Five Great Lakes Surfing Videos

Five Spots on the Great Lakes

Lake Superior

Lake Michigan

Lake Huron

Lake Erie

Lake Ontario

Eating and Drinking in Detroit

So, you are visiting Detroit. Where should you eat and drink? If I had 2 nights and 2 days in Detroit, here are the spots where I would enjoy the Detroit foodie experience.

Night #1

Night #1 - Dinner

On the way in from the airport stop in Dearborn, an inner ring suburb just west of Detroit. Dearborn has the largest Arab population outside the middle east - and awesome food.

Al Ameer - Dearborn

eat lamb and beef shawarma platter with hummus and tabouli sides. the complimentary pickled appetizers are great. drink mango-honey smoothie.

http://www.yelp.com/biz/al-ameer-dearborn

Shatila - Dearborn

This is the land of milk and honey. Tasty Arabic sweets. if you have a sweet tooth, try not to order everything.

http://www.yelp.com/biz/shatila-dearborn

Night #1 - Drinks

For the first night out, treat yourself to Michigan craft beer paradise with 4 stops on Canfield street in Midtown all within a couple blocks walk.

Motor City Brewing Works - Midtown

Their ghetto blaster is the default beer of the city of Detroit

http://www.yelp.com/biz/motor-city-brewing-works-detroit

Jolly Pumpkin - Midtown

Considered the best brewer of gourmet sour beers in the USA

http://www.yelp.com/biz/jolly-pumpkin-pizzeria-and-brewery-detroit

Traffic Jam & Snug - Midtown

First craft brewery in the state of Michigan after prohibition

http://www.yelp.com/biz/traffic-jam-and-snug-detroit-3

HopCat - Midtown

ridiculous number of Michigan craft beers on tap. live music upstairs at night.

http://www.yelp.com/biz/hopcat-detroit-2

Day #1

Day #1 - Breakfast

New Center Eatery - New Center

Eat chicken and waffles, best in the city. i usually eat a side of collard greens too. Good neo-soul / R&B music tracks playing.

http://www.yelp.com/biz/new-center-eatery-detroit

Day #1 - Lunch

Bucharest Grill - Downtown

eat the Trish Salad. or any of the wraps. eat and drink craft beer next door at Park Bar (the two places are attached).

http://www.yelp.com/biz/bucharest-grill-detroit

BACKUP: Vicente’s Cuban - Downtown

eat Ropas Viejas, drink sangria or mojito.

http://www.yelp.com/biz/vicentes-cuban-cuisine-detroit

Day #1 - Dinner

Green Dot Stables

eat at least 3 sliders and the truffle fries. i usually get the Korean, the Philly and the mystery meat slider, whatever it happens to be. funky vibe. 

http://www.yelp.com/biz/green-dot-stables-detroit-2

BACKUP: Johny Noodle King

noodle spot. same owners as Green Dot.

http://www.yelp.com/biz/johnny-noodle-king-detroit

Night #2

Night #2 - Drinks

Two James Distillery

drink their sample flight or pick a cocktail. munch on wasabi peas.

http://www.yelp.com/biz/two-james-spirits-detroit

Sugar House

drink “The Last Word”, a prohibition-era cocktail created at the Detroit Athletic Club.

or tell the staff some ingredients and let them work their magic

or order from the encyclopedic menu

http://www.yelp.com/biz/the-sugar-house-detroit

Batch Brewery

nano brewery, excellent pretzels and comfort food. they also have fantastic, heavy desserts here.

http://www.yelp.com/biz/batch-brewing-company-detroit

Day #2

Day #2 - Breakfast

Le Petit Zinc 

Eat the quiche. Drink a cappuccino. Sit outside if weather allows.

http://www.yelp.com/biz/le-petit-zinc-detroit

Day #2 - Lunch

Taqueria El Rey

eat tacos al pastor. drink horchata.

http://www.yelp.com/biz/taqueria-el-rey-detroit

Mexicantown Bakery

sweets. can’t go wrong

http://www.yelp.com/biz/mexicantown-bakery-detroit

Day #2 - Dinner

Selden Standard

order whatever they tell you - if you can get in.

http://www.yelp.com/biz/selden-standard-detroit

BACKUP: Gold Cash Gold

if you can’t get into Selden, try Gold Cash Gold

Farm to table, southern american inspired

http://www.yelp.com/biz/gold-cash-gold-detroit

Compuberty: Three Emerging Categories of Computing

Computers are going through puberty. They are becoming adults, devices that have physical presence in the public realm. When the transformation is complete we will have three classes of computing:

• Personal Computing - value is created at the scale of people
• smartphones
• tablets
• laptops
• desktops
• televisions
• car interiors
• hospital rooms
• living rooms
• Cloud Computing - value is created at the scale of global communities
• social networks
• big data
• Autonomous Computing - value is created at the scale of Newtonian physics
• wireless sensor networks
• drones
• autonomous cars
• actuators
• control systems

What am I missing?

Having helmed a couple startup failures, I'm often skeptical about success stories and what they can teach me about my next endeavor.

This excellent article on Survivorship Bias (recently shared by @vallor with FooCamp alum) is a smart reminder to keep asking, "what am I missing?"

http://youarenotsosmart.com/2013/05/23/survivorship-bias/

When we launched a big data startup called Swivel in 2006, we scored a lot of press from TechCrunch, New York Times, Financial Times, Nature and others. But only one person covered our failure, a blogger from Charlotte, North Carolina.

The failure article has all the useful wisdom http://eagereyes.org/criticism/the-rise-and-fall-of-swivel, whereas the mainstream media never followed-up to capture what went wrong.

Today, 7 years after launching Swivel, I get calls from smart entrepreneurs entering the big data space not because Swivel was a success but because they came across the failure blog post and want to learn more.

While unorthodox, understanding the Survivorship Bias and looking around for lessons of failure is a great aid in covering your blind spots.

It might be worth a few minutes of your time to Google for failures in your market and reach out to some losers.

Detroit Robotics

An incomplete list of robotics stuff around Detroit.

Companies

• SkySpecs
• Detroit Aircraft
• FANUC Robotics America

Military

• TARDEC

Institutions

• Engineering
• University of Detroit
• Wayne State University
• Lawrence Technological University
• University of Michigan
• Michigan State University
• Kettering University
• Design
• College for Creative Studies
• Cranbrook

Conferences and Organizations

• Michigan Robotics
• Telematics Detroit
• Driverless Car Summit
• RobotTown

Green Smoothie

I make and drink a pitcher of green smoothie just about every day I'm home.

To make it, put the following ingredients in a blender and blend on high after each addition.

• 1/2 cup uncooked steel cut oatmeal
• 1/2 cup blueberries
• 1/2 cup plain yogurt
• 1 raw egg
• 1/2 cucumber
• 1/4 inch slice of lemon, cut off the ends, leave the skin
• 1 banana
• 1 pear
• 3 leaves of kale
• 3 leaves cabbage
• 1 whole carrot
• 1/2 inch of fresh Ginger root, peeled
• 1/2 teaspoon of Ceylon cinnamon
• top off with water or whey
• a few ice cubes to make it cool if you'd like

API Design

I recently presented some opinions and ideas about web API design at Salesforce.com's Cloudstock event in San Francisco.

In the talk, I start with a poorly designed API and iterate it toward a well-behaved REST API. Along the way, I compare APIs from Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Foursquare and others and share my opinions about which APIs do things well and which don't.

If you're thinking about API design, please give it a view and let me know what you think.

Here is a studio version of the talk: