Xōbni

Finally! A really useful MS Outlook plug-in. GigaOM had an article about this new application formally launched this week @ TechCrunch40. Xōbni mines your e-mail archives and creates a series of profiles for everyone you exchange e-mail with. You can see how many mails have been exchanged, histograms displaying times of day and various other stats. More interestingly, the application develops a view to your social network by connecting dots between people you are in contact with those they are in contact with. For the statistics geeks (like me), check out Xōbni Analytics (under the Xōbni pull-down in the main MS Outlook toolbar) which has a variety of charts and graphs on your e-mail patterns. And, OBTW, it contains an e-mail search feature. I’ve long been a Copernic Desktop Search fan, but since my forced move back in Jun’07 to Windows Vista, I’ve sort of stuck with the Microsoft Instant Search feature. But Instant Search isn’t all that “instant” and is a far cry from Copernic’s usability. Looking forward to trying something new in this area.

I’m a little concerned about adding Xōbni since Windows Vista is such a resource hog: my HP Pavilion dv2410us notebook PC has an AMD Turion 64 X2 1.80GHz dual core processor and 2GB of RAM, but I usually sit at 20% CPU and 50% RAM with just MS Outlook and a couple browsers (Microsoft Internet Explorer 7, Firefox 2, maybe Apple Safari 3) running. We’ll see how Xōbni performs.

*UPDATE 25.Sep.07* Well, I really like this application, but it’s a pretty serious consumer of computer resources (primarily RAM), so I un-installed it. I sent some comments off to the good folks at Xōbni. Hopefully, they will get things tightened up and I can give it another try.

yelp

My latest web addiction is yelp. It’s not new; I’m just a little slow getting to the party. For the uninitiated, yelp is a social network / business review website. Users contribute their thoughts on a range of businesses, but mostly they provide input on restaurants. Sure, there are a lot of websites that do this, but most of them are city specific. Yelp has sections for most every big city in the US.  In addition, the way information is gathered provides richer reviews of businesses and, of course, there’s the obligatory Google Maps mash-up capability showing business locations after you do a search. Beyond all that, yelp encourages contributors to be irreverent and have fun. As a result, many of the reviews are entertaining to read as well as informative. Check it out and do your bit to promote your favorites (especially small, local businesses).

Amante Coffee

Where do I start. I should have written this blog a long time ago, but I guess was afraid to share my secret. Afraid of creating crowds, of not being “in the know” any longer. But what the hell? No one reads this blog anyway. Amante Coffee is the real deal. Their café au lait is my thing. They have have euro-style pastries as well as gelato made locally in Boulder from Glacier. They also seem to have a liquor license as the last time I was in they had a few bottles to make coffee cocktails and some Italian beers on tap. The baristas are efficient and personable. Amante is a chain local to Colorado with just 3 stores including a shop in Steamboat Springs. I live about 20 minutes away from their Walnut St location in Boulder, but still I find an excuse to drop in every few weeks. A real hole-in-the-wall look like you see on the side streets in Europe. I just love this place. So much, in fact, that I haul friend and family there when they come to town. They even have real freakin’ coffee cups! Not just paper! Very civilised. Go there: support local businesses.

Edinburgh (Dùn Èideann)

Recently, I spent a couple weeks working in the UK on a training project. While there, I made a mad dash over a weekend to Edinburgh to visit my younger sister Corey and her Scottish husband Alex. I took the train from London King’s Cross (famous for it’s Hogwarts departures from Platform 9¾) to Edinburgh Waverly. The trip north took a little over 4 hours and included a wonderful stretch along the English / Scottish North Sea coastline. Upon arrival, we immediately went to dinner at a place called The Steading which sits at the foot of the Midlothian Snowsports Centre (no comment). After a fine fillet of batter fried haddock, chips and a pint of Orkney Dark Island ale we headed for home. The next day, I woke up to the drizzle the north is so well known for and went out for a run along the Union Canal. After my run, I attempted to get on-line to check e-mail, but there was some “technical difficulties” I won’t go into here for fear of eventual bad karma when my brother-in-law visits us in Denver somewhere down the road.

Since the weather was still a lovely damp misting, we thought it would be good to venture into the city center. A quick bus ride up to Princes Street left us standing below Edinburgh Castle and amongst a massive throng of people in town for the month-long Edinburgh International Festival (otherwise known as Fringe 2007). As luck would have it, the festival and my trip coincided. The festival is a massive affair: this year featured 31,000 performances of 2,050 shows in 250 venues. Literally, there are a thousand things to do every day. Hard to decide what to see, but we eventually settled on a production of The Physicists at the Edinburgh College of Art and Neil Delamere performance at the Assembly Rooms on George Street. The former was interesting, the latter a hysterical PowerPoint presentation covering the history of Viking and Norman incursions onto the British Isles.

Along the way, we spent a couple hours wandering around Edinburgh Castle. Sitting high atop a small mountain and bordered on three sides by shear cliffs, the castle is in remarkable condition considering it’s history starts about 1,000 years ago. It’s a must see sight when you’re in Edinburgh even if it is packed with tourists. Be sure to get pictures at the castle entrance which is guarded by statues of William Wallace and Robert the Bruce.

We also had lunch at a place on The Royal Mile called The Albanach. Since I’d failed the night before, I went for the classic haggis, neaps and tats. Don’t ask what’s in it as you might wimp out… just eat it and tell the server to keep the pints of Belhaven Best coming. We also did a little pub hopping along pedestrian-only Rose Street, then found our way home about 10pm for a late snack and bed. Looking back, I’m amazed at the number of things we jammed into a single Saturday. I’m thinking Corey and Alex ought to write one of those 3 Perfect Days articles for the United Airlines in-flight magazine because they know how to “time optimize” Edinburgh sightseeing and beer drinking.

Sunday morning arrived way too soon… off to the station and my train back to London. I can’t wait for my next trip to Scotland. Hopefully, I’ll be able to take more time and hike the Highlands, visit some whiskey distilleries and maybe catch a rugby match. I highly recommend Edinburgh if you’re in the UK and can squeeze it in with the usual (boring) itinerary items around London. It’s worth the trip.