It was an XKCD comic that got me thinking about living 5 years behind everyone technologically.

Think about it! At this point, people will practically give you their old technology. What was the coolest phone in 2004? The Motorola Razr was very popular, but today smartphones dominate the market. I would give you my old Razr if you wanted an app-less phone that only does calls and text. What about computer hardware? 2GB of RAM would be a monster in ’04 on your XP machine! All technology from 4 years ago would be dirt cheap, or just given to you.

It doesn’t end there. Five years from now the next-big-thing will be here and people will give you their useless old iPhones or first generation Androids. Technology always grows, and you could be there to swoop in and save a fortune. As if that weren’t enough, you’d also be free of the misery of discovering incompatible drivers and other pitfalls that come with being on the bleeding edge.

Being the nerd I am, I’m not sure that I can make this 5 year lapse commitment; but I really want to know someone who does. I want to see someone take it to the level where they have a Calendar setup listing what media / tech is really big at the moment so they can jump on it in a half decade.

Let me know if it’s you. I’ll give you my old junk.

Big News 5 Years ago in 2004…

1. Half Life 2
2. FireFox
3. MySpace
4. Gmail
5. Spiderman 2
6. Modest Mouse’s Good News
7. LOST

Time to get a wee bit sappy. 1000 days ago today I married Kristi on a snowy February morning. What followed were the best 1000 days of my life. They’ll be hard to top. My wife is truly awesome. She’s my best friend.

I sometimes invent special occasions, but I feel the 1000 day mark is warranted; triple digits! Happy Kilaversary Kristi!

Next year is 2010. For the last year I’ve been trying to tell people how we should say this as a society.

I’m hearing a lot of people say “Two thousand and ten“. I totally understand, you’re adding one to the “nine” at the end of this year; but I think this is a misstep - ”Twenty Ten” sounds cooler, uses less syllables and is what Sci-Fi actors have been saying for years.

The only time I think it’s right to say “Two thousand and ten” is if they were saying “One thousand Nine hundred and ninety nine” a decade ago.

Spread the word.

For most of my life I have thought that Wine was a really snobby unapproachable subject. It’s like some heavily over-intellectualized drink for the most unbearably snooty people in the world.

A few months ago a friend introduced me to some Gary Vaynerchuk keynotes on Social Media and self branding, as these are a natural extension to my job of helping people grow their businesses online. This led to me checking out some of his other messages on the subject of business. On his personal site he has a lot of really good thought provoking videos; many in which he uses his on Wine Library TV podcast as an example. I was still a bit skeptical, so I decided to check out his wine podcast to see how he put his money where his mouth is.

Within 2 minutes he had completely removed the negative stigma about wine, and made it totally approachable. Over the last couple months Kristi and I have been sampling some wines here and there and slowly learning about this vast wine world. As a result I find I’ve been enjoying smelling and tasting all food much more! For the first time in my life I’m starting to really enjoy eating.

So far our favourite wine has been a 2005 Masi Costasera Amarone. What’s yours?

Arley, Link it Up

The first Vaynerchuk video I saw on Social Media

Gary Vaynerchuk Personal Website

Wine Library TV – this video is a highlight reel.