Digital television is great. With DTV, we get a vibrant, crystal-clear picture, transmitted in a format that can be easily captured and manipulated by computers and recorded without any loss of quality. We also get more channels in the same RF spectrum, which means more free, over-the-air content. That is, we get all that if… Read More: The saga of too-stubborn-to-pay-for-cable guy »
(I just sent this letter to Matt Fleury, the president and CEO of the Connecticut Science Center.) Mr. Fleury, On Friday, August 21, my family and I were “stranded” in Hartford for the weekend. We are observant Jews, and therefore riding in cars is forbidden to us during the Sabbath, from Friday evening through Saturday… Read More: Welcome to the Connecticut Science Center. Now go away! »
August 27, 2009 [name elided] Hotel Manager Hartford Marriott Downtown Dear Mr. [name elided], I am writing to compliment your hotel and its staff for a wonderful recent stay by my family.
At 11:00pm last night, my cell phone rang, and “Unknown number” (i.e., no caller ID) showed on the screen. I answered it, and whoever was on the other end hung up without saying anything. A minute later, the same call came in, and again, when I answered it the other party hung up. I figured… Read More: If you’re going to call someone at 11:40pm, get the… »
From “MBTA announces latest arrival: Google mapping tool for riders“: But not everyone at yesterday’s news conference was trumpeting the partnership. Jonathan Kamens, 39, of Brighton said Google Maps’s public transit routes are faulty because they rely on schedules provided by the MBTA, which are sometimes wrong. Kamens, a software engineer, said his complaints to… Read More: Brief mention in the Boston Globe »
As planned, I went to South Station about a half hour before the press conference scheduled to announce that Boston (finally!) had been added to Google Transit. Upon arrival, I started talking to reporters and handing out flyers. I was quickly confronted by Daniel Dombak, a Marketing Director for Equity Office (which manages South Station),… Read More: MBTA Transit Police threaten to arrest me for distributing flyers… »
MBTA route information has just become available in Google Maps (both Web-based and Google Maps Mobile). Google and the MBTA are planning on formally debuting it at a press conference at South Station in an hour or so. I checked, and the data that the MBTA gave to Google has the same errors I’ve been… Read More: MBTA routes are now in Google Maps, but they’re still… »
Last year, when I complained in writing to the T about receiving no response to the email messages I’d sent through their “Write to the Top” program, I received a response from Kevin McGuire telling me that if I continued to have this problem, I should contact James Monahan at a specific email address or… Read More: MBTA customer service continues to excel (not!) »
I found a decent tool to solve the video conversion problem I’ve wasted days on which I complained about yesterday. What’s amusing is that the way I found it through a Google AdSense ad that appeared alongside my complaint :-). AVS Video Converter will convert from just about any format to just about any other… Read More: AVS Video Converter to the rescue »
I’ve got a video in WMV format that was recorded from a GoToMeeting session that I hosted. I want to chop a little off the front and a little off the end and otherwise leave the video unchanged. I don’t want to change the format, the resolution, the compression, or anything — I just want… Read More: Why is it so friggin’ hard to make trivial changes… »