25,000!

I have officially surpassed the 25,000 visitor mark.  Mazel Tov.

Switching to Cavalier DSL

For about a year and a half, I had been using Verizon’s DSL service, along with Verizon local phone service. With this plan, I was paying approximately $34.95 per month for local and regional phone service (we use cell phones for long distance), along with several calling features. Additionally, I was paying $14.95 per month for my DSL (for the first year; it was $17.95/month thereafter), which gave me maximum speeds of 768k down/128k up. While this was admittedly slow, it was really all we needed.

In the last several months, we were considering upgrading our Internet speeds. One suggestion we got was to go with VOIP. The problem, however, was that we heard too many negatives about VOIP to be able to strongly consider it. The usual complaint with VOIP was the frequent internet downtimes and subsequent phone downtimes.

I then heard an ad on the radio for Cavalier Telephone. They promised speeds up to 10mbps for the low price of $25 per month. That was more than what I was paying, so I was reluctant to do anything about it. But then I noticed that their local calling plans were a full $10 less than Verizon, at only $25 per month. That meant that if I switched to Cavalier, I’d pay the exact same amount (before taxes), but get much faster Internet service.

The problem was that we were told that we were a full 17,900 feet away from the Central Office (CO). Cavalier told me that the maximum distance they provide DSL service to is 18,000 feet. Because I was so far away, they said that I probably wouldn’t get speeds of faster than 1mbps. However, they did tell me that they use Verizon’s phone lines to provide DSL service. After speaking with Verizon, they told me that they could guarantee up up to 3mbps.

At this point, I figured I had nothing to lose. Worse comes to worse, I’d have the same speeds as before, and I’d be paying the same prices. So I made the switch.

My service with Cavalier began exactly 8 days later, and after only a minor glitch, which they corrected over the phone, I was online. At a solid 3.4 mbps. Sweet. While that was pretty much the highest speed I attained, I do check my speeds every once in a while, and I average between 1.9 and 2.3mpbs down, and 400k up. As you can see, this is a tremendous difference. I have not experienced any down times since I began service (right before Pesach), and when I watch video’s on YouTube, they actually load to completion without me having to wait for the videos to buffer constantly. I’ve been very happy.

I did, however, have some problems with my phone service, but that will be in my next post, as this one is getting long.

Occupational Therapy blog

I decided to use my new domain (which I got for free, plus free hosting) to start a new blog on occupational therapy.  As of now, there are very few blogs at all that deal with occupational therapy, and as far as I know, none that deal with issues that OT students or new graduates may have.  So hopefully this will develop into a helpful resource for others who are in a similar situation to mine.

You can check it out at aishel.net

Dry-Cleaned USB Drive

Over the last two days, I was wondering what had happened to my USB drive. It doesn’t have too many school things on it, but I do have some other random important things on it. Much to my dismay, my wife pulled it out of the dryer this evening. Apparently, it had gone through both the washer and dryer.

After cleaning off the lint and with much prayer (this thing retails for $80; I got it for $30 over Thanksgiving), I plugged it into my computer. Amazingly enough, it lit up right away. It took a second to load, but everything is exactly where it should be and the entire thing is intact! No files missing, nothing corrupt, it’s all good.

Wow.

On a totally irrelevant note, http://www.aishel.net now points to this blog.

Firefox Extensions

There’s no question about it. I love Firefox. I’ve been using it since version 0.86 and haven’t looked back. I’ve tried using Opera and the latest version of Internet Explorer (IE), but I always found myself coming back to Firefox. Some of the benefits include increased security, tabbed windows, faster browsing, and more. One of my favorite reasons for using Firefox are the extensions that I can add to Firefox.

Extensions are little bits of software that add functionality to your browser. In my every-day online usage, I use at least 4-5 of my extensions within the first 2 minutes.

For example, when I open up my browser, I have the following showing up in the status bar at the bottom of the browser window: So right away, I know the weather, including the fact that there is a severe weather alert (flood watch), how many new Gmails I have (none), and a host of other things.

This list includes the extensions that I use, why I use them, and a link for where to get the extensions.

1. Adblock - I’ve had this for the longest time, and it is awesome. In short, it blocks ads. When browsing sites, I never see Google ads, I don’t get those annoying flash ads, and OnlySimchas only takes a second to load because it completely removes all the ads from the website. When all those image ads don’t load, it helps things run smoother and faster. If there’s a page that you do want to see ads, you’re able to whitelist websites. This extension is highly recommended.
2. All-in-one Gestures - This one is hard to explain, but basically, it saves you time by allowing you to make slight gestures with your mouse to control things in your browser. If I wanted to go back a page, instead of having to move my mouse to the back button, all I do is right click my mouse and move a 1/4 of an inch to the left and it goes back. If I want to close a tab, instead of finding the little ‘x’ all I do is right click and move a fraction of an inch down and then right. Once you get used to doing this, there’s no going back. When I’m at school using the computers there, I always end up trying to do my mouse gestures to no avail. The mouse gestures are fully customizable too.
3. Dictionary Search - This is pretty straight forward. If you’re browsing and you see a word you don’t know, just select the word, right click, and select ‘Dictionary Search’ and it will open up a new tab with the definition.
4. Download Statusbar - This keeps my downloads in a small and clean place that is easily accessible. You can see it in my image of the status bar above indicated by where it says 0:11.
5. Fasterfox - Makes Internet browsing speedy.
6. FireFTP - I don’t use this one very often anymore, but basically, it is an FTP client that is built into Firefox. Nice, fast, and secure.
7. Forecastfox - Tells you the weather in a small, easy to read area in my status bar. Very customizable. You can select if you just want the temperature, a picture, the forecast, severe weather alerts, multiple zip codes, etc.
8. Gmail Manager - Instead of always having to check my email, I set my Gmail manager to check my email every three minutes. This way, I always know when I have a new email. It supports multiple Gmail addresses, and you can set how often it checks your email for you (if you’re using dial-up, you may want to have it check less frequently). Also, if you mouse over the icon, it shows you who the email is from and the first several words of the email.
9. Googlebar - While there is a search engine built into the browser, I frequently use this for many of the other great tools that Google provides. For example, it can translate pages, search for backlinks, go up directories, and more.
10. Greasemonkey - I only found this one about a week or two ago, but I’m lovin’ it! (Get it? McDonalds and grease? Ok, I’m not sure if that’s really true). Basically, this extension has sub-extensions to it that change and customize the looks of websites to your choosing. This was very confusing to me at first, but once I figured it out, it became really cool and functional. Here are some of the Greasemonkey scripts I have installed. As you see, they mostly involve Gmail:
    • Gmail Conversation Preview - This script allows me to right click on a message in my Gmail, and it will show a preview of what is contained in that email. Great if you’re trying to find a specific email, but not sure which one it is. It saves you time because then you don’t have to open up each and every message.
    • Gmail + Google Reader -This script integrates Google Reader into Gmail. I used to use the Sage extension to check all my RSS feeds, but that still meant actively clicking on the Sage button and refreshing all my feeds. With this script, I don’t have to do anything. I always check my email anyway, and now I can see right away if I have new feeds to look at. I don’t have to refresh anything whatsoever, it just shows up. Here’s a small screenshot (that second to last one says Cocktails):
      
    • Gmail Label Colors - This simply turns my labels into colors, which make it easier to identify in a whole list of things. So important stuff like information on graduation is now red, and not-so-important stuff are other colors, like blue or green.
    • YouTube embed - Often times, I visit forums, blogs, and other websites that have links to YouTube video’s. Personally, I find it annoying to always have to visit the YouTube site just to view the video. With this script, it automatically embeds YouTube video’s in the page you’re currently watching so that you can stay in the same page.
    • Tinfoil hat - I love the name on this one. For ease of use, many people will convert long links to links from TinyURL. The problem is that now when I mouse over the link, I don’t know where it is taking me. With this script, mousing over the link tells me the ultimate destination of the TinyURL link.
11. IEtab -Unfortunately, some sites out there only work in Internet Explorer. Instead of having to open up a whole new browser, I can just use this extension to make everything function exactly as if it were in IE, and then it will work just fine.

So that is pretty much it. These extensions will obviously only work on the computer that they are all installed in. But using these extensions really make browsing so much easier and faster. If you have some you want to add to the list, feel free to do so in the comments!

Steve Jobs Prank Calls Starbucks

While giving an iPhone demonstration, Steve Jobs shows how he can pull up a map of all the Starbucks‘ in his neighborhood and call whichever one he wants.  I wonder if the employee of that Starbucks will ever know that she actually spoke to the CEO of Apple.

Romance in the blogosphere

I came across several dating oriented blogs that are obviously all by the same person.  I’m not sure whether to laugh or cry. In any case, here they are. Some of these look brand new.  Others look like they’ll never have another post.  I guess we’ll just have to wait and see.

First, to get a date, you have to make sure to ask the appropriate questions.  For example, does the SDJ  have the same cellphone carrier, so they can use shared minutes?  Lots more crazy date questions here.  Once you have your date all lined up, you need a place to go. Like Starbucks or Target. Therefore, we have the next blog, called Great Date Places.  Unfortunately, your date often times ends up being crazy, so we try to put a stop to it by creating blogs in hope that these people will find the stories about themselves and learn to become normal.  But if that doesn’t happen, there’s still hope.  Because chances are, they’ll give you a sign that it’s time to move on.

It may be hard to believe, but everyone will find the right one eventually.  And when you do, it’s important to publicize how he proposed.  And to get rid of these pre-marriage jitters, there is one more blog to talk about marriage and such.

Song suggestions needed

I just found out that since I’m a student at Towson Univeristy, I have access to over 2.5 million songs, all of which are free for me to download.  My school has partnered with Cdigix, which has its own music player that you download.  Once you log in using your school email address, you have access to over 2.5 million songs.  They’re all downloadable for free.  The downside, of course, is that you can’t download them to your mp3 player.  However, you do get to keep the file permenantly on your computer (and up to one other I think).  There is an option to pay $6.95/month to be able to transfer files to your mp3 player, but my iPod only holds 2gb, so I don’t need any more songs on there.  But I am looking to increase my song collection on my computer.
I don’t have a radio in my car, so I’ve been kind of out of the loop on all the latest music, so if you have any song suggestions, feel free to let me know in the comments. No rap or too much heavy metal please.  I don’t mind country either.

When the sun goes down, Hannukah’s on!

Today’s woot.com podcast features a cool song about Chanukah starting tonight:

Click to play

OnlySimchas Rant

I see this happen all the time on OnlySimchas (OS), and for some reason, I get upset about it every time. Basically, people find out their friends get engaged so they rush to post it on OS. Problem is that they don’t know the fiance’s name, so they tend to write “Engagement of Shira Cohen and Lucky Guy!” or “Engagement of Shlomo Stein to Devorah T.” (made up names). My theory is that if they don’t know the name of one of the sides in a simcha, they should not be posting it on OS. The OS terms of service clearly states: “I have the permission of the celebrants to post this information on OnlySimchas.com” If they don’t even know the names of the people involved, how can they have gotten permission to post it in the first place?

It’s a small thing, but it irks me to no end.

Beautiful Montage from Avraham Rosenblum

Baltimore’s very own Avraham Rosenblum, of Diaspora Yeshiva Band, has put together a montage of pictures of recent events from Israel and beyond set to the tune of Kedem, which is the title song of his latest CD.

Check it out:

Redbox

Another great invention has come to Baltimore. Redbox. Redbox is a DVD kiosk system where you can rent movies. The Redbox concept is actually quite genius. Basically, they set up the kiosks in many very accessible and public locations. Until recently, I only knew about the one at McDonalds next to the Knish Shoppe. They charge you $1 per movie per night. No late fees ever. So if you’re in the mood for a movie, go to your local Redbox kiosk, get your movie, and return it the next day for only $1. It’s a lot cheaper than going to Blockbuster or Hollywood Video, which charges you at least $3 or $4 per rental. And even if yoy have it for two or three days, it can still be cheaper. And since they put them in such publicly accessible areas, they’re available just about anytime, even when most stores are closed. They recently put in a Redbox at Shoppers, and since they’re open 24/7, you can get movies from there just about anytime (although, I think effective end of December, Shoppers will start closing at midnight).

Also, if you go to the Redbox website and sign up for their mailing list, they’ll email you a code for you to get a free nights rental for a DVD. Alternatively, you can go to Inside Redbox for a whole list of codes for free DVD rentals (hat tip: WM). The only thing I ask of you is that you park the right way when heading to Shoppers.

Update on 12/4/2006 at 10:22am:

I forgot to add that they have a pretty good collection of DVD’s with about 40 titles.  You can even reserve the titles online and pick it up at your convenience.

 

Thank you

Someone sent me the following video which is very apropos for Thanksgiving.  Here is an emotional thank you to some troops returning from Iraq:

Black Friday links

We all know about the crazy deals that you can get on Black Friday. This year is no different. I found two websites that have all the deals posted, so you can start figuring out where you’ll be and arrange your schedule accordingly. The first has been around for a couple years, called Gottadeal. This website can be a bit hard to navigate, but once you figure it out, its ok. I just found the second site today, and I like how things are very neatly organized and they have the actual ads that you can download. You can check it out here.

Facebook

My sister recently introduced me to Facebook. I’ve tried to stay away from it because I heard about how bad it can be, etc. But wow. This thing can be addicting.