Monthly Archives: August 2014

Elsa Peretti and Billy Joel

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The glamorous Elsa Peretti. Photo from the pages of Vanity Fair.

Don’t get excited. Billy Joel is not dating Elsa Peretti. He lives in New York and she lives in Sant Martí Vell, a tiny hamlet in Catalonia, north of Barcelona. Our generation calls that GU, graphically undesirable. For those of you who don’t know who Elsa Peretti is, let me introduce the 74-year old grand dame. Peretti is now celebrating her 40h anniversary as the most successful jewelry designer for Tiffany & Company. I wanted to feature her today because she is of the DigiDame era and she has led an unusual life.

I have been wearing Elsa’s signature gold heart for decades. I really didn’t know too much about her until Vanity Fair did a profile on Peretti in their August issue. I am not sure how many DigiDame readers get VF, so I decided to include a copy of the story here. It’s just so cool to be able to copy and paste the story for you. I love sharing,

So you can imagine how I felt when I saw Billy Joel on the web singing “Uptown Girl” at his Madison Square Garden concert to his ex-wife, Christie Brinkley, who was sitting in the front row. I knew instantly that I had to find it on YouTube and post it for all to see. It was so cool to recapture their relationship that took place 20 years ago, even if it was only for a few minutes. The duo recently got a bit closer after Brinkley wrote an emotional tribute on Instagram to her late ex-mother-in-law Rosalind Nyman Joel. who died a month or so ago.

http://youtu.be/8K1WUIUolZ0

Lastly, I want to say goodbye to Robin Williams, 63. In DigiDame years, that is way to young to die. We will miss you.

Future Electronics Will Be Paper Thin

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In the last day or two, a retired, but very prominent, member of the consumer electronics industry forwarded information to me about a substance called Graphene suggesting that I share it with you. The reason why Judy Fleming Stephenson felt I should post it is because she believes this will be one of the greatest innovations of all time.

Thank you Judy!

Here goes! The world of electronics will be going through a major transformation. All of our electronics in the future will get thinner and thinner thanks to Graphene. It is pure carbon in the form of a very thin, nearly transparent sheet, one atom thick. Future electronics will be paper thin.
Illustrated below.

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Wikipedia says Graphene is remarkably strong for its very low weight (100 times stronger than steel and it conducts heat and electricity with great efficiency.

If you watch the video above you will be among the first to see how Graphene will be used and what smartphones and tablets will look like a few years down the road.

Kids React To The Tech We Used

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Good morning Sunday. Click on the video above to see exactly how much time has gone by since we were youngsters. This is quite an eye opener.

It’s hard to believe that we have seen technology evolve so much over the years. We forget where we came from.
When I first watched the video, I was startled that the tech we used was so elementary. I blushed.

It just makes us think about what’s next. I want to see it all.

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The Queen Of Reservations

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I have the dubious distinction of being the Queen Of Reservations.

1-I was brought up in Queens

2-I eat out every night.

3-My name and phone number are registered on the computers in most NYC restaurants.

Many moons ago, I called all of the popular New York City restaurants to make a reservation under my name. Then I would eventually cancel the reservation but somehow my name would stay in the computer. Now when I call a popular restaurant to get a reservation during prime time, I get the royal treatment. The restaurants believe I am repeat business. All very clever.

Today you don’t have to work so hard to get into a popular restaurant between 7PM and 10PM. But you do have to pay for it. Resy is a new app that lets you pay an extra fee to book a table whenever you like. First you sign up. Then you pick a restaurant. You then have to pay a service charge so you are guaranteed a table. The fee is determined on-the-spot by the restaurant.

For the moment, Resy is only available in NYC with 20 participating restaurants. That number will grow every month and more cities will be added.

Money talks. No one goes away hungry.

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A New Type Of Food Delivery Service

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Sebastian,15-years old, showing off the striped bass he caught and cooked for our dinner party.

Most of you know that I don’t cook. Never made a meal. Okay, maybe a few times but never had a strong desire to cook until this past week. We were visiting friends in Provincetown, MA., where they host dinner parties all the time. In four days, we were invited to three dinners and two brunches. My girlfriend’s 15-year old son, Sebastian, even made dinner for us one night after he arrived home with the squid and striped bass he caught that day. I marveled at everyone’s creations and wondered why they cook and I don’t.

It’s probably because I’m too lazy or afraid of failing. Maybe both. This may be another false start, but I’m going to give it a try. I asked my girlfriend Dawn, to help me by suggesting very easy recipes for appetizers. She is going to email me one or two very simple ones to start. Now I worry about shopping for the ingredients. How would I ever know where to locate some of the unusual ones in the supermarket? I don’t want anyone to accompany me to the market. This is my project,

Surprise, surprise. I just heard about a new service that Fresh Direct, an online fresh food grocer, offers that can help me get started. Fresh Direct and Foodily, a leading social recipe network, have created Popcart, a technology that automatically takes a recipe and does the shopping for you. Yes, the website determines the ingredients needed and delivers them right to your door. When I Googled the service, I found a great explanation on Engadget.

The press release both companies issued said, “Popcart allows consumers to browse any recipe – across more than 150+ million food websites and blogs – and seamlessly integrates the ingredients right into a shopping cart.”

I was told by friends in the food industry, that many other food service companies, including supermarkets and specialty shops, will offer this service as well next year. Popcart for FreshDirect is now only available in New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, Philadelphia, and Delaware.

I promise that once I get the hang of it, I will do my own shopping. Till then, I need all the help I can get.

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It’s Not A Socket, It’s An Electrical Outlet

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I’m sitting in the guest bedroom in one of the most elegant homes in Provincetown, MA, better known as Ptown. I am visiting friends who have summered here for over a decade. I’m not suppose to brag, but their house has something most of us don’t have, and have learned to live without, ample electrical outlets.

You have never seen anything like this. My bedroom has eight pairs of electrical outlets. Each wall has two separate outlets, four places in total to plug in my electronic devices.

The first thing I did when I saw all of the available power, was to plug in every device I owned. Most of my digital equipment is stored in a plastic bag so this was a good chance to use them all at once.

I asked my friend why there were so many sockets in her house? She replied, “They’re called electrical outlets, not sockets.” DigiDame stands corrected. Then she explained that because she traveled so much and stayed at countless hotels, she was able to see the necessity for a multitude of outlets.

She noticed that most hotel rooms have a scarce number of electrical outlets. She promised herself that once her 1857 Ptown home was restored, every bedroom would get an generous number of outlets to accommodate the digital lifestyles of today.

I’m loving it. Finally, someone who understands the need to charge. Thank you pal.

I Just Deleted Today’s DigiDame

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I was just putting the finishing touches on todays’s post when the entire copy got deleted. It’s so late that I am not going to try to recreate it. I will simply say Good Night.

Here are more of my collections of signs to entertain you.

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Facebook Is Not A Law Enforcement Issue

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You are not going to believe this. The
Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department recently reported that local area residents call 911 when their Facebook doesn’t work.

While this is pretty funny, it’s also very sad. So many of us are addicted to social media. The minute it doesn’t work, we impulsively call the cops.
Facebook reported that “nervous residents feared that they were permanently cut off from the world of pictures of friends and their meals. They had been choking 911 and the regular police number.”

I also guess that Facebook is, for many folks, their connection to the outside world. Without it, they panic. I know many of my friends are Facebook voyeurs. They never post. They just snoop.

Okay by me.

The Hotel Business Is Going Digital

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I’m surprised it took this long. The Hilton Hotel chain is finally going digital. The company is currently spending $550 million on updated technology so that hotel guests will be able to use their smartphones to choose rooms, check-in and unlock doors.

I can honestly say I haven’t seen anything close to what Hilton is planning to do. In fact, the Wall Street Journal claims Hilton is pioneering the digital world for the hotel business. If they succeed, others will follow. Hilton plans to involve 4,200 of is properties worldwide.

Hilton is already using smartphones and tablets for certain hotel features in a few locations. In several months, full-scale technology will be available everywhere you see a Hilton name. Once everything is set up, Hilton plans to offer promotions and discounts to everyone who uses their digital platform.

I have been on the Hilton loyalty program for long time even though I haven’t stayed at any of their locations for years. I look forward to major savings and better accommodations. I just might return.

It’s Sunday, Time For Digital Signs

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As I have mentioned before, I collect signs friends post on Facebook, Pinterest, and Instagram. I save them in my camera roll and every once in a while, I share them with you. Here goes.

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