Play, Live, Work, Enjoy.

They say there's an app for everything on the iPhone… unfortunately there is no app for spam filtering. Yes, I've figured out the whole "send your mail to Gmail and get it from there" thing… and after some tuning I think it might be a decent solution.

Regardless it has me thinking about how digital technology affects our daily lives, how we're transformed by it, and how some of our analog habits may be transposed by it. Case in point worry beads (Komboloi)… worry stones, your car keys, or whatever you tend to fidget with while you're thinking, contemplating, or just idle (not that there's every time to be idle in this day and age). I've found myself comparing the deleting of spam to this type of ritual fidgeting. The act of checking email itself is addicting enough, but the ability to do something useful (though futile) like deleting spam with a repetetive swipe of the finger makes it cross that digital-analog devide.

I'm working on compiling a series of these "Digital Transformation" comparisons for a personal project. If you have any that you've thought of, drop me a line.

One of my favorite memories as a child growing up in New York City was taking the one train downtown with my grandmother and walking down Fifth Avenue and around Herald Square to see the holiday window decorations. They were always amazing and that is one thing that has not changed.

Our friend, and client, photographer Richard Cadan (RichardCadan.com) has started a tradition of his own. For the last three years… the moment these windows are unveiled he braves the weather and the crowds of shoppers in order to capture the holiday spirit… and some amazing images along with it. To celebrate this imagery and wish his clients a happy holiday season Cadan has commissioned us to create a Flash slide show of these images in time with the Nutcracker Suite and some programmatic snow.

If you have a chance to visit NYC this time of year… make sure you make it downtown for this spectacle… if not… you can get a glimpse right here… View Richard Cadan's Holiday Window Images.

Initially, Microsoft’s newest product Vista was projected to take-off and become a success, similar to that of its predecessors. So when Vista‘s sales and ratings came back as being unfavorable Microsoft was blindsided. Vista sent PC users into a tailspin. Containing a slew of undesirable features, Vista is thought to be so bad that many users are boycotting the program.

Rather than fix the program’s issues, Microsoft is spending an obscene amount of money on a new ad campaign in an effort to resurrect interest and increase sales. The new campaign is called the Mojave Experiment.

The Mojave Experiment depicts PC users who appear to be favorable towards Vista, without knowing that they are actually working with the operating system. The users are told that they are not working with the original Vista, but instead are using a new and improved version called Mojave. They are then shown some of the ‘features’ of Vista and their reactions are recorded on 22 hidden cameras. The main purpose of the campaign is to show that many of Vista’s criticism are unfounded.

I’d be curious to know what ‘features’ are being shown to these users and if they are simply being guided through a crème de le crème tour of the operating system, that the average computer user would not know how to use if Bill Gates himself sat down next to him and gave play by play instructions.

What are your views on Vista? In my opinion the operating system, and this ad campaign are a little too risky for my liking. I think I’ll stick to XP for the time being.

On Thursday, September 18th, Jose and I attended Beers Biz @ Pearl Street Sponsored by Infotech Niagara. For a nominal fee, we were able to mingle with the IT Community of Buffalo, NY as well as enjoy the fine foods and variety of great beers.

As the Executive Director of Infotech, Jeff Ross has helped the IT community of Buffalo come together, network and share ideas. This is just one example of his efforts that was well planned and attended.

Mr. Ross had also invited a musical guest, Greg Klyma. Greg's music is a combination of Rock n' Roll and Country influenced folk music. His new CD, Rust Belt Vagabond, features an anthem called Two Degrees in Buffalo. This song is a historical and touching story of Buffalo's trials and tribulations. Two Degrees in Buffalo is emotional and moving as instills a sense of pride and nostalgia for all that is Buffalo.

Greg performed the song acoustically for those that attened Beers & Biz @ Pearl Street.

Give a listen to Two Degrees in Buffalo

“It’s two degrees in Buffalo, Snow is coming down…"

Ah 1984…what a glorious year it was. Not only was that the year I came to be, but it was the year Apple Inc., introduced Mac to the market. They introduced the very first publically offered efficient personal computer, the Macintosh 128K. The computer featured a luxurious mouse, and came with a whopping two applications. Hard to imagine, isn’t it? Technology has come so far in the last 25 years. A company that started out offering a simple personal computer with a green screen has evolved into one of the most successful and highly regarded companies in the world. I don’t even know how I survived before I got the iPhone…joking…but really, my cell phone enjoyment was stifled pre-iPhone. Oh Apple…keeper of my tech-enjoyment…I salute you!

One of the greatest commercials of all time!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OYecfV3ubP8

In this day and age of trying to save a buck or two, coffeefair.com has created a downloadable .pdf of recipes that resemble Starbucks’ fantastic products.  There are 32 pages of free recipes for beverages, pastries and desserts, and sauces.  Being in the digital media industry and subsequently addicted to anything coffee or caffeinated, to me this is a great way to experiment and enjoy your favorite flavors without leaving the house or office (unless you need to get the ingredients).  Give the recipes a try and let us know if they come close to the real thing.  I know I’ll be trying them…they sound delicious!

Free Starbucks Coffee Recipe E-Book

There is not much to say here. We have been Verizon customers both at home and as a small business for several years. Through those years we've had our share of issues. Area outages, missed installation dates, missed dsl-ready dates, less than professional wiring jobs, etc. We pretty much rolled with these as they came and went - I mean connectivity is not a science (or is it) so problems are bound to happen. There was even a point where our cell phone customer service was so poor we swore them off for life — and have kept to this to date.
This latest issue however has me reeling with disbelief. I will not go into full detail at this point but it went something like this (keep in mind that any day without a connection is a day that none of our employees can work to full capacity). The fact is at this point we've been down for over a week and I have zero confidence that anyone in Verizon's employ will be able to correct the issue.

You can click through below and see a detailed day by day log:
Continue reading 'Verizon No More - How they lost our business in perpetuity.'

Just had the best weekend in quite some time. Got to see Bob Weir and Rat Dog here at Buffalo's Town Ballroom. What a great place to see a show… and what a great show to see anyplace. Both nights were sold out… the crowd was great… and the band was really tight. Saturday night I went in costumer (pictured). This weekend, lack of sleep aside, was like a much needed vacation… Not much more I can say…

Continue reading 'Bob Weir & Rat Dog'

Incredible… in what is being called "a record event for Buffalo" a lake effect driven snowfall has covered the City of Buffalo. It started as rain this morning but by 2PM or so it was coming down pretty thick…. by sundown it was sticking and accumulating. The streets are covered with tree branches and power has been on the fritz. We've kicked off fuses in a couple of rooms but still have power to the house. Seriously heavy lightning and thunder too — it's really something. Schools have already been deemed closed for the day.

* The photo is out our back door at about midnight. Now 6:00AM we've had 11+ inches down since midnight.

Continue reading 'Buffalo Gets Burried'

Here's something I've been thinking about today… iTunes and the iPod as the "old school" record store of the 1970's and 1980's. I remember as a kid growing up in the Bronx it seemed like every neighborhood had its own record shop each with its own personality (Broadway Records was ours)… some were more rock-heavy others more jazz. You could go there to browse the covers, maybe hear something new… buy concert tickets… play some pinball or arcade games… check out the used or cheap bin (or trade) for things you would never otherwise pick up. Good memories of those days.

Continue reading 'iRecordStore Recipe'