Amazon Local is offering $40 to spend on wine and other merchandise for $20 at Wine.com.

Prior purchasers of these social coupons will recall the main restrictions:

Can’t be used to pay for shipping/tax Can’t be used for wine in MA Shipping the first bottle generally costs about $12.95 so these deals are more appealing for those who have subscribed to Wine.com’s Steward Ship program which covers all Wine.com shipments for a year for a flat fee of $49.

Some of my favorite affordable picks for this …

Weather-wise this past week in Boston has been gorgeous. The high temperatures topped 80F yesterday and I started to get concerned about the boxes of wine I have sitting around that don’t fit into my wine fridge. The room where I tend to keep wine got up to 76F yesterday afternoon so I decided to take the wine down to the basement where it’s in the low 60Fs.

With quite a bit of wine in-flight across the country as spring shipping season is in full swing …

Later today, Firefox will undergo its biggest developmental upheaval ever. Mozilla-central, the source of nightly builds, will be renumbered to version 5 — and at long last, after years of wallowing around version 1, Mozilla’s rendering and layout engine, Gecko, will also have its version number updated to match Firefox.

Shortly thereafter, Firefox’s new channel system will be implemented. Firefox 5a2 will be introduced as the first Aurora build, and we should also see a Firefox 6 Nightly build. While we we’re not sure where they …

I keep a regular eye on Tablas Creek’s reviews on TripAdvisor and on Yelp.  Reading these reviews helps me keep an eye out for potential problems, and also gives me a good overall sense of what people are thinking about the experience they have when they visit Tablas Creek.  Happily, it’s overwhelmingly positive.

I have noticed a recent trend away from Yelp and toward TripAdvisor.  For years Yelp was the dominant review site.  Between 2005 and early 2011, Yelp tallied 69 reviews of Tablas Creek …

Today in international tech news: China’s Internet goes haywire, a pair of British teens are arrested for Internet shenanigans, the U.S. uses YouTube as a Syrian intelligence source, and more.

China’s Internet users on Thursday were restricted from accessing foreign websites for about an hour, setting off speculation that the nation was instituting — or at least testing — a new online censorship technique.

According to The Wall Street Journal:

At around 11 a.m. local time Thursday, China’s Internet suddenly began behaving very strangely … …

“There has been a fundamental shift in the relationship between the producers and consumers of content,” said Hanna Kang, brand manager at Marvell, “creating a dynamic, two-way experience … . The same forces that are revolutionizing today’s television experience will transform numerous vertical applications for small businesses and large enterprises, enhancing the way we all work, connect with each other and collaborate globally.”

The tumultuous convergence of entertainment devices, greater interaction with the television-viewing experience, and increased involvement of social networks were all in the …

The Boston Wine Festival at the Boston Harbor Hotel featured the Wagner Family of Wines this past week. A seminar with six Caymus Special Selection Cabernet Sauvignons from 1990-2009 proceeded a paired dinner featuring other Wagner Family wines.

Representing the winery was Joseph Wagner, son of Chuck Wagner of Caymus fame. Along with his three siblings, Joe represents the next generation of Wagner winemakers and is responsible for the current direction of their Pinot Noirs (Belle Glos and Meiomi) and the future direction of their red …

I spent half a day tasting in Sonoma last week and I’ve got a lot of thoughts to share. I’ve visited Napa a dozen times, but this was just my third time tasting in Sonoma. A mistake I made the first time I visited – and maybe others have too – is expecting Sonoma to be a more affordable but otherwise just as good place to taste Cabernet Sauvignon. Sonoma is a cooler climate than Napa and a therefore a better place to taste Pinot …

I had mixed emotions as I was driving to a blind tasting of 2009 Pinot Noir this past weekend. When Wine Zag blogger Adam Japko announced the tasting I was thrilled because I’ve been enjoying so many 2009 California Pinot Noirs lately. But as the night was upon us I looked at it differently than other tastings I’d been to.

Would I be able to pick my favorites out of the line-up? Would I be able to differentiate California from Oregon and elsewhere? Would my favorite …

Baltimore Diner opens tomorrow.

You will be able to jump on the blog from several places on the Baltimore Sun website., but your best bet is the main Dining page.

[I'll add a direct link as soon as it's up tomorrow.]

I think of Baltimore Diner as:

1) Diner, a place; the blog itself, a place where …