behind the z c

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30 Second Wine Advisor: My best wine values of 2007

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InstantShot grabs that screen in an instant

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Wine Reports: Fetzer 2006 California Gewurztraminer ($10.99)

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Disbelief

I tasted the wine and could not believe it. Astounded I took another sip, then another and finally a joyous gulp. I still could not believe. I went back to my desk and rummaged through my papers until I finally found it. Even with the proof in front of my very happy nose I could not believe. Yet the truth could not be ignored. There printed on the receipt was the undisputable truth: $18.89. I still don't believe it. They had even given me a 10% discount. What I got for $18.89 was an astounding pinot noir that I would have thought a value at twice the price.

The Marsannay, Les Saint Jacques, Domaine Bart 2005 may be the finest wine bargain I have ever tasted. At least it's the best I can remember. You'd be hard pressed to find an equal for under $60. This is what pinot noir is all about. It is stunningly fragrant with layers of exotic spices, black fruits and black truffles all laced into a vinous magnet that attracts your nose to the glass and won't let it go. The flavors are rich, concentrated and powerfully elegant. This is a wine that deserves respect and that means about five more years of pampered aging to allow the great potential of this wine to show itself.

A wine of this quality at this price is a glaring indictment of all the overripe, variety and terroir-free New World pinot noirs selling for four times the price of this treasure, not to mention the many Burgundy wines with more famous names and prices that have no relationship to what's actually in the bottle. We are entering a new era in the world of wine where wines with the highest prices and the most famous names are often some of the least interesting wines to actually drink.

Now the only question is do I have the willpower to age my remaining five bottles.

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20 Top Sites for the Savvy Traveler [w/pics]

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Lifehacker's 2007 Guide to Free Software and Webapps [Feature]

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Save your OpenOffice.org docs to Google Docs and vice versa

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Pop-up card designer

Check out this pop up card software Japan for making your own cards! - Link.

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Darkness-activated LED circuit

Our homeboy Windell, over at EMS Labs, has posted a simple circuit for creating a dark-detecting LED light. It's a power-conserving LED Throwie.

A Simple and Cheap Dark-Detecting LED Circuit - Link

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Millepede Cable Ties

Millepede is a refastenable cable bundling tie that is very different from the Zip ties we all know and love. It's essentially a flexible plastic strip of little boxes separated by larger D shapes. The strip terminates in a narrow "needle" that can thread through any of the D shapes and be pulled through to a snug connection around a bundle of cables. The holding strength is amazing. I use them for all my wiring harness applications, but I've also connected multiple ties (the larger burly ones) to fasten down car-top luggage. You undo a Millepede by running the same needle backwards through the same D opening, and if you're fastening something small, you can also pull almost the whole strip through, cut it off at the non-needle end -- unlike the cable clamp -- and then reuse the remainder as many more times as it will fit. They're available in a wide variety of sizes and colors and are also produced in various versions for special purposes (think integral vinyl eyebolts, hooks, baseplates etc.). One bag of 100 might be the proverbial lifetime supply.

-- David Perry

$25
(100 12" ties)

Available from RadioShack

Manufactured by Millepede

Related items previously reviewed in Cool Tools:

Velcro Grip Ties

Griptwist

Atlast IT Cable Analyser

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SPOY 2007 Prize #2: (2) Nikon SB-800 Speedlights

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The Unarchiver answers the question "How are you going to open that .rar file?"

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Discover New Music at Thesixtyone [Digital Music]

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OPENhulu: Setting Hulu's Videos Free

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Monitor Strip Calendar [Calendars]

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Steampunk gift guide

Dietz M2000 - Kerosene lantern and Cooker
Price: $18.95

Dietz kerosene lanterns have remained nearly unchanged since their invention in the mid-nineteenth century. One recent innovation is the Dietz Cooker lantern.

Can't you just see yourself heating a can of stew on this lantern while crouching on a dry spot somewhere out in the bayou? Or perched on a boulder on the rocky coast of Maine, your musty smelling canvas and leather camping gear nearby?

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Find Free MP3s at BeeMP3 [MP3s]

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Fold a Drinking Cup from a Sheet of Paper [MacGyver Tip]

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Mr. McGroovy's Box Rivets

Cardboard is a wonderful building material. You can do far more with it than you might expect. Use it to make furniture, sculpture, models, and of course play structures. The common way to assemble projects with cardboard boxes is to slap pieces together with duct tape. But tape is clumsy, expensive, will unpeel outdoors in weather, looks clunky, and won't take paint. A cool alternative are these Kevlar-like rivets specially designed for box cardboard. One shape does both sides. The rivets sport a grippy ratchet that clinches them close, yet enables them to be reused. The large button gives them holding power and allows you to make joints that can swing, too. We've found that you need either two people working, or ape-long arms, to squeeze both sides of the rivet pairs. Also, they are really made for the double wall corrugated cardboard of the kind you find in large appliance boxes; on thin cardboard they aren't as prettily snug, but still will hold fine. A set of 100 (50 pairs) is enough for a small maze.

-- KK

Mr. McGroovy's Box Rivets
$6 per 50 pairs
Available from Mr. McGroovy's

Mr. McGroovy has free plans and some nice tips on where to locate free large boxes.

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SketchUp book!

PC World has a review of a new SketchUp book, SketchUp is a free and popular 3D tool for designing objects, buildings and more... Phil writes -

Remember when your high school English teacher explained that every word in the sentences you write needs to carry some meaning? While the rest of us missed that point, Aidan Chopra was paying attention. Google Sketchup for Dummies is a tightly written, fun to read book that gives a lot of byte for your buck. Aidan Chopra works at Google as the product evangelist for Google SketchUp and he's the editor of the monthly SketchUpdate email newsletter. He knows SketchUp inside and out and uses plain English to show you the ropes.

Google SketchUp is a 3D drawing program that defies easy description. It's fun, playful and at the same time very powerful. - Community Voices Book Review - Google SketchUp for Dummies - [via] Link.

Related:

SketchUp drawings of midibox-based MIDI controller designs - Link.

Workbench plans - made with Sketchup - Link.

Hammock made with Sketchup... - Link.

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Conductive paint LED helmet

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