June 2011
2 posts
March 2011
3 posts
January 2011
2 posts
Verizon Dry Loop update.
I have successfully transferred over from a roughly $40 phone bill to a $9.99/month plan.
I never even had to talk to Verizon, by Jan. 6th my number was succesfully transferred and I still have my old number.
Call quality is excellent, no one knows it’s VOIP.
Now, I didn’t get away scot free. Blasted Verizon is no dummy and saw my dry loop maneuvers coming and decided to raise my...
December 2010
1 post
Dry Loopin' DSL and switching to Vonage.
I’m feeling gutsy with the new year approaching and have decided to attempt a covert operation on Verizon.
I’ve been a slave to mama bell since forever, shelling out about $40 a month for a landline (my friends laugh when they learn I still have one, some call it out of novelty). I also give them about $35 for DSL.
I always thought my home phone was a monkey I couldn’t shed...
June 2010
5 posts
Google Voice Leaves Beta, Now Open to Everyone
I’ve been using this service for well over a year now and I LOVE IT.
It just recently went “live” and you can now sign up without any invite required. Go and claim your new local number!
There was a real shortage of LOCAL ERIE area numbers in the past but no longer… there is a bevy of 314 numbers available that are a local dial for most Erie County residents.
I used to...
Warning: GoErie.com is also with the h4x0rz...
Jeeesh. I’m not even surfing the web that much today and Chrome is again trying to save my skin (thanks Google!).
This time it’s GoErie and their obituaries. That is the only portion of the site showing any ill effects.
This is an illustration of what can happen when you “farm out” parts of your site. The obituaries for GoErie are actually powered by Legacy.com...
Warning: GlobalErie.com is the h4x0rz...
Lookin’ like GlobalErie.com might need to check their comments and other commonly injected areas for some nastybits.
Report from Google Safe Browsing doesn’t sound too awful, and it’s definitely not intentional. Some less than decent folks are injecting potentially bad scripts into GlobalErie without their consent.
Need a website for your business that doesn’t suck?...
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Local Review: Uptown Browns for Pizza
Girlfriend and I tried out Uptown Brown’s tonight after she read the great review on GoErie.com by Andrew Kochirka.
Lived up to his description, we had a great meal. Andrew was also spot on in my opinion on Mama Mia’s Pizza on Peach too.
We got both the chicken bacon ranch and the philly style pizza’s, both were great. Service was good, one of the owners stopped over and...
Have FirstEnergy electric? Get some free stuff!! →
If you participate in the Home Energy Analyzer over at First Energy’s website they will send you a “Energy Conservation Kit”.
I didn’t even realize that you got bonus gifts and did the survey last month just on a whim… When I returned home from a business trip I found a box on my porch about the size of a beagle.
Inside were 2 (two!) power strips which feature...
May 2010
1 post
Where to learn about the politicians...?
So I would like to vote tomorrow but have little to no opinion on these PA candidates. Anyone recommend a good unbiased site to easily digest each candidates platform? I tried factcheck.org but after two seconds of looking didn’t find what I wanted. Any strong opinions out there?
April 2010
1 post
YourErie.com fixes their menu system!
ZOMG.
YourErie doesn’t explode all over my Chrome browser anymore. Still a clunky relic of 2002 but it works a little better now!
March 2010
5 posts
Desktop organization succeed →
Awesome.
Millcreek Township Website is Down
Ruh-oh… someone wanna tell Millcreek that the site is down?
I can only hope it’s down for good cause, like a redesign.. current site kinda blows chunks.
BTW, still have gotten ZERO response on my question about Google Fiber from both the City of Erie or any Millcreek supervisor. Way to be responsive to your citizens!
Google Fiber for Erie: Day Three, no gov't...
Not much to say. Day three since sending off e-mails to local gov’ts with no response.
Google Fiber for Erie: Day Two, no gov't response.
Well it’s been a little more than 24 hours since I dropped an e-mail off to the City of Erie via their website, Erie Regional Chamber, and e-mails to every Millcreek Supervisor.
Local Gov’t: 0
Erie Regional Chamber: 1
Kudos to the Erie Regional Chamber who responded within minutes and informed me that they’ve done their part and submitted a response as an...
Fiber Race: 'Topeka to be Google, Kansas' →
We aren’t doing enough obviously….
I’ve written to the Mayor’s Office and Millcreek Township supervisors to see if any action has been taken at the local government level to submit an application. We’ll see how long it might take to get a response (if any).
If you haven’t done your part yet please fill out the residents portion available here.
Update 1: Erie...
February 2010
7 posts
SharePoint Task Lists and Visio Integration →
Much like JohnR whose blog I’ve linked to I had no idea that Sharepoint had such kickass integration into Visio for their built in Task list.
With literally 3 clicks you get beautifully visualized information about your workflows and tasks assigned. How did I not notice this earlier?!
5 tags
Office 2007 MIME type fail.
IIS6 doens’t know what to do with Office 2007 documents until you inform it of the proper MIME types… that’s fine, understandable.
It gets interesting though if you fat finger your copy and pastes and tell it that docx == powerpoint!
Given that under the hood all these files are XML it will go ahead and start rendering all your hosted .docx files as PowerPoint presentations,...
E.P.S.F.A. 2010 Tackle Swap & Meet
This looks like it could be fun. Especially the used tackle…! I also have had a desire to learn more about S.O.N.S., looks like $5 for a year membership.
I’m always a sucker for cheap lures… you should see me at wal-mart when the stuff hits the clearance isle, I’m like gollum as I seek the good stuff in the racks… “my precious…powerbait…”
...
Google Fiber for Communities: Get involved →
Google wants to get into the broadband game, offering “high speed fiber” (1-gigabit per second!) at competitive prices.
Erie should get on this, talk about high tech! A joint venture with google would be fantaboulous!
Use the link above to nominate Erie (done!) and maybe some other bigger blogs will see this post and also work to spread the word!
If you look at this article and...
YourErie.com stability problems?
Anyone else have intermittent problems with YourErie.com?
Sikuli: Visual Scripting IDE for Automating Tasks →
This is a mindblowing tool out of MIT for “visual scripting”.
You can mash code with “screenshots” of buttons, text areas, etc. where you want the actions to happen. It’s written in Jython (like Python but java-ier) so it understands anything you could throw at Python too. I don’t know any Python but could still figure this thing out.
Mainly something...
Hubble Detects Mysterious Spaceship-Shaped Object... →
Whoa. Pretty damn exciting!
January 2010
22 posts
Wegmans Ranks #1 on Greenpeace Supermarket Score →
I <heart> wegmans.
I do believe I will shrivel up and die if I have to move to a region in which no wegmas exists.
Handheld Cellphone Bans Don't Reduce Car Crashes... →
Interesting article on measured impact of cell phone bans (read:no impact at all).
One line from the article struck me as rather poignant here in Erie: it may force other local governments to look a little more broadly at what’s behind all those collisions.
Month-to-month fluctuations in rates of collision claims in jurisdictions with bans didn’t change from before to after the laws...
Erie Fine Dining, is it a deal?
I’ve thought about getting one of these Erie Fine Dining cards for years… Anyone have any feedback, good or bad on them?
Seem like a pretty good deal. Pay $50, get the card and you can use it twice at each of the 25 restaurants for “buy one get one dinners”. Given that it’s January now is the time to really get the best bang for the buck!
I’m kinda shocked...
Flight Diverted to Philadelphia Over Security... →
We are truly a panicked nation…
Photo by PlayfulLibrarian
Making YourErie.com readable in Google Chrome: Two...
I’ve already expressed my love of Google Chrome on this site before but it’s not without issues. Some are the fault of Google but a lot are just sites that aren’t up to standard.
I was going to post a rant about how YourErie.com needs to get with the times, support standards, blah blah blah. You see, YourErie.com renders like a pile of poo in Google Chrome. I’m not sure...
Check for PA Vanity Plates on PennDOT website now! →
Pennsylvania is now offering an online form to check to see if your favorite potential vanity plate is taken!
Cool stuff. I like vanity plates. I’ve had them for years but never felt good about mailing in my 3 top picks not knowing which one I might get. At least now you can check first!
Another fun site to kill some time at, papl8s.com (PA Plates).
SharePoint Blunders: Workflow History and Tasks... →
Yargh. I am totally caught in a pickle at work because of this issue. I understand why this works the way it does and that it’s not a design flaw but a necessary evil on Microsoft’s side..but damn…
WSS and MOSS both purge the association between tasks and documents that were assigned during a workflow every 60 days. The tasks are still there (somewhere) but don’t show...
13 Excellent Chrome Extensions - Lifehacker →
Lifehacker put out a list of nice Chrome add-ons.
One I installed immediately was IE Tab.
This is a tool was something I used all the time in Firefox. If I hit a page that only likes IE (say something on the ol’ corporate network) I can quickly open IE “inside” of Chrome.
Note that you need the Beta edition of Google Chrome to use these extensions.
3 tags
Erie City Cell Phone Ban Issues and Complaints
Here are a myriad of issues I can see with the new ordinance passed by the City of Erie. I’ll add more as I think of them as comments below. Feel free to add your thoughts one way or the other!
Let me say that I am not against banning the use of cell phones when driving. This does make sense. However, I do feel that the City of Erie would be best to simply leave this type of law to the...
6 tags
The fantastic chicken wing -- Alton Brown Style...
Damn I love wings. My girlfriend and I are often out and about to different bars, taverns, holes in the walls, resturants, wherever, to try some new wings.
I have hopes of making my own, bad ass wings maybe for the super bowl. Spent some time today reviewing some data, mainly from my beloved alton brown.
Here’s what I’ve learned. I’m puttin’ this down on paper for...
4 tags
SQL Server 2008: Reporting →
Had a co-worker friend at work demo SQL 2008 Report Builder yesterday.
Click once app, automatically “friendly names” all your tables and columns, let’s end users load up reports and customize them like Access, let’s end users save their tweaked reports back out to Sharepoint to share.. I could go on… It comes with wizards to generate graphs, tables, KPI’s,...
Why did it take me so long to eat out at Big... →
We ate at Big Moe’s during the great snowstorm of 09-10 last week out in Edinboro and let me tell you, it’s fantastic.
I’m upset it took me so long to get over there to eat!
They offer very eclectic meal options with what I’d call a mix of greek fare and typical pub foods with some minor polish/italian/mexican thrown in. You could get babaganoush or a burger or a...
5 tags
I'm glad we saved some money, but will it explode?
I needed a new battery for my laptop… Client support was cool enough to get me one the same day.
The old battery was Dell OEM, produced in Japan, and UL certified.
The new battery is not OEM, produced in China, and has no UL certification what-so-ever. WTF?!
Is my crotch going to catch on fire in the near future with this non-UL battery?
I’m sure it shaved a few pennies of the...
Google Chrome > Mozilla Firefox
Taking a look at my filesystem reveals that I haven’t even run Firefox since 8/4/2009. I used to love Firefox.
Now, I am in love with Chrome and don’t miss Firefox at all. I instinctively type searches into the address bar of all browsers now and have expectations of it performing google searches :-) It took a while to get used to the GUI but now it’s a non-issue.
Firefox...
Committee agrees on compromise for table games |... →
I am really excited to see table games hit PA…
This will be quickly tempered once they are here and all the table games have $15-20 minimums… Unlike Vegas there ain’t much in the way of gamblin’ competition directly in the Erie area.
Ahhhh…vegas and your $3 craps tables, how I miss thee.
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The 'Israelification' of airports: High security,... →
This article makes a some good points. Worth the read to see the comparison of security tactics being used.
The thought that our TSA is a sham is not lost on me. I walked on to a flight at some point last year with a frickin’ 6 inch knife in my backpack on accident. This same bag went through TSA x-ray machines without incident.. it was even mostly empty because my laptop was removed to...
3 tags
Google Trends for Websites: myspace.com →
I really need to delete my myspace account. I haven’t logged into it in probably 10 months.
From the looks of this Google Trends diagram I think their time is over. Not only that but Murdoch overpaid by $580 million!
4 tags
Parking is hard...
I work with extraordinarily bright people; I’m talking aerospace engineers, chemists, and the like… but give them a parking lot without visible lines on the ground and they will park like retards. This is compounded by the fact that they park here 5 days a week, some even park twice a day if they go out for lunch.