Alec Saunders SquawkBox

Meridian Vineyards 1999 Dusi Vineyard Zinfandel

Day of skiing, followed by red wine and pizza.  We cracked Meridian Vineyards 1999 Dusi Vineyard Zinfandel this evening.  I’m heartbroken.  I had only one bottle.  This wine is everything that you can love about zinfandel.  From the outset, a huge, fruity, brambly nose.  On the tongue, raspberry, cranberry, pepper and spice. Slight woodiness from the oak, but mostly jam with nutmeg and cinnamon. Long finish, few tannins.  I picked this up at the LCBO’s Vintages store for a paltry $19.95.  What a steal.

Vinography

Randy sent a link to Vinography, which looks super.  Lots of reviews of California wines that we can’t get back here in Canada.  The author of the site uses a 10 point scale, and provides very nice descriptions of the wines tasted. 

Canadian Temperature Gauge

Notice that as yer temperature falls, Celsius doesn’t go as low as Fahrenheit?  That’s a real advantage.

50° Fahrenheit (10° C)

Californians shiver uncontrollably.

Canadians plant gardens

35° Fahrenheit (1.6° C)

Italian Cars won’t start

Canadians drive with the windows down

32° Fahrenheit (0 ° C)

American water freezes

Canadian water gets thicker.

0° Fahrenheit (-17.9° C)

New York City landlords finally turn on the heat.

Canadians have the last cookout of the season.

-60° Fahrenheit (-51° C)

 Mt. St. Helens freezes.

 Canadian Girl Guides sell cookies door-to-door

-100° Fahrenheit (-73° C)

Santa Claus abandons the North Pole.

Canadians pull down their ear flaps.

-173° Fahrenheit (-114° C)

Ethyl alcohol Freezes.

Canadians get frustrated when they can’t thaw the keg.

-460° Fahrenheit (-273° C)

Absolute zero; all atomic motion stops.

Canadians start saying “cold, eh?”

-500° Fahrenheit (-295° C)

Hell freezes over.

The Toronto Maple Leafs win the Stanley Cup.

VoIP is about competition!

Jon Arnold is analyst firm Frost and Sullivan’s VoIP program leader.  In I want my VoIP he writes:

So why are the RBOCs (regional Bell operating companies) and Canadian incumbents getting serious about VoIP now? Competition.

So why are the long-distance carriers (IXCs) getting serious about VoIP now? Competition.

So why are the cable operators getting serious about VoIP now? Competition.

That’s it, plain and simple.  The tough part that I see is that so far the competition is about cheap long distance.  None of these guys are differentiating themselves appreciably from any of the others.  What does that portend?  Falling prices followed by a shakeout.  Unless we start to see some of the promised features of VoIP getting serious deployment, look for VoIP industry failures by middle of 2005.  Packet8 and Net2Phone will be two of the earliest.

Ontario: A Place to Grow

This little satire of the Ontario song arrived in my mailbox this past week.