wine

I have a hard time with most corkscrews. I can generally get a wine bottle open without mishap, but it always feels like I have to do a lot of work for only a little result. With the Oster Inspire Wine Opener, however, I can get the cork out and the party started in a matter of seconds. This bottle opener even includes a foil cutter to remove seals.

The reason the Oster Inspire Wine Opener is so good at speeding up the process is the fact that it's an electric opener. It's cordless--the wine opener comes with … Read more

Google has joined the OpenID crowd, but just like Microsoft and Yahoo, you can't use the OpenID on Google, but you can use Google credentials other places. Unlike Microsoft and Yahoo though, Google has decided to tweak the OpenID implementation a little to make it better. That means that it's nonstandard and won't work for all standards-compliant OpenID servers. Bullies. We also admire the new DRM-free music store from clothing retailer, Hot Topic. Really.

TiVo to stream Netflix http://newteevee.com/2008/10/29/october-surprise-tivo-to-stream-netflix/ http://news.cnet.com/8301-17938_105-10078711-1.html… Read more

You learn something new every day. I had always thought it was my pure masculine manliness that always seemed to break the wine glasses when I tried washing them out. Turns out, it isn't my super strength that was responsible for the constant snapping of the stemware. No, apparently this breakage is a common occurrence and it is torque that is the culprit to blame. Luckily, there is a solution, as this set of wine glasses purports to be 98 percent more resistant to this stress that occurs while washing and drying.

The World's Strongest Crystal Red Wine … Read more

Several times throughout today's show, The 404 almost causes the universe to implode. Our Earth-shaking collection of topics today include a story about Viagra missiles, iPhone flaws and young love, divinely drunk intervention, and more Ryan Gosling/Ryan Reynolds confusion...which witch is which?!

One of the more ridiculous stories on today's show is about a man that somehow managed to smuggle a fake, but extremely realistic looking missile into New York with a sticker on the side that proudly read "VIVA VIAGRA." After driving around New York, making stops at Times Square and the Trump Tower, the man ended up in front of the Pfizer corporate building where the company promptly slapped a restraining order and a cease and desist warning on his man-made missile. The craziest part about this story is the fact that one man somehow drove through the Midtown tunnel and several New York police officers with a missile attached to his truck.

Is that all it takes? The man claims that ""New York City cops are smart. They know the difference between a mock-up and the real thing," and that's all well and good, but what about scaring the sh*t out of thousands of New Yorkers? Mass chaos isn't so fun. Do you think The 404 should pull a stunt like this? Clearly it'd be pretty easy to set in motion, and you know we need the publicity! Any suggestions? Leave us a comment and and let us know!

Making decisions can be difficult. Even when the choices presented offer a win/win result. I happen to like cheese. So, if I am faced with a simple choice, say cheddar or Swiss, it can be hard to decide between the two--or the myriad of other possibilities that exist. As you can imagine, grocery shopping for me can sometimes be quite an ordeal. Luckily, I am comfortable and aware of my indecision while in the supermarket. My solution? Purchase one of each.

But what of those times that making a choice leads to a commitment? No, I'm not talking … Read more

Google has brought to Linux the beta version of its new Picasa 3 software for image editing, cataloging, and uploading.

The new release catches the open-source operating system up with Windows, which got the Picasa 3 beta one month earlier. There's still no word about a Mac OS X version, although Mike Horowitz, Google's Picasa product manager, told me earlier that "Macs are important to us...We're always looking for new ways of making sure our users are happy, so it's something we're looking at."

The new version adds a retouching tool, automatic … Read more

CodeWeavers have successfully ported a build of Chromium, Google Chrome's codebase, to non-PowerPC Intel Macs using Wine. Unfortunately, it's incredibly buggy, and while it proves that Chrome can eventually run on the Mac, CrossOver Chromium is more about demonstrating the utility of Wine than creating an effective version of Chrome for the Linux and Mac platforms before Google does.

In fact, in the CrossOver Chromium FAQ, that's precisely what CodeWeavers states: "This is just a proof of concept, for fun, and to showcase what Wine can do." They go on to assure users that they … Read more

Correction: Jeremy White of Codeweavers emailed me to let me know that I'm very confused on this.:

Based on a range of posts I saw on the web this morning, which conflated Chromium with Codeweavers that it's not surprising that I was confused. Mea culpa, and sincere apologies to Jeremy and the Codeweaver gang.

Codeweavers, the company behind WINE which enables Windows applications to run on Linux, has done it again. WINE was voted a finalist in Sourceforge's Community Awards earlier this year, earning the dubious distinction of one of the open-source projects "Most Likely to Be Ambiguously and Baselessly Accused of Patent Violation."

This may be true where patents are concerned, but I think Google would have a pretty good trademark claim against Codeweavers right now.

In this case, Codeweavers has made it possible to run the Google Chrome browser on Mac OS X and Linux, and called it "Chromium." As Codeweavers founder and CEO, Jeremy White, notes on his blog, Codeweavers was "looking for a way to show off Wine's new maturity, particularly for porting applications."

Great, right? Yes, except for the name. Chromium has the potential to confuse would-be users as to the source of this cross-platform instantiation of Google Chrome.

United States trademark law is pretty clear on this point:… Read more

Amazon.com customers will be able to buy wine through the e-tailer's Web site as early as this month, a spokesman for the Napa Valley Vintners Association said Wednesday.

Amazon has been working with the nonprofit group, which represents 315 vintners in the Napa Valley, to arrange workshops with wine producers that might be interested in selling wine through the retail giant, said Terry Hall, the group's communications director.

"We have set up a few get-to-know-you meetings with wineries, and the wineries will make their own decisions on what fits best with their business plans," Hall … Read more