andrewteman.org

Boston Restaurants On Twitter

andrew — Mon, 04 May 2009 13:57:14 PDT

If like me, two of your habits involve messing around on Twitter and eating at restaurants (sometimes at the same time), the list below may actually be of interest to you. Based on my hunting and pecking around THE INTERNET, I have compiled the rather exhaustive (but likely still missing many) list of Boston restaurants, pubs, hotels, and food related profiles on Twitter.

If you know of others, please leave them in the comments.

Restaurants/Bars/Pubs/Hotels

Other Boston Food Related Feeds

http://twitter.com/BostonCheapEats
http://twitter.com/OpenTable
http://twitter.com/BostonTweet
http://twitter.com/BostonFoodDiary
http://twitter.com/bostonfoodwhine
http://twitter.com/GastroSpkBoston
http://twitter.com/RWboston
http://twitter.com/Boston_Bakes
http://twitter.com/GrubHub
http://twitter.com/TheSecondGlass
http://twitter.com/edibleboston
http://twitter.com/HubEats
http://twitter.com/bostonfoodwhine
http://twitter.com/yelpboston
http://twitter.com/BostonBubbleTea
http://twitter.com/GlobeFood
http://twitter.com/eatboston

Markus Frind Quote

andrew — Mon, 23 Feb 2009 08:23:47 PST

As someone that is involved in building community based sites, a quote from Markus Frind (Plenty of Fish) in a recent INC Magazine article really resonated with me.

Frind has resisted adding other commonly requested features, such as chatrooms and video profiles, on the same grounds. “I don’t listen to the users,” he says. “The people who suggest things are the vocal minority who have stupid ideas that only apply to their little niches.”

Though what Markus says isn’t totally true all of the time, it is mostly true most of the time. Noah’s post on Twitter about Tropicana’s un-redesign made me think of this.

Adding Yelp Reviews To Twitter

andrew — Thu, 12 Feb 2009 07:58:45 PST

Just thought of something interesting that those who are Yelpers and Twitter…ers might find interesting. There is a super easy way to have a new Tweet posted to your Twitter stream, any time you post a new review on Yelp.

The automagic output post to twitter that would happen, in case you are wondering what the hell I am talking about, would look like this….

http://twitter.com/andrewteman/status/1189982213

Now…to do this, follow these steps.

Go to http://twitterfeed.com, and login using OpenID
Click “create a new feed”
To get an RSS feed of your most recent reviews, hit up http://www.yelp.com/rss (be logged in to get YOUR feeds). Click the little “RSS” link and icon to the right of “Your recent reviews” line, and paste this into the “RSS Feed URL” box on http://twitterfeed.com
Set all of the options the way that you want. I set the update frequency to be every hour, and to post one update each time. This basically tells twitter feed to check every hour for a new post, and only post one update per hour if it finds anything new. Set the frequency however you want, but I find that this is a good level to set at.
You should basically leave all of the other options set as is, with the exception of adding something like “New Yelp Review:” in the “Prefix each tweet with:” options. Be sure and leave a whitespace at the end of whatever you put there, so the appended text from the feed isn’t humping your prefix text.

If you set this all up correctly, a new Tweet will happen within the next hour, pointing your followers to your most recent Yelp review. Remember, if you set this up, you don’t need to post a new review for this to start working. The system will automatically grab the latest update on it’s own based on your settings. After THAT, each time you post a new review, the script should fetch that review and post it to Twitter based on your settings.

Enjoy!

Blogging Isn’t Dead, It’s Just Different Now

andrew — Tue, 30 Dec 2008 14:24:56 PST

Not to get all Jason Calicanisy here, but I’ve been thinking for a while now about my blog and blogging in general (NERD ALERT!). More specifically what the latter means these days, and as such, and what to do with the former.

It’s been ages since I posted anything even vaguely unique or substantive - something that wasn’t a just quick snippet, photo, video, or link. Which is why I have found myself moving more towards posting shorter, more frequent items to Twitter and Flickr, and finding a lot more satisfaction in doing so (though this wasn’t always the case).

Paul Boutin said it well in a recent Wired article:

Writing a weblog today isn’t the bright idea it was four years ago. The blogosphere, once a freshwater oasis of folksy self-expression and clever thought, has been flooded by a tsunami of paid bilge. Cut-rate journalists and underground marketing campaigns now drown out the authentic voices of amateur wordsmiths. It’s almost impossible to get noticed, except by hecklers. And why bother? The time it takes to craft sharp, witty blog prose is better spent expressing yourself on Flickr, Facebook, or Twitter.

I think this is pretty dead on, particularly the last line, and so from now on, this site will mainly lay in state, and my new short-form world will exist on AndrewTeman.COM. Be sure and update your RSS feeds here if you want to follow along. It’s riveting I know.

The new site, as I said, will mainly be Twitter updates, Flickr photos, and some ancillary info pulled from my Delicious, Yelp, and Last.FM feeds, nice and simple. Granted there will still be things that I want to get out there that just won’t fit neatly into JPG format, or in 140 character strings, and for that, the blog will remain here in it’s current form, but with grossly sparse updates at very best.

It’s been a good run. Since May of 2004, there have been 815 posts, over 1,200 comments, and well over one million visitors.

See you over at the new place.

Christmas Music Mix Playlist

andrew — Mon, 08 Dec 2008 17:40:30 PST

Right on the heels of the Cocktail Party Playlist Mix, here is a short, but (in my opinion) solid Christmas music mix. Most mixes consist of the same 15 or so songs, so I tried to find original versions, the most iconic versions, or the just what I thought were the best versions of each of the songs. Obviously everyone has their personal tastes, but this is the ultimate Christmas music playlist in my world.

I love all of these songs, but I think I am partial to Little Saint Nick from The Beach Boys (just something about surfin’ Christmas music), and Run Rudolph Run from Chuck Berry. But as far as the best pure Christmas song, I think the Brenda Lee version of Rockin’ Around The Christmas Tree is hard to beat.

Track	Artist
Baby, It’s Cold Outside	Carmen McRae & Sammy Davis Jr
Blue Christmas	Elvis Presley
Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)	U2
Christmas Feeling Ska	Toots & The Maytals
Jingle Bell Rock	Bobby Helms & The Anita Kerr Singers
Jingle Bells	Frank Sinatra & Orchestra/Chorus Of Gord
Let It Snow!	Dean Martin
Little Saint Nick	The Beach Boys
My Favorite Things	Tony Bennett
The Nutcracker Suite	The Brian Setzer Orchestra
Rockin’ Around The Christmas Tree	Brenda Lee
Run Rudolph Run	Chuck Berry
Santa Baby	Eartha Kitt
Santa Clause Is Back In Town	Elvis Presley
Santa Clause Is Comin’ To Town	Bruce Springsteen
Santa Clause Is Comin’ To Town	Frank Sinatra
Sleigh Ride	Ella Fitzgerald

As was the case with the cocktail party mix, this is in descending alphabetical order by song title. Also, there are two versions of Santa Clause Is Comin’ To Town, because both the Sinatra and the Springsteen versions are both fantastic….and different enough to appear on the same mix without being annoying.

Enjoy!

Cocktail Party Music Mix

andrew — Fri, 05 Dec 2008 10:41:17 PST

Get All Of This Music On iTunes!

Julie and I hosted a little get together recently, and for background music, I tuned the iPod up to play my hand selected cocktail party mix that I made back in the spring. Now I know everyone has their own individual tastes, but I did get multiple unsolicited compliments on this mix at our last soiree, so I thought I’d post the track listing here.

The short back-story on the mix is that my searches for “cocktail party music” never quite yielded what I was looking for. I knew I wanted a good mix of classic cool music (aka, either genuinely classic as in old or just classic in sound), that would be good background sound, but not go unnoticed completely. This mix seems to have hit that spot that I was going for.

So if you are looking for some good cocktail party music, here is my recommended play list, not in any particular order…merely descending alphabetically by track name.

Track	Artist
100 Days, 100 Nights	Sharon Jones & The Dap-Kings
All I Do Is Dream of You	Dean Martin
Answer Me	Sharon Jones & The Dap-Kings
At Long Last Love	Frank Sinatra
Back to Black	Amy Winehouse
Be Easy	Sharon Jones & The Dap-Kings
Beyond the Sea	Bobby Darin
Come to Me	Koop featuring Yukimi Nagano
Fever	Peggy Lee
From This Moment On	Frank Sinatra
Good Golly Miss Molly	Little Richard
Humble Me	Sharon Jones & The Dap-Kings
I Got It Bad and That Ain’t Good	Frank Sinatra
I Got Plenty O’ Nuttin’	Frank Sinatra
I Guess I’ll Have to Change My Plans	Frank Sinatra
I Wish I Were In Love Again	Frank Sinatra
I Won’t Dance	Frank Sinatra
If I Had You	Frank Sinatra
I’ve Been Thinking	Handsome Boy Modeling School
Jump, Jive An’ Wail	Louis Prima
Keep On Looking	Sharon Jones & The Dap-Kings
Koop Island Blues	Koop
Let Them Knock	Sharon Jones & The Dap-Kings
Liar, Liar	Castaways
Lonesome Road	Frank Sinatra
Mack the Knife	Bobby Darin
Nice Work If You Can Get It	Frank Sinatra
Night and Day	Frank Sinatra
No One Ever Tells You	Frank Sinatra
Nobody’s Baby	Sharon Jones & The Dap-Kings
Oh! Look At Me Now	Frank Sinatra
Some Unholy War	Amy Winehouse
Something’s Changed	Sharon Jones & The Dap-Kings
Son Of A Preacher Man	Dusty Springfield
Spooky	Dusty Springfield
Stars Fell On Alabama	Frank Sinatra
Steppin Out With My Baby (1)	Tony Bennett
Tell Me	Sharon Jones & The Dap-Kings
The Boss	James Brown
The Lady Is a Tramp	Frank Sinatra
The Truth	Handsome Boy Modeling School
Volare (Nel Blu, Di Pinto Di Blu)	Dean Martin
Voulez Vous	Touch And Go
What’d I Say, Pt. 1	Ray Charles
You Know I’m No Good	Amy Winehouse
You’d Be So Nice to Come Home To	Frank Sinatra

I have another popular mix of non-shitty Christmas music that I will post soon as well for those that may be interested.

Get All Of This Music On iTunes!

Tilt Shift Videos

andrew — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 11:01:24 PST

Been seeing a lot of tilt shift stuff lately, and I have to say, I think it is pretty cool. Especially the time-lapse tilt shift videos like the one below.

Whole bunch more here.

Wireless Router Vase

andrew — Mon, 24 Nov 2008 10:58:52 PST

Brilliant. Link.

Modern Day Pirates

andrew — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 14:20:22 PST

Fascinating stuff.

From today’s news, Somali pirates hijack Saudi oil tanker.

From the NY Times a few weeks back, Somalia’s Pirates Flourish in a Lawless Nation .

A map of worldwide piracy, from the ICC.

From NPR, working as a pirate in Belakang Padang, Indonesia.

And a good robust section of information here at the NYTimes website.

Cat’s First Kill

andrew — Fri, 14 Nov 2008 15:06:10 PST

Cat 1, Mouse 0.

Uncensored crime scene photo here.