Tuscany, Italy: A Digital Experience

With Ubisoft’s release of Assassin’s Creed Two many gamers are getting their first look at Tuscany. The game is full of gorgeous scenery complete with sprawling vineyards, classic Italian architecture, medieval castles, and enchanted villas. Visitors to Tuscany marvel at how accurate and lifelike the landscapes of Assassin’s Creed Two are. With that said, the only way to truly experience Tuscany as a native does is to travel their and experience it for oneself. While the adventures of Ezio Auditore da Firenze in Renaissance Italy on the XBOX 360 or PS3 are fun, they are nothing compared to the real thing.

Tuscany, generally considered the birthplace of the Renaissance movement, has a legendary artistic heritage. Visitors can see one of a kind architecture, sculptures, and paintings throughout Florence and the surrounding areas. Perhaps the best known museums in Tuscany include the Uffizi, the Academia, and the Bargello. And yes, you can even visit the very street where Leonardo da Vinci turns Ezio’s codex pages into new weaponry.

While traveling from city to city it is a shame that Ezio doesn’t stop to enjoy a glass, or three, of wine. The sprawling landscapes he traverses are home to some of the finest vineyards on the planet. Guests who opt for a wine tour through Tuscan Way are in for a real treat. A stay at Villa Poggiarello with hosts Romeo and Federica allows guests to become a member of the family, enjoying Tuscan tales late into the evening. Romeo’s focus on “La Cucina Povera Toscana” (Tuscan Country Cooking) ensures travelers leave with full stomachs and smiling faces. On the 100 hectare property guests even sip wine in the very vineyard in which it was grown.

For a taste of village life look no further than Casa Innocenti. Carlo Innocenti has been gracious enough to open his home to Tuscan Way’s guests. Perched on a hill next to the village castle, Casa Innocenti is a four story medieval home complete with 20 rooms, a large wine cellar, and private garden. During their stay, guests are let in on some of the tightest held secrets in Italy. They don’t involve hidden Medici gold, but rather Tuscan culinary recipes passed down from generation to generation. As a Master Chef, Carlo has the ability to not only prepare some of the best food Tuscany has to offer, but also pair dishes with the perfect wine.

Assassin’s Creed Two is a great game, but the beauty and majesty of Tuscany can only be fully enjoyed by traveling there and sampling the wine, food, and culture that your hosts provide. Tuscan Way has the villas, connections, and experience to offer a truly transcendental experience that will be treasured for years to come.

For a meaningful vacation or food and wine tour to Tuscany contact Tuscan Way. They can be reached by calling 800-766-2390 or on the web at www.TuscanWay.com.

New Mac Malware Invasion

Symantec, in a blog post today, uncovered a new Macintosh exploit. Named "OSX.Loosemaque," the malware is unique for two reasons. First, it is targeting Mac OSX, which for years has been a savehaven from hackers and internet scofflaws. Second, it is disguised as a Space Invaders-eque video game. Recent upgraders will be happy to know that it is fully Snow Leopard compatiple.

The game is fully functional, and quite enjoyable actually; a throwback to the simple alien shooters of the early 1980s. The malicious part is quite clever. For every alien ship that the user destroys a file is deleted from their home directory. Definitely not worth the fun.

On the game website it does note in the description that the files will be deleted, however this could quite easily be modified into a malicious virus passed along to unsuspecting users. Currently the threat is limited, but this does open the door to new types of Mac exploits, which are expected to grow as their userbase continues to do so.

FTC Fines: Coming to a Blog Near You

Bloggers beware. The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) updated its Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials to include new media, specifically bloggers. In the past these rules have governed TV endorsements and radio ads. In an interesting development the FTC is now interested in governing web posts of a paid/sponsored nature.

Typically these fines have been paid by networks or manufacturers who have the capital to deal with them. I'm interested to see how the net responds the first time an individual blogger is hit with a fine, which can be up to $11,000 per blog post.

While it does raise censorship and long-arm-of-the-law concerns this could be a breath of fresh air, as we are all tired of the endless faux reviews, fabricated testimonials, and unsubstantiated claims on the internet, particularly in the MLM sector. More to follow...

Tuscan Way -- Experience Italy as a True Tuscan

Tuscan Way offers you a unique and rare opportunity to live and experience life, as it really is, in Tuscany.

A true taste of Tuscany, where we have brought together so many fine, quaint and rich elements from within the heart of Florence itself as well as the surrounding hills and countryside.
To visit Tuscany or Italy like you have never done before, it is necessary to become immersed in the culture. This is integral to Italian tradition in general and Tuscany’s in particular. Ingredients borne from the land are a beacon for the Tuscan psyche.
For a sneak peak at what Tuscany has to offer:



Tuscan Way offers food and wine tours in the heart of Tuscany, Italy.

Google Adds Meta Comments to Toolbar

Sidewiki, Google's newest online gizmo, gives its toolbar users the ability to write annotations and read the comments of others. Pretty cool and definitely worth a look, but I am unsure of how well it will be adopted. IMHO web users already have their hands full with existing tools.

Basically Sidewiki opens a column on the left-hand side of your browser where you can view and respond to the comments of others.

Comments will, of course, be organized by Google's mysterious, ever-evolving algo. This raises the issue of...drumroll please...SEO implications. Will these comments figure into page rank and SERPs? How long until SEO spammers render the whole system irrelevant? Will a page full of paid comments add or take away from your web experience? How will Google combat this?

Interesting to see how this tool will be used. Stay tuned...

Best,
Bobby

Facebook announces plans for voice chat. Skype buster or too many features?

An effective website, much like a good sandwich, can actually suffer from having too many ingredients. With Facebook announcing voice-chat (currently in closed beta), one must wonder if this will propel Facebook even higher in the web2.0 stratosphere or turn it into a cluttered beast that operates too slow (i.e. the demise of AOL). My Facebook page has already turned from a simple wall posting and messaging with friends platform into a advertising and data-capturing behemoth. If they don't watch it... I'm going back to IRC.

We as a software development company are excited about it. If voice chat works well, it will give our developers a new platform for our custom software applications. If the chat doesn't function as it should we can always improve upon it using Facebook's developer tools.

I expect the chat to work well. Facebook has engaged Vivox to offer ut, who provides voice service for Second Life and EVE Online. With a user base of over 15M users one would presume the kinds are all ironed out. The service will offer one-on-one and group discussions. Dinosaurs who don't have a Facebook account can even use a free number to join in on the phone.

A few things I wonder:
1) Since it supports conferences, this will clearly be used as a business tool. As Facebook courts businesses more will they lose their core base of college students and people with not enough to do at work?
2) With a third party vendor involved clearly they hope to monetize this. Would you be turned off by voice advertisements? How do they think they are going to earn using voice chat?

Either way, another story about web portals becoming increasingly integrated and taking business from the old industrialists (phone companies). Drop me a line and let me know what you think.

Best,
Bobby

For a screen-shot of the demo view and more info, take a look at the CNN article.

Twitter is Offline: Productivity Skyrockets

Cubicle jockeys have found themselves actually getting work done this lovely Thursday morning as popular social networking site Twitter.com appears to be offline. The Washington Post is the first major outlet I have found to report on it. According to The Post, Twitter has been down for about 40 minutes now. Twitter's status blog is confirming the known known but remaining tight-lipped, saying

"Site is down 45 minutes ago

We are determining the cause and will provide an update shortly."

Thanks for the explanation Twitter Bird. More to follow.


---
10:44
Attempting to update my Facebook status. Receiving an AJAX error. This is bizarre. Friends are reporting problems with livejournal as well.