Shared posts

26 Jun 04:10

Historian floats idea of more parades in different neighborhoods

With the recent announcement that three more krewes plan to roll Uptown, some believe there should be a return to neighborhood-centered parades.
25 Jun 21:30

An update on Blake Pontchartrain

On Sunday, June 16, a Gambit reader (who happens to write for The TImes-Picayune) noticed that some recent Blake Pontchartrain columns contained passages that hewed closely to materials that were published elsewhere. In some cases, passages in the Blake columns were identical, or nearly identical, to the work of others and not properly attributed.…

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24 Jun 04:13

Digital Media Company CPX Interactive Announces New Office In New Orleans

by Julia Ballard
New York-based digital media company CPX Interactive has announced an expansion. The company will open a New Orleans office that will be primarily a media buying office, which includes online advertisements, social search, and display. CPX executives are deciding between two Central Business District office spaces and plan to open the chosen location in August. [...]
24 Jun 03:43

"You are either in your bed or in your shoes, so it pays to invest in both."

by derekguypto
““You are either in your bed or in your shoes, so it pays to invest in both.””

- John Wildsmith (quote via Leffot)
18 Jun 15:16

Erster Recycling: The Coalition to Restore Coastal Louisiana...

by Gwendolyn Knapp

erster6%3A6.jpegThe Coalition to Restore Coastal Louisiana has started an oyster-shell recycling program with the help of a $1 million donation from Shell. The Oyster Shell Recycling and Reef Restoration Program is currently working with Drago's and Acme Oyster House, collecting shells and essentially returning them to coastal waterways in an effort revitalize oyster beds, and they hope to work with more restaurants soon. [NOLA.com]

17 Jun 20:53

The 2013 College World Series

by JRS
The 2013 College World Series started on Saturday.  I would rank the College World Series up there with any of the BCS games or the March Madness tournament in terms of excitement.  The double elimination tournament is outstanding – metal bats, sweat stained hats, and rabid fans.  Teams that won regional tournaments, then super-regional tournaments [...]
16 Jun 15:02

June 16, 2013


Thanks to your contributions I will be doing a drawathon Wednesday. My first with a tablet.
09 Jun 16:56

Wishlist: 10 things Apple should, but likely won’t, announce at WWDC 2013

by Seth Weintraub

We’ve got a pretty good idea of what Apple intends to give us at WWDC. Even the things we’re not so sure about seem on the radar.

But what does Apple need to do long term to tighten up the ecosystem and bring some excitement back into its hardware, software and services? I’ve got a few things…

1. iCloud – I’m not sure how Apple gets to iCloud Nirvana from where they are now, but iCloud needs to turn into a full OS in the sky. The idea behind iCloud is that you really don’t know it is there but it is backing up and syncing all of your files across all of your devices all the time.

The end game for Apple should be this:

  • I sign into a new Mac or iOS device and all of my data is synced to and from the cloud just like a Time Machine backup is done.
  • iCloud works mostly that way on iOS now save for individual app settings and such but it should extend across platforms.
  • My music, photos and videos should sync across devices too.
  • Documents and files should all be versioned  as well so that I can go back to older backups.
  • All of this should be transparent to the user and happen in the background.
  • When I go offline, I should be able to have all of this data, or what I’ve chosen, to come with me using intuitive Cloud/Local settings.

Oh, and make it do everything Dropbox does with ease of Airdrop.

I realize this would take an incredible amount of resources – storage, bandwidth and maintenance – but it would be worth whatever price Apple charged to never have to think about backing up or losing data again. Here’s Steve Jobs describing something like this in 1997.

2. App Stores.  Even five years after the iOS and then the Mac App Store were released I still have some gripes about how they work.
Security: Why after all of the brute force hacks on user accounts do we still need to have an active credit card on file for one click purchases? Can’t I just leave that blank, have some credit and put on every once in awhile. Why does Apple ask for Carte Blanche every time I download a free app? Yes, I know I can get a Visa Gift card or something similar to keep a hacker from draining my account on his friends’ apps. But there should be a way to opt out of Apple’s “We have X hundred million customer credit cards on file”.

Also, I would like to not have to sync up 300 iOS apps worth gigs of data on my Mac and be reminded when these apps need upgrading. It is time to divorce Mac iTunes from my iOS devices.

While we’re on the subject of the App Stores, why are they so slow? Even on an iPhone 5 or Retina iPad, I find the App Store painful to load. It often takes like 20 seconds for the store to start up and each switch between tabs is another ‘put the device down and wait’ moment. The Mac App Store isn’t much better on speed.

There is also a lot of inconsistencies during logins. I have a fairly complicated password (helped in part by Apple’s insistance that I change the password every few weeks) and I often have to enter the password 2 or 3 times to make a purchase.

How can Apple fix this? The App Store should be able to operate in the background so when you open it, it is ready. App updates should download and/or install automatically if I choose to let them (like Google Play) so you don’t have to do these manually. Overall policy on passwords should be a user preference –as in, if I’ve entered my password within the last few minutes, another password prompt shouldn’t be invoked.

3. Messages for Mac – Messages may be the worst Mac App Apple has ever made and this isn’t for some obscure app or peripheral app like Podcasts. Messaging is very important on the Mac – most folks I know use it all day every day.

Even with the recent update with the order of iMessages (only took a year), it still freezes often and leaves me with a lot of  blank chats and sometimes even sends messages to the wrong recipient  Perhaps Apple needs to start over with a better integration of all of the Facetime, iMessage, AIM, Google Talk/Hangouts, Skype, Facebook, etc. services under one roof. Maybe the best course of action is to buy the Adium team or Trillian to expedite the process rather than throwing B-listers at it in their spare time like what it currently feels like is happening.

4. iMessages/Facetime – These services need to be carrier level reliable if Apple expects people to rely on it instead of SMS or phone calls. It clearly isn’t there yet. Not even close. It would also help if Apple’s iCloud status knew before we did that critical services were down. Clearly there are humans reporting these services and they almost always are about 30 minutes late to an outage. What’s the point of having a status page that reports outages long after all of the blogs?

5. Android Apps: I think we know by now that Android isn’t going away and depending on who you ask, it is either the dominant or one of the dominant platforms out there for phones, tablets and TVs. If we are going to rely on iMessages for messaging, we should have a way to reach our Android friends and relatives.

Apple should build iMessages and FaceTime for Android (Remember when Apple announced Facetime, it was supposed to be Open Sourced for other platforms?) so I don’t need separate apps for each of my friends. Google clearly is building a cross platform solution for Hangouts which will eventually render Apple-only solutions obsolete. Even Blackberry recently opened its BBM service for iOS and Android.

Also, I’ve spent a lot of money on movies and music in iTunes. I’d like to be able to play that media on other platforms. Just like Amazon, Netflix, Google Play and others make the media I buy available cross platform, it would be nice to be able to go to grandma’s house, sign in, and start using my iTunes media – even if it is just a bare-bones web version of iTunes in the Cloud. Until that happens, it makes more sense to buy a movie or music on Amazon rather than iTunes. I haven’t purchased music or videos on iTunes in over a year because of this.

6. iLife + iWork. What year is it? Hint: It’s not 2011.  Let’s see some innovation here? Looking at Microsoft’s Office in the Cloud or Google Doc’s real time collaboration should provide some motivation for iWork. iLife has stagnated. I would love for iPhoto to be able to handle much larger databases of pictures and movies.

7. Expert or Classic mode in Mac OS X. Since Snow Leopard, Apple hasn’t added much in the way of useful interface features in the Mac OS. The “iOSification” has made it easier for iOS users to use Macs but for those of us who’ve been here since the 80′s, these new features just serve to complicate and obfuscate the core things we’re after. Apple has also started hiding “dangerous” folders from novice users like the Library.

I know there are different utilities and commands that revert many of these changes but it would be nice if I could just check a box in the SysPrefs to get rid of Launchpad, let me see all of my folders including system folders and my media, and maybe get a little bit of OS performance back for my troubles.

We’ve heard some features like tabbed browsing are coming to OS 10.9, but clearing away some of the extra garbage would be nice.

8. Turn Photostream into a Social Network.  Add some more storage space/longer than 30 day memory, much more granular sharing settings and a little of the ol’ iWeb magic re-imagined and it would go a long way. If all of my photos are already in iOS, why do I have to go to Facebook or Google Play to share them with my friends? Charge me a few bucks to make a Photo book for the web.

9. Apple TV. We’re pretty sure Apple is working on some cable browsing software to control the cable box (with Kinect-like hand gesture input) after giving up on a streaming all-IP network (or maybe they are still waiting for that?). But in the meantime, there is a lot Apple could do with the current hardware that is already selling in unit numbers far above the ‘hobby’ range.

  • Obviously an App Store for TV would be huge for content folks. Stations could become apps. HBO Go should be a good example.
  • Firecore (above video) and others prove that people would pay big money for a more open AppleTV. That means the ability to play media from network attached storage including AVI’s and WKVs too. Jailbreakable AppleTVs sell for double or triple of the higher spec 1080P versions that are still locked if there is any question of the demand.
  • Make AppleTV an Airport base station. It has Ethernet in and Wifi so why do I have to buy another $99 Airport Express product? Also, Apple could make a cheaper version in the HDMI Stick format that is becoming very popular.
  • Bluetooth. Apple recently let Bluetooth keyboards talk to Apple TV. Now how about Bluetooth mics via Siri? The hardware as it currently exists would allow this.

These are very doable software updates to current the current product, not any hardware design.

10. Pros. Tim Cook’s background is in operations so he sees a resource allocation risk/reward for Apple’s different product areas.  Pros have gotten the shaft over the past 5 years. In hardware. In software. And even in services. The thing that probably hasn’t been measured is that Pros outweigh their marketshare in influence. Everyone asks experts what to do on making Apple buying decisions. These are the people that reccomend products for all of their families and friends. Apple hasn’t been keeping these people happy and they’ve been leaving (Final Cut Pro high enders have been migrating to Adobe or Avid for example).

We’re hoping Apple finally has some good news for this very small but important (and loyal!) market segment of the Apple user base.

One more Bonus gripe: Apple Stores. Can we announce a successor to Ron Johnson already? Browett has been gone almost as long as RoJo and still theres no hint of a replacement. Maybe RoJo’s the guy, part 2? Or perhaps Cano? Tim Cook hasn’t exactly been hitting them out of the park with his SVP external hires so perhaps an internal one makes more sense. Apple Stores are great now, but they would be even better with another retail visionary at the helm.

Live Coverage.

Photo by Nick Thulin

Photo by Nick Thulin

Apple’s approximately two hour keynote address begins at 10 AM Pacific/1 PM Eastern on June 10th. Apple doesn’t typically offer live streams of its events these days, but we will be live in San Francisco providing full coverage during, before, and after the keynote presentation.


07 Jun 22:44

For Peet’s Sake: A Rogers Peet Advertising Gallery

by Christian

As a follow-up to yesterday’s post by Stephen Mason on Rogers Peet, here’s a selection of the now-defunct menswear company’s vintage advertisements.

The post For Peet’s Sake: A Rogers Peet Advertising Gallery appeared first on Ivy Style.

04 Jun 18:11

How much is too much?

by Ryan Lee Waldron

As a resident of Uptown New Orleans, who lives just a couple of blocks from the Parade Route, I like to try to catch all of the parades that roll through my neighborhood. For the past couple of years though, this has become a daunting task. I am forced to admit, reluctantly, I gave up this year. I simply couldn’t make it to ALL of them. To simply walk out just to catch a glimpse wasn’t even a possibility; there were simply too many parades. This should not be seen by anyone as a tragedy, rather it is merely and indicator that the number of parades on the uptown route has reached a certain critical mass. There are much larger downsides to this critical mass than not simply being able to attend all of the parades: It can negatively affect local businesses, it excessively stresses the infrastructure in the area, and it dilutes the Uptown parade experience.

For the longest time there were just four parades. They all rolled through what we would today call the French Quarter, the CBD, and Uptown, but there were only four of them. Originally, there was just the Mistick Krewe of Comus.  Years later the Twelfth Night Revelers came and went (though they continued to host Balls) , and then in 1872 Rex and the Momus arrived. Proteus joined these Carnival Monarchies in 1880. Thirty years would pass before another parade stuck, but the early Zulu parades practically weren’t. The group had no predetermined route and would often diverge on different paths – this created not a parade that you went to see, but rather, one that came to you. New groups would come and go, but the Uptown area was visited annually by only those four krewes. Often, small neighborhood parades existed, but these were rarely permanent. This changed in 1934, when the West Bank saw its first Alla parade. When this occurred, the streets of the Crescent City knew not yet the wheels of parades with such names as Hermes, Babylon, and Mid City, names that are seen by many today as those of the older organizations. In 1936, Alla had paraded three times, and Uptown still had only four parades, though, this changed in the years prior to the Second World War with the addition of Hermes and Babylon. After the War, Carnival exploded and new krewes popped up rapidly until the Oil Bust of the 80's slowed things down a bit. In the 90’s NOPD began pressuring groups to consolidate their routes for more efficient policing, a move that was forced as the only alternative after Katrina. Orleans Parish, since Katrina, has had only one East Bank parade roll on a route other than the Uptown route, Endymion.

Today, Choctaw announced that it will be joining Alla in switching from the West Bank parade route to the Uptown route for the 2014 season; Cleopatra made this same move for the 2013 season.  With this announcement, only three (3) parades remain on the West Bank and it puts twenty-nine (29) Uptown. For comparison, Metairie has roughly a dozen parades, the North Shore has five, and Mid-City has only the one parade.

It seems a shame that the only parade allowed to use the Mid-City Route is Endymion, as many parade-goers love the route, and the businesses in that area find themselves financially hurt if Endymion is forced to cancel or relocate. In this particular case, I don’t see why other krewes that would like to utilize the Mid-City route should not be allowed to roll on that route prior to Endymion; we all know the route is filled with spectators by then. Doing this comes with the understanding that Tucks and Iris would either need to move their route to the Mid-City Route or move to other days, but I bet that there would be openings on other day (maybe in the Krewe of Mid City’s current spot for example). That would be created by those groups moving to a Saturday-morning-Mid-City-route-slot. Plus, who would find it fun to have Tucks roll right before Bacchus? Uptown would be completely free from its Carnival Saturday obligations.

This line of thinking should not be exclusive to Mid-city though; The City could encourage other neighborhood parade routes by not allowing parades uptown opposing those in other locations. I can’t see how this would be disagreeable to NOPD? It could still be arranged that the parades all end in the CBD area for easy access for tourists. We could have one or two days of parades originate in Mid-City, one would originate in Marigny/Bywater, and the remaining days would be left as “Uptown days”. With the new Rampart streetcar line, all could even exist on streetcar lines.

Am I alone in my feelings about this? Does anyone else agree? What other thoughts do y'all have on this topic?

28 May 14:16

Men’s Dress Shirts

by DOGHOUSE DIARIES

Men's Dress Shirts

The day we put an end to senseless dress shirt packaging traditions is the day I regain my faith in humanity.

27 May 15:52

Saenger Theatre's post-Katrina renovations detailed as it approaches October reopening

by The Associated Press
With its grand arches, intricate plaster moldings, faux facades suggesting a centuries-old European villa and blue domed ceiling dotted by pinpoint lights, the Saenger Theatre was typical of the opulent movie palaces and playhouses built around the nation in the...
27 May 15:45

Mid-City residents use Louisiana Supreme Court ruling to evict nuisance neighbors

by Richard A. Webster, NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune
Group takes matters into its own hands
27 May 15:37

Katrina-damaged theater goes for 1927 glory

by The Associated Press
With its grand arches, intricate plaster moldings, faux facades suggesting a centuries-old European villa and blue domed ceiling dotted by pinpoint lights, the Saenger Theatre was typical of the opulent movie palaces and playhouses built around the nation in the 1920s.
17 May 20:56

Notable Quotable: "We don't want to just duplicate...

by Gwendolyn Knapp

bris5%3A16.png"We don't want to just duplicate what all the old restaurants were on the lake," chef/GM David DeFelice of soon to open Lakefront restaurant Brisbi's tells Susan Langenhennig this week. "We'll have seafood, but also steaks, duck confit, a burger, salmon, as well as really fresh Gulf fish." Brisbi's is expected to open in early June. [NOLA.com]

13 May 23:14

Ginger Darling

Photographed in New York, NY

Noteworthy: town (scalloped dress) & country (cotton canvas field jacket) mix, ginger hair. Mackenzie runs Design Darling, an online boutique for girls and women.


 

image

13 May 03:29

Brennans' family squabble over New Orleans eatery scheduled for court on Monday

by The Associated Press
Brennan's, a New Orleans restaurant that famously invented the Bananas Foster dessert six decades ago, is more recently known for a long-running family clash over ownership of the French Quarter eatery.Infighting among relatives of the restaurant's late founder, Owen Edward...
07 May 20:06

Switcheroos: Mahony's Has New Owner, Expanding to French Quarter

by Gwendolyn Knapp

mahon5%3A7.jpgTodd A. Price reports that Mahony's Po Boy shop on Magazine has been sold to Hicham Khodr, the owner of Camellia Grill. Benjamin Wicks, the chef/founder of the shop, who helped elevate the po' boys with his fine dining experience and help from his Maw Maw, will stay on as head chef, and Khodr promises not to change the sandwiches.

No word on if Maw Maw will still be Mahony's mascot, but Price does report some big changes:

Khodr does plan to add table service. He also wants the restaurant to be more efficient, so that lunch can be ordered and eaten in 30 minutes... A second Mahony's is planned for the French Quarter. The downtown location, which should open in six to eight months, will likely have an oyster bar.

Khodr is also a partner in 3 of a Kind, the entity that owns Byblos and Salu, but Mahony's is a separate, individual project, as are the Camellia Grills.

· Camellia Grill Owner Buys Mahony's Po Boy Shop [NOLA.com]
· All Switcheroos [-ENOLA-]

Mahony's [Photo: Yelp/Erich Z.]

07 May 17:52

Happy 295th, New Orleans!

by Edward Branley

May 7, 1718 is the official "birthday" of the City of New Orleans. That makes us 295 years old. Not much in the Grand Scheme of Things, considering the age of many European, Asian, and African cities, but not too shabby for North America.



Here's a map of Nouvelle Orleans in 1728, ten years later. It shows the grid laid out by Adrien de Pauger, an engineer employed by Bienville to survey and design New Orleans and Biloxi.

03 May 20:11

Intel Shares Details on New 'Iris' Integrated Graphics for Haswell Chips

by Eric Slivka
As noted by The Verge, Intel late yesterday released details on its next-generation integrated graphics offerings arriving as part of the company's Haswell processor lineup. The new graphics options consist of three primary levels: an Intel HD Graphics 5000 to be packaged as part of 15-watt chips destined for ultrabooks, an Intel "Iris" Graphics 5100 to be paired with 28-watt mid-range chips targeted at larger ultrabooks, and an Intel "Iris Pro" Graphics 5200 for the highest-power chips.
The company claims its new Intel "Iris" Graphics, embedded in upcoming Haswell CPUs, can offer double or triple the performance of the Intel HD Graphics 4000 that comes with current Ivy Bridge processors. That's significant: typically each generation offers only a double-digit percentage boost.

That doesn't mean every new Haswell processor will come with quite that level of graphics performance, though.
haswell_iris_graphics
AnandTech has more, highlighting how ultrabooks, which would include Apple's MacBook Air, will see a lesser but still significant boost in graphics performance with Intel HD Graphics 5000.
Although Ultrabooks (now 15W) won’t get full blown Iris performance, they should still see a healthy increase in GPU performance compared to where they are today (50% improvement in 3DMark) at a lower TDP. The move to a full speed GT3 part (Iris) should more than double performance in 3DMark.
haswell_ultrabook_graphics
Apple is expected to embrace Intel's forthcoming Haswell chips in its next-generation notebook lineup, which may be introduced as soon as next month's Worldwide Developers Conference.


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Vine Adds Support for Mentions and Front-Facing Camera
    


02 May 18:23

25 Cocktails Everyone Should Know

by Michael Dietsch

From Drinks

Slideshow

VIEW SLIDESHOW: 25 Cocktails Everyone Should Know

We who like to mix drinks at home do it for many reasons: First, it's cheaper than drinking out. Second, it's fun to mix your own drinks at home. Third, it's even more fun to mix drinks for other people at home. Any self-respecting home bartender should have a mental Rolodex Excel spreadsheet of favorite classic cocktail recipes. Even if these aren't fully memorized, you should be able to find the recipe in your home library at quick notice to serve them to your friends.

Today, I present the 25 essential drinks that I think everyone should be able to make. I'm not including any highballs here. If you can't mix up a gin and tonic or a whiskey and soda without a recipe, you're not ready for Cocktail 101. Take some remedial classes and get back to me.

The List

Old Fashioned
Martinez
Martini
Manhattan
Brooklyn
Daiquiri
Margarita
Sidecar
French 75
Bloody Mary
Irish Coffee
Jack Rose
Negroni
Boulevardier
Sazerac
Vieux Carré
Ramos Gin Fizz
Mint Julep
Whiskey Sour
Mai Tai
Planter's Punch
Pisco Sour
Cosmopolitan
Tom Collins
Last Word

About the author: Michael Dietsch approaches life with a hefty dash of bitters. He lives with wife, son, and cats in Brooklyn. You can berate him on twitter at @dietsch.

30 Apr 15:00

04.29.2013

Cyanide and Happiness, a daily webcomic
Copy this into your blog, website, etc.
<a href="http://www.explosm.net/comics/3155/"><img alt="Cyanide and Happiness, a daily webcomic" src="http://www.flashasylum.com/db/files/Comics/Kris/beaker.png" border=0></a><br />Cyanide & Happiness @ <a href="http://www.explosm.net">Explosm.net</a>
...or into a forum
[URL="http://www.explosm.net/comics/3155/"]
[IMG]http://www.flashasylum.com/db/files/Comics/Kris/beaker.png[/IMG][/URL]
Cyanide & Happiness @ [URL="http://www.explosm.net/"]Explosm.net[/URL] <—- Share this comic!
29 Apr 03:05

The Onion: Man Purchasing Pair of Red Pants Better Be Willing To...

by jessethorn
19 Apr 14:52

Drink This | C G & T

by carolinefontenot

The Drink: Ah, the Gin & Tonic…my favorite warm weather cocktail. I thought I knew how to make a good G&T…until I tasted one with Jack Rudy. Since then, I turn my nose up when I walk past tonic water in a grocery store. Jack Rudy’s small batch quinine concentrate is a game changer, and I’m fully convinced that every home bar needs this.

Now, let’s backtrack to a little more than a year ago when I tasted Hendrick’s Gin for the first time. Yes, please do infuse my gin with rose petals and cucumber. Until Hendrick’s introduced itself to me, I thought the best way to order a Gin & Tonic was with a lime. And don’t get me wrong, I would never hate on a lime. But there is just something about that cucumber…something better.

So you take the Hendrick’s…and you take the Jack Rudy…and people…you’ve got without a doubt the most refreshing Gin & Tonic ever. That is, until you add just a tad more cucumber…

Muddle 2 cucumber slices and 1/2 oz of Jack Rudy in a cocktail shaker.
Add gin, ice and shake.
Strain over an ice filled glass, top with Club Soda, garnish with a cucumber slice.
Enjoy your C G & T!

The Glass: Austin street map etched rocks glass by The Uncommon Green (c/o).

The Attire: J.Crew dress.

17 Apr 16:11

Authorization

Before you say anything, no, I know not to leave my computer sitting out logged in to all my accounts. I have it set up so after a few minutes of inactivity it automatically switches to my brother's.
16 Apr 16:17

Higher Learning

by Greg Ross

Acknowledgment from an anonymous doctoral dissertation in the University Microforms International database:

If I had a dime for every time my wife threatened to divorce me during the past three years, I would be wealthy and not have to take a postdoctoral position which will only make me a little less poor and will keep me away from home and in the lab even more than graduate school and all because my committee read this manuscript and said that the only alternative to signing the approval to this dissertation was to give me a job mowing the grass on campus but the Physical Plant would not hire me on account of they said I was over-educated and needed to improve my dexterity skills like picking my nose while driving a tractor-mower over poor defenseless squirrels that were eating the nuts they stole from the medical students’ lunches on Tuesday afternoon following the Biochemistry quiz which they all did not pass and blamed on me because they said a tutor was supposed to come with a 30-day money-back guarantee and I am supposed to thank someone for all this?!!

(From a UMI press release, quoted in The Whole Library Handbook 2, 1995)

10 Apr 22:43

Kickstarter: ZenBoxx promises to help eliminate desk clutter with the MacBook ZenDock

by Mike Beasley

If your desk looks anything like mine, seen above, then you probably know the joys of constantly connecting and disconnecting a handful of cables every time you need to move your MacBook away from your desk or put it back.  In my case, I have to fiddle with these cables every few hours when I take my MacBook downstairs to work in the living room or bring it back upstairs to plug it into my monitor. I hate it.

The ZenDock, which hit Kickstarter today, promises to help eliminate most of this problem for me, and from the looks of it, the folks at ZenBoxx might just be on to something. The ZenDock comes in two varieties: Pro and Retina. As you might imagine, the names correspond to the MacBook model that the dock is designed to work with.

The ZenDock consists of two parts. The first is a base that can be place on top of your desk or mounted on the back of it. Your monitor, speakers, permanent USB devices like external hard drives, and other devices plug in here. This is connected by a single cable to an aluminim box that runs to your MacBook.

The anodized alumnim box quickly plugs into several ports on the side of your MacBook at once, allowing you to connect and disconnect all of your peripherals much faster than if you were to do them all at once. The Pro version supports gigabit Ethernet, FireWire, a Mini DisplayPort connection, three separate USB 3 ports, and an audio input and output. The Retina model features fewer connections—only a Mini DisplayPort, three USB 3 connections, and audio in/out ports—but also sports a Thunderbolt passthrough connection, allowing you to connect additional high-speed devices despite the port being covered.

Both models also feature a slot for the MagSafe power cable, meaning you can attach the charger to your MacBook at the same time as the other cables, or easily pull it out to take it with you on the go. Unlike other docking systems, the ZenDock doesn’t require you to close your MacBook lid, which allows you to continue using the built-in display along with any external monitors.

ZenBoxx has already reached more than fifty percent of their $40,000 funding goal on the first day of the funding campaign. If you want to get a ZenDock, I would advise you to get in on the Kickstarter before it ends. At the time of this writing, the only remaining reward is the $139 tier, which will get you one ZenDock of your choice. The anticipated retail price is $179.


10 Apr 22:04

Chocoholic: Peanut Butter Chocolate Cake

by Yvonne Ruperti

From Sweets

[Photograph: Yvonne Ruperti]

Yes folks, it's another installment of my never-ending cravings for chocolate and peanut butter. I couldn't help myself. It's been too long. In previous posts I've rambled on about my childhood adoration of Drake's Funny Bones. Waxy chocolate coating aside, it's a binge-inducing pop in your mouth of chocolate cake and creamy peanut butter filling. Though I'm really fond of my Chocolate Peanut Butter Cupcakes interpretation, I think I finally nailed it with this layer cake.

Years ago there was a popular chocolate and peanut butter pastry that I used to sell at my shop. I called it a peanut butter mousse bomb: a fist sized ball of creamy peanut butter mousse with a piece of chocolate cake on the bottom and a covering of bittersweet chocolate ganache. From time to time I'd also piece together a layer cake version, using extra chocolate cakes from my rolling racks and the giant bowl of ganache that I always had on hand. It's easy to be spontaneous and creative when you've got lots of excess cake components around all the time, but the stiff price I paid was never really knowing exactly what my food costs were. I'll just assume I made the money back.

To turn that creation into a structured recipe for a single cake, I finally did the math and cut down my big batch chocolate cake recipe to fit a 9-inch pan and also figured out the correct volume of peanut butter filling. What makes this fluffy peanut butter cream so amazing is the cream cheese. Plain sweetened peanut butter often lacks a certain something, and the slight tang of the cheese fills out the flavor perfectly. Combined with the moist chocolate cake and luxurious peanut butter-chocolate ganache, this is an uber rich, super tall cake that will have everyone swooning. Until next time, chocolate-peanut butter fans...

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Peanut Butter Chocolate Cake »

About the Author: Yvonne Ruperti is a food writer, recipe developer, former bakery owner, and author of The Complete Idiot's Guide To Easy Artisan Bread. You can also watch her culinary stylings on the America's Test Kitchen television show. She presently lives in Singapore working on her new baking cookbook, and as a recipe developer for HungryGoWhere Singapore. Check out her blog: shophousecook.com . Follow Yvonne on Twitter.

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09 Apr 19:43

Argus Mardi Gras krewe seeks Metairie Road parade route -- but reversed with Bonnabel loop

by Drew Broach, NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune
As Metairie Mardi Gras regulators and krewes prepare for talks on altering the parade route and schedule, the Krewe of Argus proposes moving its Fat Tuesday procession to Metairie Road with a couple of twists. It wants to parade from east...
08 Apr 15:38

Music Monday | The Gospel Whiskey Runners

by carolinefontenot

Photographed by Third Element Studios

If you’ve got the words Gospel and Whiskey in your band name, chances are I’m going to love you.

And that I do, Gospel Whiskey Runners.

It was nearing midnight when I came across them on Folk Hive, describing their music as “a sort of perfection that’s hard to articulate.” Well, she was right, because it truly is.

They’re heart and soul, honest and encouraging, vulnerable and hopeful, and just really, really freakin’ good. Short and sweet so you can get to listening…

Stream: “I Am a Ghost”

01_i_am_a_ghost

Download their album, Hold On, for free on NoiseTrade!