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ecohome improvement

ecohome improvement is this store in Berkeley that helps you have a nice eco-friendly (cancer-free) home. We've got some more interior upgrades to do namely new carpeting and a kitchen and bathroom upgrade. We're going to do the carpeting later this year but the kitchen and bath much later but within the next 5 years.

For the carpet we're thinking natural wool. They don't put any crap in this carpet, it's all natural.

For the kitchen, we're thinking cork floors. Cork floors are soft on your feet and makes for good warmth and sound insulation and resilient to mold and mildew. They come in lots of cool colors too. We're also thinking bamboo cabinets. Both cork and bamboo are considered environmentally sustainable.

We're also thinking recycled glass/concrete for our countertops. Check out Ice Stone. Pretty cool company.

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best lasagne ever

Everyone should know how to make lasagne.  This one is special because it's a Zachary's pizza style lasagne where the tomato sauce is on top.  It's awesome.

Ingredients:

  • lasagne pasta – Rustichella d'Abruzzo if possible
  • 1 16 oz can of San Marnzano plum tomatoes* (don't skimp here)
  • 1 small can of tomato sauce
  • 1 lb of ricotta cheese (optional)
  • 1 lb of mozarella (grate fresh yourself)
  • a package of spinach
  • a cup of sliced brown mushrooms
  • a shot of vodka
  • 1 egg
  • a tablespoon of butter
  • 4-5 green onions or 1 small onion
  • 3 – 4 cloves of garlic
  • a tablespoon of olive oil
  • a tablespoon of basil and tablespoon of oregano
  • salt and pepper to taste

I'm not into exact ingredients those are just ballpark.

Boil water and cook the pasta.  Saute onions and then garlic in olive oil for 2- 3 minutes.  Chop up tomatoes and put in tomatoes and sauce.  Don't bring to a boil, just keep on medium.  Add vodka and basil and oregno and salt and pepper to taste.  Crack egg into ricotta cheese and mix in.

Now the important part. Once you've let the pasta cool, put one layer down on the pan.  Add the spinach, mushrooms, ricotta cheese, and mozarella cheese.  Put another layer of pasta down.  Then put the sauce on top.

Put in the oven for 35 – 40 minutes in a 350 degree oven.

Done.  Add sausage, ground beef, whatever to the bottom layer to mix it up a bit.  The key is to put the sauce on top and let the melted cheese lock-in the flavors below.

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* The San Marzano tomatoes are what makes Zachary's pizza have that slight sour (good) taste.

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7 for '07

*ignore*

My resolutions:

  1. Enjoy life more. Read more.
  2. Give more.
  3. Get Browser Garage off the ground and ship product. Shake things up.
  4. Focus on creating more versus consuming.
  5. Good showing at Ironman Canada (and Arizona) and retire.
  6. No red meat/little meat, no/little dairy, limit bread intake, no sugar/sweets/candy.
  7. Be hungry and more frugal.
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online video advertising in 2007

Online video advertising was introduced last year and can be seen on ESPN.com, Business Week, c|Net, New York Times, etc. The standards for these video ads are still unclear:

  • Some are played immediately on launch of the page w/ sound, some are played without sound
  • Some must be clicked on to start the ad
  • Video length isn't clear, 15, 30, 60, 90, (120 and 180) seconds with 15 seconds as the norm. This matches offline tv/movie advertising.
  • Video positioning isn't clear either when ads are displayed within video content, i.e. the ad may be played before or after the video
  • All video ads are using Flash as the underlying technology. Nothing new as Flash has been the platform of choice for advertisers who had been doing "rich media" ads before the video technology was added to the Flash platform.

What's got folks salivating about this technology is that online video ads are measurable (television advertising is harder to measure). There can be a clear action that's taken afterwards too (a clickthrough) but more importantly the advertiser can understand how many times the advertisement has been played and can also receive information on browser/os/location and possibly user demo info if that person is logged into the web site.

If you know that a 30 second ad on a good television show can cost $80 – $100k just for those 30 seconds, you can see the potential revenue.

In 2007, online video advertising will start to get normalized/standardized in terms of length of time, position, metrics, etc. One thing is clear about the Internet, advertisers/salespeople are efficient and can get their act together quickly in finding ways to make money.

The IAB (Internet Advertising Bureau) I believe is where all this stuff will be shaken out. Sadly, the Web may get annoying again as video ads have the potential to be more annoying than pop-ups. Can't wait for that online video ad pop-up! I'm sure they're already out there.