Maura Welch on Social Media

Interactive wine bars

Springwise reports on an upscale wine bar that takes advantage of three hot trends - ubiquitous computing, wine and infolust. Located at the chichi St. Regis Hotel in New York, the Adour has a 4-seat wine bar that goes way beyond cork and zinc. "Computer menus are projected from the ceiling onto the bar, and patrons make their choices by pressing on the bar's surface." Select a wine and "a rosette-shaped image is projected with information about the wine on each of its five petals, including details about the producer and the grapes."

I've gotten into wine over the last few years. And there is an unending lust for info and nuance with each glass. Every time you think you know something, there is more to know. I'm sure quite a few over privileged infolusters will lay out their devalued dollars to try it.

Speaking of wine, my friend Angela Natividad just launched a new wine blog, Soleil en Verre, giving us even more wine info to lust over.

Web Innovators Group

I'm going to tonight's meeting of the Web Innovator's Group. If you're going to be there, let me know and we can say hello.

Vending machine 3.0

Last week I covered Vending machines 2.0. And this week we have an entry for another vending machine that's pretty far from the typical stale Snickers and Cheetos variety. Although they could consider a snack food add-on for this one to address any munchies that follow from your purchase...

Hello

For the past 2 years or so I've written the Business Filter for the Boston Globe and Boston.com, a daily blog and weekly column on tech, business and innovation.

At the end of this month, the Business Filter is closing for business. It was a good run.

When I started back in the summer of 2005, blogging was taking off and Technorati was tracking about 14.2 million blogs. People wondered if it was just a passing fad. But by April of 2007 Technorati was tracking 70 million blogs.

Blogs and social media are the new normal. As I blog this on my laptop, I'm sitting on my couch watching The Daily Show off my DVR and my son is on the other couch messaging with a group of friends on Facebook. 'Nuf said.

Thanks to "Da Filtah" I'm used to blogging on a regular basis. And some of you have become used to checking out my blog. So here we are. Thanks for stopping by.

Leave me a comment and let me know you're here. The Globe won't allow comments on their blogs. (And believe me, I - and some of you - lobbied hard for it.) But here I get to hear back from you and complete the circle.

After all, that's what blogs are all about.