Archives by Date: March 2005
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March 31, 2005
MTA Now Uses Address Verification for Credit Cards?
Hardly the most exciting story of the day, but as I was coming home from work today, I needed to refill my metrocard -- something I've done dozens of times. But this time the machine asked me to enter my billing zip code on the keypad.
As a merchant that accepts credit cards myself, I know all about AVS (the Address Verification System). You can send the system the billing zip code and the first part of the billing street address when processing the transaction, and use the results to help you determine if it's fraudulent.
Has the MTA had problems with people using stolen credit cards at Metrocard machines? Gas stations are notorious for being one of the places credit card theives see if a card is still active.
How will this affect the already-long lines at Metrocard machines during rush hour? Certainly I'm not the only one that was surprised by this.
It's also possible that this was some sort of fluke or test.
Posted in on March 31, 2005, 07:00 PM | Comments (2) | Permalink
AOL Instant Messenger Down Systemwide?
So, it seems like the entire AOL Instant Messenger system is down. At least... I can't get on it, and neither can a bunch of other people.
Like so many, I'm addicted to this free service that I've never paid a dime for.
How long will the outage last?
Posted in on March 31, 2005, 12:34 AM | Comments (1) | Permalink
March 29, 2005
NYC2012 Signs on Subway Cars: A Good Use of Funding?
It's been all over the news: New York's world-renowned 100-year-old subway system is having major problems.
The system is expensive to maintain, and money is scarce. So, can't New York City find a better way to spend available money then putting NYC2012 decals on the side of almost every subway car?
Just a few weeks ago, the IOC bid committee came to evaluate New York. According to Newsday: "Approximately $1 million in privately raised funds and another $2 million in donated goods and services will be spent during the 4 1/2 days following the scouts' arrival Sunday night. Signs boosting NYC2012's bid will be on 13,000 taxicabs, 4,000 subway cars and 7,000 buses, on banners hanging from lamp posts and in newspaper ads and television commercials."
I can think of a much better use for $3 million dollars. I doubt that $3 million worth of poorly placed advertisements all over the city influenced the IOC one way or another. After all, at their only press conference, they said the proposed West Side Stadium was a critical issue yet to be resolved. Oh, yeah, the city and state want to contribute $600 million to that thing.
I guess the subway doesn't really matter.
Posted in on March 29, 2005, 12:44 AM | Comments (1) | Permalink
March 27, 2005
An Excellent and Awful Restaurant
To those that live or frequent New York: Sandobe is an excellent sushi restaurant, and Otto is an awful restaurant with awful service.
Otto
Let's get this awful experience out of the way. I made the mistake of having lunch yesterday at Otto. The coolest thing about this place is the fact their address is 1 Fifth Avenue. After that, it's all down hill.
A friend and I arrived to a relatively empty house and were promptly seated in the back. A minute later, bread and water arrived. Yet our waiter took fifteen minutes to take our orders. I had to get up and try and ask someone to track him down for us. After convincing him to take our orders, he wasn't seen again until the end of the meal, when I had to once again flag him down to ask for our check. What's worse is that our waiter was helping tables immediately surrounding us in the relatively empty house, but apparently chose to ignore us.
So, if you like having your orders taken when you dine, stay away from Otto.
Sandobe
Sandobe is incredible. This East Village sushi restaurant has delicious food and an incredible value. Unlike most Sushi restaurants, a filling dinner for two came to $16! The house special rolls range in price from four to six dollars and have what I'd estimate to be four or five usual pieces of Sushi.
If you're a fan of sushi, you have to check out Sandobe.
· Sandobe [Menupages.com]
· Otto [CitySearch]
Posted in on March 27, 2005, 03:15 PM | Comments (0) | Permalink
March 25, 2005
Photoblogging
On Wednesday night I attended the New York City Photobloggers 3 in SOHO's Apple Store. I'm really glad I went. Besides seeing some amazing photography, I've (hopefully) become inspired to try and take more pictures!
I don't use my digital camera nearly enough. I plan to start carrying it around in my bag and just snapping some pictures. We'll see how that works out.
· New York City Photobloggers 3
· NYC Photobloggers Recap [Zach Klein]
Posted in on March 25, 2005, 06:56 PM | Comments (0) | Permalink
March 24, 2005
Good Overview of NHL Disaster
While going through this week's newspapers, I enjoyed reading a good overview of the NHL's mess in Monday's USA Today.
I rarely try to hide my ignorance regarding professional sports, but have always been interested in the business behind them. How can they justify paying tens of millions of dollars to these professional athletes?
Well, apparently, the NHL can't. In the 2002-2003 season, player costs took up 75% of the NHL's revenue, compared with the 55% to 62% other leagues spend.
Posted in on March 24, 2005, 10:41 PM | Comments (0) | Permalink
March 22, 2005
Cheap Airfare from New York Area Airports
I always admire people that can blog on a daily basis. They have time and dedication that I don't.
But I really admire people that blog on a daily basis and could save me loads of money. The New York Airfare Report is one of these blogs.
Here's the deal: Every day, airlines lower a few, or a few hundred, fares to amazingly low levels. No one knows why. The airlines won't talk about it, and they don't advertise them. Fares like JFK to Venice, Italy for $138 RT....in August. Or New York to Honolulu to for $298 RT. Or Newark to LA for $88 RT. These aren't typos...they're real examples of recent "hidden" fare sales.
It doesn't seem like he even makes much (if any) money from this.
If you live in the New York area, this is worth checking out.
· Keep Those Bags Packed [Gridskipper] (through Aaron)
Posted in on March 22, 2005, 07:44 PM | Comments (0) | Permalink
March 20, 2005
Congress Oversteps Bounds in Schiavo Case
As I was at SXSW for the past week, I've regrettably been out of the news cycle -- something that doesn't happen very often. But if what I've read concerning the Schiavo case is correct, I'm (once again) pissed off at our government.
Here's how I see things: once again, politicians are sticking their nose where it doesn't belong. I actually found it amusing when I learned Congress subpoenaed Terri Schiavo, a woman that hasn't communicated in over a decade. As the New York Times said:
Subpoenas are designed to obtain testimony and evidence for a court case or a Congressional hearing. But the subpoenas issued by a committee of the House of Representatives required Ms. Schiavo's doctors to maintain what they said was a key piece of evidence - the medical equipment keeping her alive - "in its current and continuing state of operations."
It is true that subpoenas occasionally call for recipients to preserve relevant evidence. But that evidence is not usually a human life.
Similar subpoenas were issued to Ms. Schiavo's husband and to a hospice administrator. Another subpoena, to Ms. Schiavo, sought only her testimony.
Also yesterday, a Senate committee invited Ms. Schiavo and her husband to appear before it, noting pointedly that it is a federal crime to harm a person called to testify before Congress.
Talk about a gross abuse of Congressional power. But what's more absurd is the fact that they've convened Congress for an emergency session (these things usuaulyl only happen when a war breaks out) to interfere with something that, frankly, is none of their business. As the New York Times said in their editorial:
"Congress's rash assumption of judicial power and trampling on established state and federal constitutional precedents in 'right to die' cases is nothing short of breathtaking."
In case you haven't been following the case, here are some posts that will prove much more informative than this rant:
· Latest Headlines on Schiavo Case [Google News]
· Josh Marshall's Talking Points Memo [TalkingPointsMemo.com]
· Congress Steps In on Schiavo Case [Washington Post]
· Despite Congress, Woman's Feeding Tube Is Removed [New York Times]
· News Analysis: The Medical Becomes Political for Congress [New York Times]
· Special Coverage: Terri Schiavo Case - good legal background [FindLaw]
Posted in on March 20, 2005, 05:21 PM | Comments (0) | Permalink
Google Sets
So, I really don't intend for this to become a Google blog... there are other places to do that. But I came across Google Sets and continue to be impressed.
Apparently this has been in the Google labs for several years. Basically, you put in some words and Google tries to determine other items in the set. Things like colors are pretty easy, but things like ways to prepare food impress me.
You go, Google.
Posted in on March 20, 2005, 04:35 PM | Comments (0) | Permalink
March 16, 2005
G00GL3 1$ HAX0R3D?!?!
Google is a really cool company. I wrote about them earlier after reading a seemingly-candid article in GQ, but had never actually met an employee of Google in real life until the Blogger party at South by Southwest this week.
They were all great and I somehow came out of it loving Google more than I already do.
Today I found a link to Google H4x0r. Google has their sites in many different languages... French, Spanish, and apparently: Hacker.
The fact that Google can make fun of themselves like this only makes them cooler.
Posted in on March 16, 2005, 09:48 PM | Comments (0) | Permalink
March 15, 2005
PR Company Discusses Blogging. Hilarity Ensues.
I'm sitting here in the Blogging vs. Journalism Psuedo-Panel. I call it a psuedo-panel because it is on the "day stage" within the exhibit hall, not in the panel rooms restricted to conference attendees.
It's being put on by PR powerhouse Porter Novelli. The moderator is Jason Teitler, Partner of Interactive Marketing -- whatever that means.
Now, as PR people, it's understandable that they seem to have issued a press release announcing this panel. It's certainly important for PR types to understand blogging. After all:
"This topic has considerable business and marketing implications, as companies will need to learn how to adapt to this changing environment to succeed."
But they're doing a horrible job with it. First off, when the moderator opened the panel, he read from what seemed like several pages of prepared remarks. Bo-ring. In every other panel I've been to, the moderator has opened conversationally... maybe using some talking points, but not prepared notes.
This panel is scheduled to go on for another hour, but if we keep getting interrupted by the overhead voice announcing the latest and greatest in the exhibit hall, who knows what will happen.
Give me a break. Clearly, PR agencies still have a lot to learn.
(Technorati tag: sxsw)
Posted in on March 15, 2005, 01:56 PM | Comments (0) | Permalink
March 14, 2005
Live from South by Southwest Interactive
I'm currently sitting in Humor on the Web at SXSW in beautiful Austin, Texas. While this panel isn't shaping to be one of my favorites, I'm having a great time and meeting some great people.
A little later Gawker's own Ana Marie Cox (A.K.A. Wonkette) is speaking at the keynote. I've never met or seen her in real life, so that should be interesting.
Hopefully later this week I'll have some time to get my newly minted blog in shape. I suppose that means I'll have to start writing insightful things, too.
Posted in on March 14, 2005, 12:51 PM | Comments (0) | Permalink
March 09, 2005
How Long Is An "Outage"?
As I've mentioned, I have a T-Mobile Color Sidekick. While I've had it for over a year, I've just recently got in the hang of how to use it properly and am loving it.
Imagine my displeasure when I found it stopped connecting to its network late Sunday. I assumed it was something I had broken, until I received this text message this morning:
Free T-Mobile Msg: We apologize for the service interruption. Voice calls and text messages are still functional. We're working urgently to restore full service
What a useless text message. I don't use my Sidekick as a phone, I think it looks stupid and I already have a contract with Verizon. Plus, the Sidekick is a tad bulky to bring out.
Apparently the outage was supposed to end today, but that isn't the case for me.
When something stops working for three days, it isn't an outage anymore. It's a failure. And I'm certainly not the only one that feels that way.
Posted in on March 09, 2005, 03:59 PM | Comments (0) | Permalink
March 06, 2005
I'm a Chronic Yak Shaver
Okay, I admit it. I'm a chronic yak shaver.
You're probably a chronic yak shaver too. Here's how Seth Godin describes it:
Yak Shaving is the last step of a series of steps that occurs when you find something you need to do. "I want to wax the car today."
"Oops, the hose is still broken from the winter. I'll need to buy a new one at Home Depot."
"But Home Depot is on the other side of the Tappan Zee bridge and getting there without my EZPass is miserable because of the tolls."
"But, wait! I could borrow my neighbor's EZPass..."
"Bob won't lend me his EZPass until I return the mooshi pillow my son borrowed, though."
"And we haven't returned it because some of the stuffing fell out and we need to get some yak hair to restuff it."
And the next thing you know, you're at the zoo, shaving a yak, all so you can wax your car.
In fact, I've convinced myself that by writing this post I'll be able to close the window that had Seth's blog open and let me focus on my real task at hand. So much for that.
Posted in on March 06, 2005, 10:19 PM | Comments (1) | Permalink
Product Displacement
Yesterday I had the pleasure of seeing Be Cool. Overall, I thought it was a great movie. But the product placement was unbearable!
I have a T-Mobile Sidekick. I've had one for several years, and like it. Apparently in Be Cool land, everyone who's anyone uses a Sidekick. And those who don't use prominetly-branded T-Mobile mobile phones. The worst part was when the camera panned over one of the character's sidekicks, causing it to fill the entire movie screen.
All this after watching four or five advertisements before the movie even started. And I don't recall the Manhattan movie ticket prices going down recently.
Give me a break! I understand product placement can make producers good money, but don't beat us over the head with it.
Posted in on March 06, 2005, 02:03 PM | Comments (0) | Permalink
