A few more for the portfolio page I’m happy to announce. 1 is the 2nd site using the theme you are seeing right now, and that’s over at White Roof Radio. I’m still doing tweaks to the overall layout and operation of this theme, but I think I’m about 95% of the way to it being bullet-proof.
Another addition is Poggioaz.com. It’s an Italian restaurant in Scottsdale, AZ and I used another premium theme for them. This time from themeforest.net. For a change, this one came with documentation. Sure, it was mostly wrong, but at least it gave me a place to start so I could get the site properly configured for the client. It’s also running on a GoDaddy server (not for my lack of trying to get them to move), so I had to do a few more tricks to improve the overall performance of the site. It’s not perfect, but I’m getting close.
Next up will be an update to dbmini.us before I go back and fine tune this layout.
When last we spoke about my never ending problems with cell phones, I had just received my 2nd Droid Incredible (Dinc). The first was crashing after a call. No big deal. Replacement arrived 2 days early. I was up and running again in a little less than an hour.
Then, starting last week, this phone started acting up. It also exhibited the same crash-after-a-call problem that my last Dinc had. A problem that was easily corrected by putting the phone to sleep and waking it back up again using the handy dandy switch at the top of the phone.
That stopped working last week as well.
Today, after finishing a call with Verizon Wireless, my phone crashed so hard I had to do a battery pull to correct it. Luckily, I even got the sleep/wake switch to work as well.
I was on the call initially because I’m a few days behind on my bill, a fact I will be correcting on Friday. Since I had them on the phone, I figured it was a good time to review my plan since I’ve been making changes to it for the first half of the year (mainly not having teh lad on it anymore). My new friend at VZW looked at my minutes used for the past 3 months (less than 400 billable per month) and said I would be a good candidate to go to the $59.99 plan. Sweet! That’s $30 less than my existing plan, which will pay for my data (still unlimited BTW, but more on that later).
And since she was so helpful, I thought I would bring my telephone woes up to her. She said I would need to call back on a different phone to do troubleshooting and texted me the number to call. While that was happening, I think she was reviewing my account a little bit more (besides minutes and data used) because no sooner did I get the text message with the 800 number to call I received a 2nd with her email address.
She said to me, when I’m ready (about 2 weeks), to email her back and she would get me going on an early upgrade!
Did I ask? Nope. Did I get angry? Nope. Was she super professional, very nice and extraordinarily helpful? YES!
I swear I never get bad service from VZW. I’ve said it here many times before. Anytime I have a problem they fix it, more often than not the first time without having to talk to more than 1 person. Ever.
[SHORT VERSION]
I’ll be getting an iPhone sometime in July. Stay tuned for details
A little more than a year ago I typed up a DIY for PC Users on how to tune-up your PC. It still applies today, even on Windows Vista and Windows 7! But what about the Mac.
I was recently contacted about a Mac running slow. Made me think that maybe I should do a quick DIY Tune-up guide for the Mac. If you have an hour, this is all super easy stuff that will make your Mac run better. Ready? Let’s do this!
That should have you running pretty good. Finally, one more bit of maintenance that you should do.
Now would also be a great time to check the status of your backup to make sure everything is running as it should. You are backing up, right? With Time Machine or Super Duper to an external drive or Carbonite to the internet? Say both and you get a gold star for the day!
Questions? You know what to do!
A process battle that was started almost 3 weeks still isn’t completed. And that would be a security camera installation at work. Security cameras installed by ADT, since they also handle our alarm system and we were told the 2 work together quite nicely.
It all started with our sales rep and a walk-thru. A walk-thru that included a trip through our 50,000 sq/ft warehouse where we pointed out all 6 doors that we wanted to keep an eye on, hopefully with cameras mounted on the 20′ high ceiling. “Great!” he says. “No Problem!” he says. Check written, order placed, he says about a week to 10 days before the installation. Cool.
Installation day comes. I’m not notified about the date until the installers arrive. Turns out it didn’t matter since the sales rep neglicted to tell the installation department that we had a 50,000 sq/ft warehouse with 20′ ceilings. They would need a lift and cables that were longer than 60′. So, off they went to procure said items, hopefully to return the next day.
Another week passes before they returned. This time with a lift and 200′ cables. This time ready and rarin’ to go!
Except the wrong cameras were ordered. Yes, we would need the interior cameras to work in low light. Not to worry, they ordered replacements and would have them shipped “next day”. Meanwhile, they installed the cameras that were correct and ran all of the wiring.
Turns out, “next day” in the ADT world actually means 3-4 business days, if you are lucky. Also, wiring was not within the realm of expertise of my ADT installers. I have some experience with this and I can tell you that the job my guy did was pretty poor.
I’m still putting the finishing touches on the new theme, but this just couldn’t wait.
In the mail today I received my 12th replacement mobile phone from Verizon Wireless. Twelve times I’ve had problems with a phone. Twelve times I’ve had to call 611 or visit my local store. Twelve times I’ve had to reinstall apps and restore from backup.
Twelve.
At first it was comical. By the time I got to my 5th Blackberry Storm, I was pretty angry. By the time I got to my 5th Blackberry Storm I was giggling. When I bought the HTC Droid Incredible last August, 6 months BEFORE the iPhone became available on Verizon, I thought my nightmare of crappy phones was over.
And my nightmare was over. At least it has been for the past 10 months. Up until then, the Dinc has been problem free. Then it started crashing after ending a phone call. Turns out, the sensor that controls the screen when you pull the phone away from your head was going out. “No problem” says my guy at the Verizon Wireless store. We’ll sort you out.
Which they did, in record time as usual.
I will say that it is easier to recover on an Android Phone than it was on the Blackberry. From hard reset to complete took less than an hour and that includes setting up all of my apps and adding my 6 email addresses and 6 Twitter accounts back to the phone. I would imagine that it is equally easy on an iPhone.
I’m just getting tired of doing it. I am told that there is a chance I might qualify for an early upgrade in August instead of having to wait until next April. At this point, it really doesn’t matter. I’m just tired of swapping phones.
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