Oct 14, 2001, 8:45am

Ladies and Gentlemen. I bet you didn't know you were in the presence of a visionary... Hi there. :-)

Seriously. Check this rant out, and then check the followup here. I'm adding to my archive, pulling all the old rants I wrote from 1996 onwards from an archive disk and adding them, one by one to this site. And I cam to these March 25th and March 31rst,1999 rants.

In it, I made the prediction that the Internet would collapse by 2001.

Okay, so I was wrong about that. But check out the rest of the rant. At the time I wrote it, Internet (dot com) stocks were flying like crazy, and I knew at least 10 millionaries personally. Everyone seemed to be "riding the wave". But I just knew it was going to collapse, and I thought the Net would go with it.

Well, the dotcom world dot bombed big time, and continues to do so. The Net didn't collapse, but it is fundamentally different today than what it was back then. Content is no longer free. Companies like Microsoft are doing things like Product Activation to bring revenues back up. Major players in the Internet world, from @Home to major ISP hosts are tanking. Businesses are shutting doors, to this day. Two years ago when I wrote that piece, I had my choice of a lot of super discount online stores to buy from, and in that year I spent a lot of my disposable income through online vendors.

This year, I've spent a lot less online. And we're not at the bottom yet. Yikes...

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Mixelania

Photos from Algonquin Park
Photos from my trip to Algonquin Park this fall with my Mom and two brothers.

War Stories

Making Snow for the Fortress
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Webiffied

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iPod and iTunes Offline

iMark's iTunes and iPod isn't iPlaying anything right iNow.

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Fiddlers Green by The Tragically Hip

Around The Bend by Pearl Jam

Here With Me (Rollo's Chillin' With the Family Mix) by Dido

With arms open wide by Creed

truffle pigs by Matthew Good Band

In the News

Burundi and Beyond - NY Times
Great article by Peter Meehan - provided some background.

St. Petersburg Times
Side mention in an article about good machines

AP Story on Espresso
Background and information provided

NY Times - Grinders Article
Especially proud of this one - got the reporter to focus on grinders

Globe and Mail
LOL - showing bad reporting, dude says I'm an American-based site!

The Olympian, WA
Talks about my love for the El Sal Siberia Pacamara

Seattle Times - Clover
Interviewed for comments on the Clover brewer

NY Times - How it Works
Background and information for various espresso machines

Time Mag Article
Just a brief mention, article about roasting beans.

NY Times
Front page article about consumers getting into specialty coffee.

Washington Monthly
Quoted reference to what I wrote in an article at CoffeeGeek.

USA Today - Barista Jam
Intereviewed for my thoughts on what the epitome of espresso is.

WSJ Article
The Wall Street Journal has interviewed me 3 times. This is the first time my name got in a story.

Reuters Interview
Interview with Reuters, Jan 2 - this is the USA Today version.

My Other Stuff

CoffeeGeek
Launched Dec 22, 2001, this is THE online community for espresso and coffee fanatics.

CoffeeKid Website
It's all new, as of March, 2002. My personal coffee obsession site.

WebMotif Services
My company's site - needs an update!

Amazon WishList
Hey, if you feel the need to buy me something, check here!

Daily Visits

enGadget
Great gadget site run by the guy who used to do Gizmodo.

Google News
This is how I get my daily news fix.

DPReview Forums`
The most active forums for digital photography online today.

Daily Zen
Need my Daily Zen fix!

Jalopnik
A blog about car stuff. Vroom Vroom.

MoCo Loco
An industrial design blog. Very cool stuff.

Friends and Family Plan

Beata Blog
Beata's got her own blog! She updates it most days.

Riddla on Flickr
Matt Riddle's flickr account, updated regularly

Irdy Photos
Irdy, my friend from Jakharta, on Flickr

Recent Acquisitions

Canon EF 24-105 f4 L Lens
The best lens I've ever owned. Super sharp and quick.

Canon 5D
A full frame dSLR, with luscious colour reproduction.

Alzo Digital Lights
Some amazing florescent cold lights for product photography

Canon Xsi dSLR
Amazing technology and image quality in a tiny package.

Canon 40D
Latest prosumer camera from Canon - a much better upgrade than the 30D

Fujitsu P1610
Great 2.2lb computer that does most of my travel / writing needs

28mm f1.8 Lens
A great lens for closeup work and full picture photography

Foodsaver Advanced
Finally got the right tools for freezing green coffee.

Canon 50mm 1.4
Most amazing lens I've ever owned. Produces stellar photos.

Canon 10-22mm
Super wide angle (full frame fisheye) zoom for my Canon 20D