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Sorry for the lack of activity around here. I’ve been really busy at work and Geek.com has really been getting a huge chunk of my attention. I’ve also noticed that my RSS burden has been increased over the last few months rather significantly, so I’m reading a lot more online which is great, but also very time consuming. It’s time for some optimization there.

I have been trying to get outside, away from the computer, more as well. It’s a struggle, but it seems prudent, especially given the season.

View the fruits of my labor:

http://friendfeed.com/salcan?format=atom

http://www.geek.com/users/SalCan/

Here it is- a tour of NYC’s finest coffee establishments. No it’s not by me (I wish I had the patience to collect my thoughts on the matter) but I just stumbled on a great virtual tour collected over at Man Seeking Coffee. In this case, I’m just the curator.

I’ll be reading through most of his blog this week, and I thought some of the posts were too good not too link to. Additionally I’ve been meaning to put something together along these lines,  and these select posts do the jobs nicely. It’s also interesting that these articles are from a non-New York’s perspective so he doesn’t have the issues that locals might encounter (favoring places within walking distance of your apartment/place of work, preferring certain baristas, skipping certain locations because you don’t hang out in that area, etc). Finally, I agree with a lot of what he has to say, otherwise I would just make my own list without the links…

MSC’s reviews of my favorite spots:

• Abraço Espresso – Amazing place. My go-to place for espresso and pour-over drip coffee. Also has good food and cortados. As MSC points out, it’s small and often very busy.
• Gimme Coffee – I’m a big fan of the Mott Street location. My favorite spot in Soho/NoLiTa.
• Ninth Street Espresso – Their cafe at 9th and C was the first coffee place in NYC that I really loved. They’ve expanded since then, but they still do a great job.
• Cafe Grumpy – I haven’t been to the Brooklyn location yet, but the one in Chelsea is excellent. Definitely the best in the neighborhood.

MSC’s reviews of Sal-approved spots (all are good-to-very good):

• La Colombe (Church Street) – A nice spot, though a bit out of the way. A good place to stop for a macchiato. They have a new Soho location though, so I probably won’t make it down here too much any more.
• Kaffe 1668 – An up-and-coming spot that I’ve been to only a few times. Has potential to be one of NYC’s best, despite the less-than-ideal location. They have WiFi, two Clovers, and two beautiful Synesso Cyncra espresso machines.
• Joe the Art of Coffee – I like the Waverly location, though it’s insane on the weekends. Always has top-notch pastries.

MSC’s reviews of solid NYC spots not my picks though (OK-to-good places that I like, but won’t go out of my way to stop at):

• Think Coffee – A good spot, but it tends to be overrated. The Mercer street location is deep in the heart of NYU.
• Everyman Espresso – An awkward space, but the espresso is pretty good.
• Mudd Coffee – Good stuff, but not my favorite. The truck can be very convenient if you are in the area.

Notable, and could be very good, but I need to research more:

• Grey Dog
• Jack’s Stir Brew
• OST Cafe
• Blue Spoon – New and not open on Sundays. I’m thinking it will be good, but no Kaffe 1668.
• National Cafe and Espresso Bar – just opened on Rivington next to Freeman’s Alley. I went once and had a great time. Barista is super cool and the espressos were solid.
• El Beit
• Simon Sips – I’ve only been once, but I had a good experience. I got a deal on some Counter Culture coffee beans too.

Ones MSC skipped that come to mind (I am sure that I’m leaving some out). Not particularly notable:

• Aroma Coffee -  on Houston St.
• Porto Rico Roasters in Essex Street Market
• Oren’s
• Bean’s – in the East Village

I just wanted to throw out a quick link to this article at the LA Times. Apparently it is illegal in some states to collect rainwater for personal use. Using that water, which happens to fall on your property, is actually stealing according to some strange perversions of logic.

“If you try to collect rainwater, well, that water really belongs to someone else,” said Doug Kemper, executive director of the Colorado Water Congress. “We get into a very detailed accounting on every little drop.”

It turns out that the issue is a lot more complex than one person collecting water from their gutters for a garden. Large scales water collection (say for an entire community) could cause some serious interruptions in the water cycle and have major effects on people downstream.

Anyway, it’s an interesting article and while it’s only a short introduction to the complexities of water politics, it’s worth checking out.

Guadia Quest is an awesome little NES-style RPG that comes on Retro Game Challenge. It’s a lot like Dragon Warrior on the NES, but much easier and more approachable. You can save whenever you’d like, as often as you’d like, so you can play without worrying about losing much work. The game is very enjoyable, but the items and spells are not explained at all, so you will have to experiment to figure out what everything does.

Because it is a game within a game I have not been able to find any guides for the game, so here are some notes that I have put together. You won’t necessarily need them but in case you want to do the best that you possibly can without a ton of grinding, they’ll probably help.

[This mini-guide is a work-in-progress. It is woefully inadequate at the moment.]

FAQs

1. How to I revive a dead character?
Naga pint (item) or Imup (spell)

2. How to I get mana back?
Stay at an inn or use elixir.

–

What items do:

Naga Pint: Revives a dead character

Burrito, Drumstick, and jerky: restore hitpoints (in order, more to less)

Uni-tear: about 50 hit points given to every character

Wild herb: Recover 100 hit points for every character

Orbs: Help you fight the guadias.

Red cow: Wakes up a sleeping character.

Grim coin: Instantly kills some enemies.

Naga wing: Returns you to the main city (Centraan).

Incense:

Titaniun, Silver, :

Holy Key, Demon Key, Dark Soul: Allow to you progress in the game, by opening doors or getting past guards.

–

What Spells do (from Gamespot):

Green character (the tank):
Level 3: Warp (Warp to Towns and Dungeons)[1]
Level 10: Funko (Reduce Encounter Rate) [3]
Level 11: Ragua (Low-Damage to all enemies) [3]
Level 15: Fasta (Increase Field Movement Speed) [2]
Level 20: Chero (+5 STR & SPD) [6]
Level 28:  Healt (Heals ~70 HP for all) [16]

Orange character (the healer):
Level 2: Heala (Heals ~40 HP) [2]
Level 3: Prota (+10 DEF) [4]
Level 4: Megra (Low-Damage) [3]
Level 9: Healo (Heals ~60 HP) [9]
Level 10: Getup (Cures Sleep) [2]
Level 12: Degra (Mid-Damage) [4]
Level 13: Healy (Full HP) [8]
Level 15: Dropu (Steal) [5]
Level 17: Dynow (Instant Death Spell) [6]
Level 20: Imup (Revive) [24]
Level 24: Fegra (Heals ~70 HP for all) [16]

Purple character (the sorceress):
Level 2: Megra (Low-Damage) [3]
Level 3: Dormi (Sleep) [2]
Level 4: Heala (Heals ~30 HP) [2]
Level 7: Movit (+10 SPD) [4]
Level 8: Zegda (Mid-Damage to All) [5]
Level 10: Healo (Heals ~60 HP) [5]
Level 11: Degra (Mid-Damage) [4]
Level 12: Weaki (Lower Enemy Stats) [8]
Level 13: Hitta (+10 STR) [4]
Level 14: Healy (Full HP) [8]
Level 16: Harda (+10 DEF to all) [6]
Level 17: Magda (Heavy Damage to All) [7]
**Level 21: Metamega (Massive Damage) [6]
Level 25: Imup (Revive) [24]

Lately I’ve been taking a lot of notes and doing more writing than I normally do. I’ve also gotten a number of great emails from readers about what their writing with and pens they might like. [Check out these posts to see previous coverage of writing equipment.]

First of, I started using a Platinum Preppy fountain pen. I’m not a big fan of fountain pens, but I do like the throw-away variety and, coming in at $3, the Preppy definitely falls in that category. It’s a lot of fun to use and it doesn’t have any of the problems you might associate with older fountain pens, like ink pooling or putting out too much ink. I started using it partially because I have been writing on a Behance notebook with rather thick pages, which the pen is ideally suited for. The nib does seem to dry up for a few seconds if I leave the cap off for too long, but past that I really like it.

I’ve also been using  Pilot G2 Limited. I’m a big fan of the G2 so when I saw the Limited I has to pick it up, despite a selling for about $10. It is basically your standard G2 with a more metal parts and a bit more heft. It’s a little longer than most of the pens I use, but that doesn’t bother me. While I like the extra weight over the comparatively flimsy G2 and I appreciate the nice colors (there is a white as well at the gunmetal gray) and upgraded grip, I don’t think it’s worth the extra money. It’s a solid enough pen, there are others I like more at the $10 mark. It’s a must-try for G2 and Pilot fans, but I’d be a lot more impressed with it at $6.

Finally, I’ve been using the Sharpie pen, though not as much as I was. This is a pen that everyone loves because it’s cheap and can write on anything. Plus it is a Sharpie that doesn’t bleed through. Overall, it’s a pen that everyone should own, and while I prefer a standard pen for day to day writing (the Sharpie is not particularly smooth thanks to the material of the tip) it’s something that has earned a spot on my desk.

I’ve been taking more notes in ink lately (probably just because it’s quick and it let’s me organize my thoughts very easy) so I’ll try to do these posts more frequently.

I have been, and still am, resistant to Twitter. Yes, it’s a cool service and it let’s you easily connect with all sorts of amazing people, but getting true value from my time investment in it has been difficult. [Just check out this post, it's not that far from the truth.]

Twitter is about two things: who follows you and who you follow. Because you have control over the latter, let’s start with that.

There are basically four type of people that you can follow:

1. People you know (friends, family, coworkers, etc.)
2. People you have to follow (your boss, clients, etc.)
3. People who you find interesting that you don’t know (often top Twitterers)
4. People you follow because they follow you

If you follow all four of these types, your Twitter feed is probably so full of posts that it is too overloaded to do anything aside from browse now and then. If you’ve spent any time analyzing your Twitter usage you’ve probably started to trim back on types 1 and 2, and ruled out 4 altogether. (Remember just because you like someone in real life does not mean that their Twitter feed is worth following.) This trimming probably helped cut down on the “Having lunch with @myfriend” and “dude, I hate Mondays” and “#myfirstjob” tweets, but it didn’t stop them altogether.

Those types of things are just a distraction. If you are using Twitter as a distraction, great, or if you want to use it to talk to buddies, that’s cool too, but if you want it to be a professional tool what value are you getting (as a follower) or instilling (as a poster) from these?

But Twitter would be boring without this stuff, right? And how else could we better get to know our associates without them telling us how awesome their last jog was or how cold it is outside?

Before we get too far, I’d like to point out why I’ve been hesitant to get too involved in Twitter. It’s about distractions (which should be kept to a minimum) and persistent tasks. For me, a persistent task (more accurately, a persistent tab) is anything that I keep open all the time and check in on frequently. These include email and RSS, but then all the other things that we check in on all day long, like web site comments, your work chatroom, Google chat, and so on. The more of these you have, the less you can concentrate on the task at hand, especially once you get into ones where you can spend lots of time using each day, like Friendfeed, Facebook, and MySpace.

So is Twitter worth the time investment and the fact that using it means that you will have one more tab open all day long everyday (or a desktop client/iPhone app)? It must be to some people, but I’m guessing a lot of people just enjoy the distraction.

So who is getting real value from Twitter right now?

1. Anyone with a large number of followers
   If you are kicking out your thoughts and links to, say, 5000 people multiple times a day, there is clear value in that for you.
2. People using it to gain access
   All of a sudden we have a way that is faster and less formal to get in touch with CEOs, thought leaders, (internet) celebrities, etc., and you have a better chance of getting a response than an email.
3. People expanding personal brands
   … though you generally had to have one already- we aren’t seeing Twitter celebrities
4. Brands looking to gain access to people
   NYtimes, CNNbreaking, NPR, Woot, etc

Are you on that list? If you are not, then you are really just using it to stay connected. I prefer my RSS reader for that sort of thing, but that’s just my personal preference.

So while there are undeniably ways to get value from Twitter, it’s not clear to me that a whole lot of people are getting a good return on their time investment. I’m going to keep thinking things over, but it seems like that same time is better spent on something like Friendfeed or working on my blog  (which, like so many others, has gotten much quieter since Twitter and similar services became popular).

CES is over, as are the holidays and vacation. It’s nice to back in the city, but that means back to work and the daily grind, which isn’t quite as much fun.

Before CES 2009 is a distant memory I wanted to mention the issue of attendance. The official projections (probably from CEA) had the number at something like 10-13% down, but in actuality it was way more than that. Silicon Alley Insider says 30%, which seems closer to the truth. It was obvious at times just how empty the show was–normal bottlenecks like Intel’s booth were generally easy to get through and there was no rush to enter the show floor at 9am each day. Also, large pieces of the show floor were empty, where companies had pulled out or just didn’t show up.

The most depressing moment of it all (at least for me) happened Saturday morning. I was sitting in the press room with about 25 other people, with just one other person at my table. Normally the press room is packed at that time, with barely a seat to spare. Instead it was just me and a bunch of international press. Even the WiFi connection was working great, which rarely happens CES. Of course, there were no donuts left.

Anyway, it’s all over now, but it wasn’t a great year for CES. Maybe if Apple shows up next year it will help, and obviously an improved economic outlook wouldn’t hurt, but I think it’s clear that the show needs some reorganization as well.