Two Percent Nation

Guster song in Target Christmas commercial

I knew that Target commercial song was by Guster! For a bunch of Jews they write a lot of songs about Jesus.

 

Palm Mobile Hotspot? I'm sold on a Pre Plus

Palm just had their CES event and went through a bunch of updates to webOS that seemed pretty cool, mostly around developers and gaming apps.  Then they formally announced that the Palm Pre Plus and the Palm Pixi Plus are coming to Verizon Wireless on January 25th.  Palm Pre Plus will have 16GB of memory vs the 8GB on Palm Pre and Pixi Plus will have WiFi which the Pixi does not.  They also alluded to an updated design which is meaningless unless it means an improved keyboard. BUT the biggest announcement of all was a feature they're calling the Palm Mobile Hotspot.  

Essentially the Palm Mobile Hotspot feature turns your Palm Pre Plus into a MiFi, which is huge.  I'm a Verizon BlackBerry owner now and I absolutely love the tethering feature.  For $15 extra per month I can connect my laptop via USB to my BlackBerry and get 3G internet access anywhere.  But the cable is a pain and I can't use it to get my iPod Touch online.  A MiFi solves this problem but who wants to sign up for an extra account and data plan when you're already paying for voice and data on another phone!  The Palm solution is ideal - turn your smartphone into a WiFi hotspot.  I've been on the fence about what device to upgrade to from my 8330 Curve.  I was thinking about the Droid, but didn't like the keyboard.  Then figured I'd stick with BlackBerry and get the Tour (or Tour2 if it comes out soon).  But the Palm Mobile Hotspot announcement might just have sealed the deal for me getting a Palm Pre Plus on January 25th.

My foursquare check-in heatmap

So cool. My office in Chelsea is clearly ground zero for my foursquare check-ins but also interesting to see the outskirts including a few concerts at Giants Stadium. Create your own map at http://www.wheredoyougo.net. Hat tip to @gregclayman.

New York City Food Trucks Map

There is a full on craze going on New York City right now over these high-end mobile food trucks. Thanks to Twitter these vendors are able to attract sizable crowds wherever they stop. While it's possible to keep tabs on them by subscribing to their respective Twitter feeds I couldn't find somewhere to see where they all are at any given time. So I've taken a stab at creating a (manual) Google Map of them based on their latest Twitter update. Not the most scalable solution but we'll see how it goes.

This is based on the following Twitter feeds: @waffletruck, @CupcakeStop, @LCBBurgerTruck, @nyccravings, @BigGayIceCreamTruck, @VLAIC, @RickshawTruck, @legamintruck, @TheTreatsTruck, @StreetSweets, @CalexicoCart, @SchnitzelTruck. If I'm missing any please post them in the comments.

 
View New York City Food Trucks in a larger map

LOST: can the past be changed?

I was feeling pretty down on Lost after last week's episode "The Variable". Faraday's chaotic return and ultimate death seemed like a monkeywrench in what was otherwise a continuous string of powerful episodes that seemed headed in one direction. I had thought that the Oceanic 6 were coming back with Locke to "save the Island". We don't know yet what the Island needs saving from. Maybe it's the "war" that's been referenced by Widmore and others. Regardless, it seems that the remainder of the season will instead be spent addressing the issue that Faraday brought to the fore last week: can the past in fact be changed?

The producers have said that Faraday is really dead and not coming back. That leaves Jack to take up the mantle of change-agent and carry out Faraday's plan to detonate the bomb and prevent "the incident" from happening. I'm still not entirely clear why changing this course of events is important. That would seem to serve the purpose of sending the Oceanic 6 back to their rightful place in time and ensuring that their flight never crashes. But I don't see how that necessarily saves the Island. Maybe we'll come back to that in Season 6.

I'm looking forward to the return of Locke in this week's episode. Is he the eponymous "Leader" from the episode title? We'll soon find out.

5 Reasons Qdoba is Better Than Chipotle

1. The Tortillas - Chipotle's are thicker and chewier; Qdoba's are thinner and stay out of the way of the fillings. 

2. The Sauces - Chipotle has the basic fillings (e.g. chicken, beef, pork, etc.) that come only plain; in addition to plain Qdoba offers those with tasty sauces including Ancho Chile BBQ and Poblano Pesto, among others.

3. The Rice - Chipotle has way too much cilantro in its rice; Qdoba has a more reasonable amount. For me and people like me (www.ihatecilatro.com) better to have less (or none) and let those who love cilantro add more.

4. The Loyalty Card - Qdoba has one that earns you free food for frequent dining; Chipotle doesn't have one at all.

5. The Ownership - Chipotle is owned by obesity-fueling behemoth McDonald's; Qdoba is owned by the much smaller and cooler Jack in the Box.

Bring it on Chipotle fanboys/Qdoba haters!

Here comes the Dave Matthews Band

With their spring 2009 tour about to get underway tonight at Madison Square Garden things are kicking into high gear for the Dave Matthews Band, my all-time favorite music group. The band has a new album, Big Whiskey and the GrooGrux King, due out June 2nd and today they unveiled the album artwork and track listing as well as offered a free mp3 download of the first single, Funny The Way It Is. According to data in last week's Billboard feature on the band even if the new album posts only modest sales it will put them in 5th place in Nielsen SoundScan's ranking of album sales by artist since 1991.  

I'll be going to tomorrow night's show at the IZOD Center in NJ with my wife and am looking forward to our 11th row center floor seats (the benefits of 11 years of fan club dues). Thanks to antsmarching.org you can follow the setlists from home on Twitter via @dmblive. I'm looking forward to hearing some of the songs from the new album which the band will no doubt intersperse into the set list. There will be some sadness, though, as this is the first DMB show (I've seen them 40+ times) I will have seen since the death of saxophonist LeRoi Moore who passed away last August as a result of an ATV accident. I always thought that LeRoi added one of the most unique and interesting dimensions to the band's music and it will be strange to see him missing from the stage.

Billboard put together the video below as a preview of the new album. It features some touching interviews with the band members. I highly recommend checking it out.

LOST thoughts: between episodes 511 & 512

Highlights from the April 6, 2009 edition of the Official LOST Podcast

This week's podcast with the Executive Producers was fairly light on insights. Here are the highlights:

What to expect in Epsiode 512 (Wednesday, April 8, 2009)

• An appearance by Desmond
• A continuation of the Locke/Ben story (Epsiode 511 ended with Ben waking up to find Locke alive and sitting by his bed)

Other notes

• Why was Ben bloody and beaten when he got on the Ajira Airways flight back to the island?
  • The producers implied that it has something to do with Penny & Desmond. In Episode 506 Ben called Jack from a payphone at the marina - theoretically the same marina where Penny & Desmond's boat was docked.  Was Ben bloody from killing Penny as part of his war with Charles Widmore, her father? He threatened to do exactly that in episode 409.
• In episode 511 Miles & Hurley have an in-depth conversation about time travel. This scene was not created by the writers in reaction to any audience feedback about how confusing the concept is on the show but rather was written in advance of the season premiere airing in anticipation of the confusion.

LOST thoughts: pre-Episode 5.11

Tonight's Episode: - The title is -"Whatever Happened, Happened" and will primaily be a Kate episode Questions to think about after the last episode: -Is 12-yr-old Ben really dead? The executive producers have implied that he is likely not dead as a result of being shot by Sayid given the premise of Faraday's time travel theory that the past can't be changed. -Is Alana the bounty hunter really who she says she is? The executive proiducers have implied that she is not exactly who she says she is. My theory is that she was hired by Ben or to make sure Sayid was on the Ajira flight and came back to the island. Things we can expect to learn/see later this season: The four-toed statue -We will see more of it by end of season including enough of it to know what it is a statue of. Why did Ben kill Locke? -Ben himself will explain this in one of the upcoming episodes. Why did Miles want $3.2 million from Ben (last season)? -Miles himself will answer this before the end of the season. Other tidbits: The book The Stand is a major influence on the writers -Draw your own conclusions if you've read this book. *Note: most of this information comes from The Official LOST Podcast Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry

Palm Pre appearance on Jimmy Fallon

Such a cool exclusive hands-on with the Pre and so cool that Jimmy Fallon is such a gadget geek.

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