Archive for the ‘Nerd Stuff’ Category

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How to Save $200 on your (Time Warner) Cable Bill

Posted by Greg T. on July 12th, 2009 in Nerd Stuff, New York

On recent Time Warner Cable bill I noticed that our internet service had gone from $29.95 to $44.95. That’s a 50% increase. That’s a lot. So I called up Time Warner, guns blazing, ready for a prickly yet all too oft’ exchange with their customer service department.

The customer service rep told me that our introductory high speed internet deal of $29.95 per month had expired and that our bill had gone up to their standard rate. I explained to her that the increase made me unhappy…because it did. She said that she could downgrade us to a $29.95 package, but it would be slower – something like 512kbps up/1.5mbps down. Considering that the internetz is like my lifeline, I wasn’t about to settle for budget internet. I dropped the V-word, then the D-word…and then the S-word. Verizon…DSL…Switch. She says, “ok, hold on sec, I need to transfer you to a different department.”

time-warner

After a 5 minute wait on hold, someone picks up: “This is Alicia in retention, can I have your account number?” Success. Alicia says very bluntly and without a fight, “I can give you your introductory deal price of $29.95 a month for 13 months, effective next billing cycle.”

“Sounds good, sign me up!”

So, if you want to save a some scrilla on your cable bill, all you have to do is ask. =)

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An NYC Taxi Cop Car

Posted by Greg T. on February 11th, 2009 in Nerd Stuff, New York, Videos

I was walking home from work, crossing 3rd Ave. at St. Marks and saw something strange. An NYC Taxi had pulled someone over. I’ve become numb to sirens, flashing lights, loud noises or other city static but there was something odd about this situation. There were several guys in between the two cars, but none of them appeared to be cops. Had this taxi driver modded his cab to give people who cut him off a scare? I went into a Starbucks to get a closer look. The guys were actually under cover cops…like in the movies. They were dressed in street clothes but had their badges on a chain around their neck (visible in the video). They gave the guy a ticket and that was that. You can see them drive off in the video, note the lack of Taxi ID/Duty light on the roof.

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Gizmodo Gallery / iPhone Will It Blend?

Posted by Greg T. on December 6th, 2008 in Nerd Stuff, New York, Videos

Gizmodo has a exhibit/hangout set up in some gallery space in the Lower East Side showcasing awesome gadgets and technology, both old and new. Some of the highlights include a 103 inch Panasonic plasma TV (I had the chance to see it at CES, PMA and NAB in Vegas this past year), a working time machine and beer.

However, the highlight of our visit was a live, probably unsactioned, iPhone “Will it Blend” demonstration.  The phone, limonata and bananas blended just fine, until something in the phone violently exploded and misted everyone with iphone flavored smoothie.  That was the end of that. 

I was mildly worried about whatever we were misted with, after having chemically burned my face in an o-chem lab accident many years ago. Greenpeace says that the phone contains some environmentally harmful stuff, but nothing about the immediate harzards of skin contact or inhalation (of the phone). Maybe the iPhone needs a MSDS.

Here’s the video:

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Dyno at the auto show

Posted by Greg T. on March 25th, 2008 in Nerd Stuff, New York, Videos

One of the cool things at the auto show was a dynamometer demo sponsored by Lexus. They had a tuned IS330 on the dyno and were lettting people sit in as passengers while one of the techs did a dyno run. Pretty awesome, as I’ve never seen a dyno in person, and the Lexus sounded pretty nice, but you couldn’t see any of the dyno readings. It would have been a bit more engaging to see a huge display with torque and horsepower. My joke at the time was: “Talk about going nowhere…fast.” Har har har.

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Maybe I’ll switch to Motionbox

Posted by Greg T. on March 17th, 2008 in Nerd Stuff, Videos, Work

We rolled out our new HD video player at work. It’s beta, a bit buggy, but still pretty exciting. The newest version of flash allows for streaming of h.264 content inside of flash objects which means no more FLVs and crappy encoding. Here’s a demo with some BBC HD content. You might have to wait a sec to allow the video to buffer. Also, the newest version of Flash is required. If this seems like a viable way to host videos…Vimeo’s going out, Motionbox is in.

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Ajaxy comments

Posted by Greg T. on February 21st, 2008 in Food, Nerd Stuff

blood orange

Here’s a blood orange I ate.

I was able to get ajaxy commenting working it its most primitive state. Still need to do some clean up of styles and fix navigation. 2:30am on a school night? Uh oh.

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New Year, New Blog

Posted by Greg T. on February 20th, 2008 in Nerd Stuff, New York, Videos

I’ve undertaken the task of overhauling the blog. You’ll notice a slightly different look, but with completely different guts. Tomorrow night’s task is ajaxy window blinds in-page commenting.

A little while back it was Chinese New Year(s?). Chinatown fills up to the brim with confetti. At first I thought there was a some sort of parade, but soon found out that the confetti was from these awesome party poppers, see below.

They ranged from $5 to $10, and were between 1 foot and 3 feet in length. Some had parachutes with good fortune messages where a toy soldier should be. I apparently twisted mine the wrong way and almost took my pink off with the explosive charge.

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