Cartoon Barry Blog - Barry Schwartz's Personal Blog

January 17, 2012

Email Overload: Need To Stop Flying During Workdays

I simply need to stop flying during the workday or fly exclusively with flights that have Wifi.

Yesterday, I took an 11am (Israel time) or 4am (EDT) out of Tel Aviv and to New York. The flight is about 12 hours, so I didn't land until after 4pm (EDT).

When I landed, I had 322 emails in my inbox! Probably about a hundred I needed to reply to.

I also had 750 or so items in my RSS reader to go through.

It is so overwhelming.

The only nice'ish part of this 12 hour flight was that I watched 5.5 movies.

Image credit for ShutterStock for iPhone email.

Posted at 11:26 AM in Travels | | Tweet This!

January 9, 2012

Caught Speeding By A Robot

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I received a nice letter in the mail from the District of Columbia's Metropolitan Police Department telling me I was speeding. They even provided proof in the form of photographs.

Truth is, I was not driving that car the day they said the violation happened. I was home, in New York - not in Washington, DC, driving 62 in a 50. I know who was driving my car, but it was not me.

In any event, they did not issue me with a fine - instead they said this is a "warning" and next time, I will be given a fine if I speed.

They even have this whole web site portal to login, view the pictures and pay the fine (if applicable).

I never received one of these letters before, I hear it is illegal in some states for the police to use speed cameras - but I guess it is not illegal in Washington, D.C.

Heck, I've seen cops outside of their cars using speed guns and I've tweeted being pulled over in the past - so I guess this should go on the blog as well.

Posted at 10:14 AM in Motor Vehicle , Travels | | Tweet This!

January 4, 2012

Can Jews Checkin To Non Kosher Restaurants On Foursquare?

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Orthodox Jews do not eat non-kosher food. Many also would not walk into a non-kosher restaurant because they don't want a kosher Jew to see them going into the non-kosher restaurant and think that it must be kosher since that Jew went in there.

So even to use the bathroom, many orthodox Jews wouldn't even walk into a non-kosher restaurant.

Which brings up the question, can a Jew who holds by not going into non-kosher restaurants, checkin on Foursquare to non-kosher restaurant?

As I travel on Amtrak back to New York from Washington DC, I am randomly looking for places to check into on Foursquare along the way. And I am specifically avoiding non-kosher restaurants or restaurants I do not know if they are kosher or not.

Jews, what would you do?

Non-Jews, you think I am crazy? Well, some Jews think I am crazy.

And many people think I am crazy just for using Foursquare in general. :)

Posted at 8:35 PM in Food , Religion , Travels | | Tweet This!

January 4, 2012

Stuck On Amtrak Over Delaware River

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I am on my way to a client in D.C. This is the first time I am taking Amtrak anywhere, I heard it is the smart way to go from New York to Washington, D.C.

We made it to Trenton, New Jersey and stopped there. I've been sitting in Trenton for almost two hours. My scheduled arrival time is in about 20 minutes. At this point, it makes sense for me to turn around and go back. So why don't I?

I am literally on a bridge over the Delaware river in Trenton, NJ.

Posted at 11:08 AM in Travels | | Tweet This!

December 29, 2011

My Chanukah Presents For 2011

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The last day of Chanukah was yesterday - and I got all my gifts in and ready.

I got a ton of cards and gift baskets from clients, vendors, SEO folks and so on. I wanted to blog about the gifts I received that were not e-cards, physical cards and gift baskets.

Promedia Corp send me these gloves that I can wear and still use my iPhone at the same time. I have been using them, they aren't that warm, but at least I can use my phone with them!

Jim Boykin and Internet Marketing Ninjas sent me a ton of their swag this year, from shirts, 3d glasses, usb sticks, and chinese stars.

Third Door Media got me a Kindle Fire.

My wife got me stuff I need, like a new talis plastic cover for my talis bag. It was needed, my other bag was shredding!

She also got me a much needed new shaver head. We ordered it from ShaverOutlet.com - a really nice web site that even has video demos on how to install it.

My shaver head had holes it in and started to cut my face. So after a couple weeks of trying to live with the pain, I splurged the $15 to get a new head.

Also, the RustyBrick holiday gifts this year literarily rocked.

Those are some of my gifts this year.

For my past year's gifts, see 2009, 2008 and 2006. I guess I forgot to blog about the other years.

Thank you all and happy Chanukah and holidays!

Posted at 10:08 AM in Religion | | Tweet This!

December 13, 2011

Biggest Car Fire I've Seen To Date

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Just a quick post, to follow up on the flipped car, head on collision, smaller car fire I've seen.

Today, on the way to a meeting, I saw this HUGE car fire on 287 between exit 14B and 14A.

I was able to see the the dark fog of smoke for miles and miles.

Posted at 4:57 PM in Motor Vehicle | | Tweet This!

December 12, 2011

Cashed In On My 1st Foursquare Special

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Friday I complained a 4sq special failed me but that all changed this Sunday.

I went to Modell's, because you got to go to Mos, and I used a $10 off $50.

The cashier had no clue what it was but the manager was right behind him and the manager plugged it in.

It was cool.

Like saving money while being geeky - who doesn't.

Posted at 5:35 PM in Travels | | Tweet This!

December 8, 2011

Foursquare Special Failed On My First Try

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I noticed that several of the local shops started to display Foursquare specials on their listings.

So I tried to use one this morning at the local bagel shop.

It was for $10 off when you spend $10, so I was hoping to get breakfast and lunch for free.

But when I asked the bagel store man, he had no clue what Foursquare was and how to give me the discount.

He said he will ask the boss when he comes in but he can't give me the discount that day.

So my first attempt at using a Foursquare special failed!

Posted at 9:08 AM in Just Weird | | Tweet This!

December 6, 2011

My First In-Flight WiFi Experience

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Since I fly continental, an airline without in flight wifi, I have never experienced Internet while flying.

Now that continental and united merged, I am on a united flight and it has wifi.

Flying with Internet is amazing. I don't have to worry about landing and catching up with hundreds of emails while I find a cab.

This rocks!

Posted at 9:50 AM in Travels | | Tweet This!

December 5, 2011

Hundreds Of Fraudulent Calls To Africa

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I am starting to think that people do not like me. First I had almost $30,000 in credit card fraud the other week and now I see I had almost $1,000 worth of fraudulent phone calls made from my phone system at my office.

There was about $770 worth of calls made to various locations in Africa from my phone system. Some how someone gained access to make calls from my phone system and made hundreds of calls in a matter of several hours over four different phone lines to Africa.

The crazy part is when I called my phone company, Optimum/CableVision, they said I have to talk to IDT, which is who they outsource the international calling to. My credit card bill has transactions from Optimum Voice International, but technically, IDT bills under that name. So I got IDT on the phone and they want Optimum to split the charges, but Optimum doesn't want to. They spent 10 minutes on the phone with me yelling at each other.

Currently, no one has credited me for this fraudulent calls - so I had AMEX deal with those charges.

Here is a portion of the call log: