Turnthescrew v3

Jul 2, 2008 by Dan Taylor    No Comments    Posted under: News, Technology

Welcome to the now 3rd version of TurntheScrew.  I felt that it was time for a new look, as I often do about every 6-9 months, and the move to a new host, along with the err..umm…kinda sorta database flub, it was a good time to update the look.

After hours of searching for new templates, and testing some, seeing what I could change with others I happened upon this new theme that you see here.  ‘The Unstandard‘ was coded by Derek Punsaian over at 5thirtyone.com.  This guy has some seriously sharp templates.  Go visit his site.

Another reason for visiting his site is to compair and contrast my own slight modifications.  Nothing drastic, but you know me…I can’t stand a simple cookie cutter, hey I found it, let me just slap at up and run with it process.  Of course I had to customize it.  You’ll notice right off the bat that I’ve replaced all the orange from Derek’s site with red here at TTS.  Reasoning being that while I have nothing against orange, I wanted something a bit stronger.  A bit bolder.  A primary color.  Red seemed to be the obvious choice, as it’s also a carry over from the ‘old’ TTS style template accent color.  With the help of BigBlueBottle, I also managed to get a little slicing and dicing of the css stylesheet in order to move the tabs at the top a bit closer together.  Dunno…just looks a bit better to my eye.

All in all, I’m pretty darn happy with this new look.  There are a few things that I’ve still got to take care of, but as always, TurntheScrew is a work in process and will get to them shortly (think widgets).  What are your thoughts on the new look?  Leave a comment below.

Wine Library with Gary Vaynerchuk

Jun 20, 2008 by Dan Taylor    4 Comments    Posted under: News

Wine. Whine? WINE!

Ok, if you’ve been reading my humble blog for a while now, you’re most probably aware that my liquid pleasure comes in two forms: Beer and Whiskey (preferably not together though). While I’d consider myself an average connoisseur of the brew, meaning I can tell and taste the differences between a lager, ale, pilsner, hefe-weissen, and if it has a sweet, bitter, or sharp taste to it, I’m still a beginner when it comes to whiskeys.

I feel at some point I’ve almost been spoiled. My whiskey intake thus far has been rather limited. I’ve sampled all of the Jack Daniels brands, and had a glass of Caol Ila, courtesy of Trude at the now defunct ‘Greenfield Lounge’ (may she RIP). And now for the spoils…my good friend Ludwig treated me to a glass of Johnny Walker Blue about a week ago. For the record, the bottle was approximately 10 years old, and we didn’t finish the minor bit that was left. I know JW Blue ain’t exactly what one would call cheap, but drinking one bottle over the coarse of 10 years….yeah, I think that’s acceptable.

Right. Now to the point regarding the posting title. Bigbluebottle has been my go to guy for a long time regarding wine. Admittedly, wine is not my deal, and I really don’t know too much about it. I know what tastes good, and what doesn’t, but at the end of the day, I don’t really know what I’m tasting. I couldn’t tell you about the hint of pomegranate juice melting into the oak barrel flavor.

Bottle’s pretty darn good….but Gary Vee is better. If you enjoy wine (or even if you don’t) I can guarantee that you’re going to like Gary Vee. He’s quickly coming up on his 500th video at tv.winelibrary.com, and what a fun ride it’s been thus far. Gary’s parents owned a liquor store, and working as a bored teenager he began reading Wine Spectator and Wine Advocate. Now I don’t know about you…but as a teenager, I certainly wasn’t picking up copies of Wine Spectator as light reading. In other words, Gary Vee knows his stuff.

So a healthy tip from your non wine drinking author, give Gary Vee a view. In the words of Bottle, “I think this guy might be slightly crazy”, and I agree. Gary Vee is slightly crazy. Everything from his Gonzo style journalism to his impressive collection of Jets memorabilia (to be fair, I’m also a Jets fan), this guy is a bit off. But it is exactly this wackiness that sucks you in a makes you want to watch even more.

25 mac apps you can live without, but shouldn’t

Apr 23, 2008 by Dan Taylor    No Comments    Posted under: Technology

Ladies and Gentlemen, I think I might have accomplished my mission. Bigbluebottle has finally jumped into the game! Sure, he’s got bigbluebottle.com and a few other smaller blogs that he works on, but nothing that I would consider ‘taking the plunge’. Bottle’s got a head chock full o’ information about the tech and IT world, and I’ve been urging him for a while now to leap into the frying pan with the rest of us, and start contributing content to the world wide internets.

Let’s call this first entry a super soft launch of his new venture allogeneo.us. Spiffy URL name as well I might add. Very web2.0y.  Bottle’s managed to kick this one off with a bang, providing us with 25 mac apps you can live without, but shouldn’t. A selected excerpt:

Multimedia:

• ImageWell: If you just don’t have time for all the nuances and intricacies of Adobe Photoshop or GIMP, and just want to do some very basic image manipulation, use ImageWell.
• Audacity: At first, I’d have labeled this as a basic audio file editing tool, but since it supports VST plugins, you quickly learn that this little free tool has a LOT of power behind it.

• Blender: This one is a bit more of a niche product. Very powerful 3-dimensional modeling too.

Read the rest of this highly useful article over at allogeneo.us. And congrats B, welcome to the party!