick up again on Thursday with some Williamette Valley Pinot Noir tasting.

Monday, June 15, 2009

Woodinville and Leavenworth Tasting (Monday - Day 4)

On Monday, we visited:
  • Chateau St. Michelle (no tasting)
  • Januik
  • Gold Digger Cellars (Okanogan Estate)
  • Kestrel Vintners
  • Bergdorf Cellars
  • Pasek Cellars
  • Maison de Padgett Winery
Time to enjoy the evening happenings of Leavenworth, WA.

Benton City wine tasting (Day 3 - Sunday)

We visited:
  • Terra Blanca Winery - great Late Harvest Riesling
  • Kiona Vineyards
  • Seth Ryan Winery
Then we drove to Tacoma for some family time.

Saturday, June 13, 2009

Walla Walla Wine Tasting, Day 2

Saturday brought us to:
  • Basel Cellars
  • Balboa Winery
  • Beresan Winery
  • Waters Winery
  • Va Piano Vineyards
  • Trust Cellars
  • Zerba Cellars (Oregon) - Semillon Ice Wine!
  • Dunham Cellars
  • Patrick M. Paul Vineyard
  • Patit Creek Cellars
  • Otis Kenyon
Busy day!!!

Walla Walla Wine Tasting

Friday is finished...here is where we went:
  • Woodward Canyon Winery
  • L'Ecole No. 41 Winery
  • Waterbrook Winery
  • Three Rivers Winery
  • Reininger Winery
  • Amavi Cellars
  • Spring Valley Vineyard
  • Slight of Hand
  • Fort Walla Walla Cellars
More tasting here tomorrow. Sunday = Benton City. Monday = Woodinville and Leavenworth. Tuesday = Lake Chelan. Thursday and Friday = Oregon Pinot. Many wineries to be hit on this trip!

Wednesday, May 20, 2009

Wolfram Alpha is no Google Killer

Wolfram Alpha reminds me of other flirtatious "Google killers" from the past couple of years: Powerset, Freebase and Cuil.

I'll set the stage: you are out on the town at a very trendy club and you mozy on up to the bar. You feel flush and entitled and order a high end vodka for your dirty martini (people always tell you that the olive juice kills the premium taste, but what do you care, this is who you are). When you turn back to take in the crowd (and let them take you in) guess who walks up? Wait for it...wait for it...

That's right...Wolfram Alpha! You've been hearing all kinds of stories about WA for weeks now. You think to yourself, "Holy shit! I'm gonna get a peek at this before the masses do!" And so you dive on into the experience and are quickly comforted by being able to find out such things as:
  • being able to quickly divide the population of Singapore by the population of Hong Kong and get results for the year 2004 and 2007
  • punching in your birthdate and learning that you are over 14,000 days old!
  • type in Spokane and learn that it has an elevation of 1873 feet
You keep going and going and going, it sucks you in. This is sooooo cool. At the end of the night you lean in, attempt a kiss on the lips, but just get a cheek, go home and tuck yourself in.

THEN guess what happens?

You wake up, turn on your computer and go right back to using Google.

Wolfram Alpha is good for a twenty minute quicky...but it'll whither away just like the others.

My money is still on Twitter...

Monday, March 02, 2009

What's the most valuable way you care?

Have you ever been asked a question like that?

Attached to this post is a caring coin (the first ever, as far as IFTF knows). I have received coin #1066; and I'm told that they are unique.

(You can also view this coin here.)

I have already answered the question...and so can you!

At this site you can read how other people have answered this question, including people who've had this particular coin before you. Use the coin's unique number to add your own thoughts, too.

Join a giant conversation about the future of caring. Help us out with your 2 cents, and pass this on to someone who cares.

Thanks!

--Sean

Thursday, January 29, 2009

Signtific launches!!!

Reposted from IFTF's Signtific blog: (I suggest that you start at the DISCOVER stage to ease into the system). More fun stuff in the works!

After many month of hard work, we are proud to announce the official launch of Signtific!

Signtific.org is an innovative and dynamic collaborative web-based platform designed for engaging scientists and technologists from all areas of study in identifying disruptive trends. The platform is three-fold: First, Signals are the foundational indicators that point to larger trends and supply the conversation on Signtific. Second, Notebooks are the organizational hubs where you can collect Signals and choose to share your ideas with trusted colleagues. Last, Forecasts are combine signals in your notebook to identify a key trend, disruption, opportunity, or shift in the competitive landscape.

Navigation around Signtific is organized into four categories: "Create", "Discover", "Discuss" and "Experiment." In Create you can start signaling and forecasting. Discover is where you can go to dive into the rich information that other users have created, and where you can comment on, rate, and otherwise interact with site content.

No science is complete without experimentation, so keep an eye out for Experiment going live shortly! In the coming weeks we'll be launching The Lab where you can connect in real-time with colleagues from around the world through science and technology scenarios. We don't want to give away all the cool stuff too quickly so make sure to log in frequently to be a participant.

Finally, one of the most valuable contributions that you can make to Signtific is rating the site's content base. When reading a signal or forecast, click on Submit Rating and you will be asked to rate the signal based on two characteristics: Likelihood (how likely it is that a signal or forecast will occur) and Impact (if the signal or forecast does occur, how important will it be).

Rating content will help users find strong and relevant content, identify outlying signals and forecasts, and help us with our work visualizing Signtific's data - in short, everybody wins when you rate, so get to it!

The Signtific team is looking forward to your contributions, thoughts, and discussions. Check back to the blog for updates where we'll uncover the latest in the world of Signtific, have special guest contributors, interviews, thought-provoking write-ups, and user and affiliation showcases.

Signal On!

-The Signtific Team