General

Multiple blog disorder

Bill Brelsford — Mon, 16 May 2005 20:11:00 GMT

For the 4 to 6 people (do my parents count?) that read this blog, you may be want to look at my new site. The rss feed for the new site is here. I will continue to post my truly geeky posts here and I will use my new site for posts that blur between technology, business and management.

Saving money with Vonage

Bill Brelsford — Fri, 22 Apr 2005 20:54:00 GMT

I recently changed my phone service to Vonage. Vonage provides VOIP and has 2 basic plans for residential customers, 500 minutes for $15/mo or unlimited calling for $25/mo. Since I don't talk on the phone very often, I went with the 500 min package. My “traditional” phone service cost me roughly $45 just for the service (local) and taxes, so I expect to save ~$300/yr with Vonage. If you make a lot of long distance calls, your savings may be even greater.

I received my router/adapter today and installing it was a snap. I just plugged it into my cable modem and then connected my existing router\wireless access point to it and I was up and running. Made a couple of calls and the quality is excellent.

You also get some pretty cool features like e-mail notifications of voice mail, e-mails with the actual voice message attached, web based account management (call forwading, etc). If you travel, you can take your adapter with you and have your phone number with you anywhere you have high speed internet access (save on calls from hotels). You can get a phone number with and area code in a different city or an 800 number.

Vonage has a referral promotion going on, so if you see this an you are interested, I would appreciate you sending me your e-mail address so that I can submit it for the referral credit. You'll get a free month and I'll get two free months if you end up subscribing.

Yes, I'm still here...

Bill Brelsford — Fri, 22 Apr 2005 20:34:00 GMT

The three readers of this blog have probably noticed that it has been quite here for a while. I have recently started a Six Sigma Black Belt class through Villanova University. If anyone is interested in Six Sigma, Lean, or other quality measures and how they apply to software, I'd love to chat. I have also been doing more private writing lately. I do intend to pick back up with this blog. More posts coming soon.

Midwest Airlines digEplayer

Bill Brelsford — Tue, 15 Mar 2005 13:36:00 GMT

Midwest airlines will begin offering handheld, video on demand entertainment. I received this in an email; I couldn't find it on their site to link to it, so here is the cut & paste.

Entertainment Choices Start April 1

The digEplayer^TM – a handheld unit that puts more than 50 entertainment choices right on your tray table. Available on flights over 2 1/2 hours.


	Video-on-demand technology – pre-programmed with great entertainment selections for the whole family
		Pre-release movies, recently released movies, popular films, classic films
		Cartoons, children's movies and music
		Television programs
		Audio selections from most music genres
	The digEplayer will rent for $10, with a second headset and splitter available for $2
	Available to/from Kansas City and Milwaukee to San Francisco, Los Angeles, Florida cities, Boston, Dallas/Ft. Worth, Phoenix

Primetime Podcast Receiver

Bill Brelsford — Sat, 12 Mar 2005 20:22:00 GMT

I received a note from Lance Robinson about his new podcast receiver. I'm playing with it this afternoon and here are my first impressions.

Downloading the the software requires providing minimal registration info. The registration looks like the typical Dot Net Nuke registration page. The software requires either Windows 2000 or XP along with the .Net Framework 1.1.

Installation was quick and easy. There appears to be some good documentation, but me being a guy and this being a weekend, of course I didn't read it. After installation I started poking around to see what to do next. There are a half dozen or so feeds set up by default. Double clicking on the feeds didn't do anything so I tried the menu. I selected the first option to “Scan Now”. The application suggested that I should run “Catch Up” first. So I did that and then ran “Scan Now”. As things were downloading I flipped to the Media tab and was able to select a feed and start listening to it. So, all told, I was able to start listening to a feed in about 5 minutes from the time I downloaded the software.

So far I have only 2 very minor comments. The first is I would have the Media tab be the first tab since that's where the action is, where I assume I will be spending most of my time. Second, if I am listening to a feed while downloading others, the list on the right that is filtered by the feed will include unrelated feeds as they are downloaded. This is just an interface updating issue and I'm sure Lance is already working on it.

All in all, it was painless to set up and get started with. I like the application, I'm just not sure podcasting is for me yet, but I'll give it the old two week try and see how it goes.

Made it back from Vegas

Bill Brelsford — Mon, 07 Mar 2005 20:25:00 GMT

Flying back from Las Vegas, I heard one of the better lines I've heard on a Southwest flight. As they were going through the announcements, the flight attendant said “...Tampering with the smoke detector carries a $2,000 fine. Of course, if you could afford that fine, you'd be on a Delta flight right now”.

Oscar Nominated Shorts

Bill Brelsford — Sun, 27 Feb 2005 19:51:00 GMT

Last Friday, I went to the Screenland Theatre with Hector and some of his friends. The theatre was screening the short films that were nominated for an Oscar this year. Their were 8 films from around the world that received nominations:

Birthday Boy (animated)
Ryan (animated) - Winner
Two Cars, One Nigh (live action)
7:35 in the Morning
Gopher Broke (animated)
Wasp (live action) - Winner
Little Terrorist (live action)
Rex Steele:Nazi Smasher (animated)

My favorites were Ryan, Little Terrorist, Rex Steele:Nazi Smasher and Gopher Broke, with Ryan probably being my favorite. I would like to see that one again. It combined a good story and some very interesting animation. There seemed to be a lot of layers to the story that was being told, but not in a way that interfered with the ability of the audience to follow the main theme. I was also impressed by how the artist could express feelings on the characters' faces even though the faces were often incompletely drawn.

It will be interesting to see which wins, and to actually be familiar with this category for a change.

Empty Inbox

Bill Brelsford — Mon, 14 Feb 2005 03:17:00 GMT

Over the weekend, I followed the advice of of David Allen and cleaned out my inbox (as in 0 messages). It may sound like a trivial thing, but it is amazing what a good feeling of accomplishment it gives you. Give it a try.

BzzAgent

Bill Brelsford — Thu, 18 Nov 2004 00:44:00 GMT

I signed up to be a BzzAgent today so that I can review and spread the buzz about Tom Peters new book.

From their site:

BzzAgent is a network of volunteer brand evangelists who participate in Word-of-Mouth (WOM) campaigns. It is a community of communicators. It is a no-obligation, no-nonsense, and no-pressure type of situation. And most importantly ... it’s a fun gig. BzzAgent is the coolest reality marketing experience you'll ever take part in.

I'm just reviewing the site now, it looks pretty cool. Check it out.

Looks like I won't be using Hotmail

Bill Brelsford — Thu, 18 Nov 2004 00:37:00 GMT

One of the things I really liked about Outlookk 2003 was the fact that I could look at all of my e-mail accounts, including my Hotmail account, in one place. Today I started receiving a message that connecting to Hotmail via Outlook (or Outlook Express) requires a subscription. Nope, ain't gonna happen. I won't be using that account anymore, so don't you either.