Let me introduce you to the next Justin Bieber. His name is Shlomo Schwartz, but his alias (or whatever musicians call it) is ShlomputZ.

His web site is at shlomputz.com and here is a sample song:

Okay, so we play basketball together. We have for the past few years or so.

Last night, after the game, he tells me he has a CD and hands me one. I was a bit shocked, but hey - I guess I see it now.

But I can tell you, he never pulled one of those High School Musical things where they stop playing basketball and break out into some weird singing and dancing event. That never happened. So can you blame me for not knowing he does music? :)

If Facebook is your think, he is at facebook.com/ShlomputZ and if you like the music, you can buy it at CD Baby.

Posted at 12:12 PM | Permalink | Category: Music | Comments (1) (0)

Apple is going after Gizmodo (see here) for blogging about the new iPhone. It gets complicated but basically, it just looks bad. Some are calling for a boycott of Apple products.

Facebook released new privacy features that really leaves most Facebook users open in terms of their privacy really not being protected. Many are deactivating their Facebook accounts in protest.

What is going on?

If you have 8 minutes or so, I strongly recommend you watch Jon Stewart on the whole Apple saga - it is dead on and so right:

Posted at 9:34 AM | Permalink | Category: Rambling | Comments (3) (0)

I was looking at the bathroom sign on the way to the bathroom today and although it was not as funny as the bathroom sign in Israel that I saw, it made me think.

Do pant-wearing women find bathroom signs discriminating? Or to skirt-wearing men find bathroom signs discriminating? Or am I just an insensitive fool?

Woman are depicted all around the world, in literally every public place, no matter for language or religion - as wearing skirts. Maybe I am wrong, I have been to several countries and all of them general have women in a skirt to symbolize the women's bathroom.

So I ask, is that at all sexist? If so, should we look for alternative bathroom signs?

Posted at 3:54 PM | Permalink | Category: Just Interesting | Comments (2) (0)

There are tons of pictures depicting Steve Jobs, the CEO of Apple, holding the iPad(s) in his hands as if he were moses holding the tablets (ten commandments) in his hands. Yesterday, we launched the iPad Torah, so now technically, Jobs can hold the ten commandments in his hands. For a bit of a fun read, check out FrumSatire's review of our product.

I thought it would be neat to post all the images I found via Google for these depictions of Jobs with the Tablets. All images can be clicked on to find the source:

Posted at 12:16 PM | Permalink | Category: iPhone | Comments (0) (0)

So, Ronnie is now sitting in Jury Duty selection and he is keeping me updated on his chances of being selected. So far, about half were sent home, but he is still there.

They are now randomly selecting people to interview based on the spin of this Jury Selection Wheel. I asked Ronnie to take a picture and email it to me.

Honestly, I am a bit peeved. What are the odd of Jury selection when you have two people from your 15 person company being summoned in the same week? Seriously!

Posted at 11:47 AM | Permalink | Category: Just Interesting | Comments (1) (0)

On Saturday, I received a small envelop in the mail. The envelop did not have a return address, but it looked like one of those small personal letter envelops and it was hand written to me.

So I opened it. It had a post it note on it said, "Barry, I think you'll enjoy this. J" or something like that. I then pulled it out and it was a nicely folded newspaper page.

I then unfolded the newspaper page and on one side it was a listing of stock prices and on the other side it was a full page ad for Kia of West Nyack or maybe of Nanuet, I forget. It was upsetting to be conned into looking at an ad. But at the same time, I cannot remember the last time I was fooled into reading an ad like this.

Did you ever get one of these ads? It was completely hand written, from the envelope to the post it note.

Posted at 10:38 AM | Permalink | Category: | Comments (3) (0)

Yesterday, I did something I don't always do. I sent an email to a blogger and writer in the industry, thanking him for all his hard work.

I blog a lot on search - a lot. I rarely get emails thanking me. But when I do, it does mean a lot. In the past, people did email feedback more often. Some of that feedback was hateful but most was positive. These days, hate emails bother me a lot less. But positive emails, little notes that say - thank you - are much appreciated.

I forgot how much it can mean to a blogger when you send a quick note. The response I got yesterday reminded me of that:

thanks so much, barry. i needed that.

So take a minute or two out of your week and send a blogger that you read a thank you. You don't have to send them a gift or money - just a quick email or tweet that you appreciate what they do.

And please don't thank me - that would just seem weird after I wrote this.

Posted at 10:24 AM | Permalink | Category: Buddies | Comments (1) (0)

I am sure most of you have seen the video of the 100-year-old using and loving the iPad. If not, I posted it below. Point being - hey - mom and in-laws, you can figure it out to.

Of course, they will reply to me and say - buy it for me as a present and we will use it.

Posted at 2:11 PM | Permalink | Category: iPhone | Comments (4) (0)

I really can drop Google from THE index. By "the" index, I mean from Foursquare's index. Foursquare gave me "superuser" rights as a way for me to update RustyBrick's information on their system. But that also gave me full rights to update any venue's information on Foursquare, including Google NYC, which I have been to a few times.

Of course, I won't do that, but if I wanted to, I can move Google NYC to New Jersey. I could change their Twitter ID to mine. Or even mark them as being out of business. I can do a bunch of evil things. Of course, I would never do that, which is maybe why I have superuser access. But to prove it to you, here is a screen capture:

So it is a good thing that I am not evil.

In any event, if you are in our area stop by and check in - we are fully stocked with snacks and sodas (including red bull).

Actually, it seems like they do trust me and others with level one superuser access.

Posted at 3:31 PM | Permalink | Category: SEO Tips | Comments (0) (0)

Yesterday, in the office, we were having weird internet issues and also outages on our phones. It actually has been up and down for past few days.

I finally called the cable company to complain. But my complaint only happened after we had a scheduled 1.5 hour conference call that dropped about 5 times, and we ultimately ended up using our cell phones to connect.

The cable company sent a technician over who investigated the building's electrical closet. When he came back to report on the issue he said something to the effect of:

The electric closet was a mess. Wires were pulled out, hanging loose, crossed with other wires. It looked bad in there. But I fixed it up, you should be good now.

I didn't see the closet myself, which is why I used that neat image above. But seriously, take care of your cables. Why would someone mangle an electric closet and leave it that way? Was it the cleaning crew? Was it a disgruntled office employee? Was it a 'sabotager'?

Fess up!

Posted at 9:07 AM | Permalink | Category: Computers | Comments (1) (0)

Today is Israel's Independence Day (aka Yom Ha'atzmaut יום העצמאות‎). It happened on May 14, 1948 (5 Iyar, 5708). Although today is 6 Iyar, it is celebrated today because yesterday was Monday and due to new rules, if it falls out on a Monday, the celebration is pushed off a day.

In the Jewish world, there is a debate if today is a religious event or just a secular event. I see arguments for both sides and I will not get into it here.

I do want to say that this does impact our iPhone Siddur. The Siddur, Jewish prayer book, automatically shows you the prayers you need to say for that day. Those who believe today is a religious holiday, include Hallel in their prayers today. Those who do not, don't. So we made a setting in our Siddur to "Show Hallel on Yom Ha'atzmaut: Yes or No." Isn't technology great?

Well, we did mess up and we had 5 Iyar (yesterday) as the day for Yom Ha'atzmaut. We didn't program the special rule for moving Yom Ha'atzmaut to a different day, such as this year. So the setting won't work today anyway. We fixed the bug and apologized in the alerts section.

Anyway, Happy Independence Day Israel.

Posted at 10:11 AM | Permalink | Category: Religion | Comments (0) (0)

Foursquare blogged about doing something about preventing people from checking into places they are really not at. Danny Sullivan expressed his distaste for someone in Canada being the mayor of Stonehenge when he never actually was there.

That being the case, there are and were major bugs with Foursquare validating that someone checking into a location was actually at that location.

This morning, I tried to check into a place I was actually not at. I did it because I wanted to see if anything changed. So I tried to check into a local bagel store which was probably half a mile away from my current location. Guess what, Foursquare said I couldn't. Here is the message:

I hear they are also not giving badges for people who do "rapid check ins". In fact, someone thinks this is an unfair policy - but I see why they do this.

Does Foursquare really work in validating you are at a location? I don't think it is 100% accurate at all but hopefully it is getting better.

Posted at 8:29 AM | Permalink | Category: Computers | Comments (0) (0)

We uncovered some old pictures of RustyBrick in 2002 and one of them had a blurry picture of me, back without a goatee. The picture is blurry but boy have I gained weight both in terms of facial hair and other areas:

Also check out that CTR monitor, wow! Big change from my 3 monitor set up I have now.

For more pictures, see RustyBrick in 2002.

Posted at 10:19 AM | Permalink | Category: Just Funny | Comments (4) (0)

It's been an interesting day at RustyBrick. We find out that Square Peg Web Design borrowed a site we designed and built for their web design portfolio. You can read that story over here. We learn a few more interesting things about this company but the real shocker is that...

This "custom web site design" shop, as it states on their home page, used a pre-made web site template for their own web site. Yea.

This is Square Peg's web site:

Here is the site that sold them the template for $17:

Should a "custom" web design company ever ever have an excuse for using a pre-made template?

Anyway, read more details at the RustyBrick blog.

Posted at 5:14 PM | Permalink | Category: Web Development | Comments (0) (0)

So this week, I got some ketchup packets, I am a big fan ketchup, and they looked off. When did they turn red? Here are two red ones and the original white ones:

So doing some research, I see Ketchup announced a new ketchup design on February 4th. But I believe that announcement was about this new dip-able version. Here is a video of that:

I have yet to see a dip-able ketchup pack in real life, but they do look great!

Posted at 10:06 AM | Permalink | Category: Food | Comments (1) (0)

In 2008, I signed a lease for the Lexus IS 250 and I have been pretty happy with the car. You hear all this news about the toyota accelerator recall and how cars are driving away even with the break on.

I had to do my 20,000 mile routine maintenance this week, so I scheduled a maintenance thing with Lexus (I actually like going to the Lexus service area). They tell me that they have a accelerator recall they can do voluntarily but for free. So I said, sure go ahead.

Today I dropped off the car and got the loaner. The service guy tells me I am doing the recall, I said - "yep." He said, "you know, we have never confirmed any of those reports." I shook my head in agreement, because if they did, they would likely have a solution by now. But at the same time, I am thinking, why would you say that? I mean, just say the recall I am doing on your car will keep you safe. Not that I am worried, but telling me you haven't confirmed or found an issue makes me feel like Lexus and Toyota is incompetent.

In any event, he explained that they will be replacing the accelerator pedal and also pushing a software program to the car. The software basically looks to see if you are on the break and at the same time accelerating at a 30% incline or more. If you are, the engine will shut down. Pretty cool!

Anyway, I give up this car at the end of this year - so far, it has not drove off by itself.

Posted at 9:49 AM | Permalink | Category: Motor Vehicle | Comments (0) (0)

This is need, being that I am a heavy Twitter user. Google released a labs product named Follower Finder. What does it do?

Google Follow Finder analyzes public social graph information (following and follower lists) on Twitter to find people you might want to follow. We suggest two types of social connections: users with similar follow lists, and other users you may be interested in following.

For my profile on Twitter, which is @rustybrick, here is my analysis:

Seems about right...

Posted at 4:54 PM | Permalink | Category: Buddies | Comments (4) (0)

Over the past few weeks, my Gmail storage has been dwindling down. It didn't really make sense to me, since I only stored my inbox on the Gmail server, plus 30 days of my sent and deleted mail. I thought I did my best to download my email off Gmail and onto my local hard drive . Yea, I know- not completely in the cloud, but honestly, I don't think I want all my email threads in Google's hands at all times.

In any event, the other day I reached 97% of my storage with Google. I was about to buy more space but since it is Google Apps, the only way to do so is to upgrade all the accounts, not just one - and there was no need for that. So I dug around and found tons of email in my "All Mail" folder in Google. Emails dating back to when I first moved my email to Google Apps.

I clicked on all mail within the web based email view of Google Apps and saw these messages. So what I did was manually archive my inbox, sent items, draft items and so on and then did a select all and delete all. Then I emptied my trash can on the web interface and freed up 7+GB of space.

I then put the saved messages back to where they belong and started almost fresh with Google Apps mail. I am now down to only 150MB used or so, it's a nice feeling.

Here is more information about the all mail feature in Gmail and note, deleting imap email does not always delete them from Google's servers - it usually archives them, which can make you run into space issues.

Posted at 4:25 PM | Permalink | Category: Computers | Comments (0) (0)

When I get a cold, I can be congested for months and I don't sound good. In fact, a client said I sound like a cartoon - which made me think that I may want to record sound bits for use on this blog. In any event, I don't want to be congested for 2 months!

The solution my client offered was to make sure I had Meth in the decongestant I buy. I specifically need Pseudoephedrine which is a composite of 2-methylamino-1-phenylpropan-1-ol. I am no science guy, but I think I need what is in the image below.

Typically I am not a drug guy - but I just can't be like this for months.

Hopefully I'll get myself some of that tonight.

Posted at 5:13 PM | Permalink | Category: Daily Grind | Comments (1) (0)

I made a web site using iWeb. You heard me, I made a web site using iWeb, Apple's web site maker software. But don't I own and run a web development shop - yea - I do. So why did I make a web site in iWeb? Because I can.

A few years ago, around when I got married, I purchased the domains ucitydentist.com and ucitydds.com. I bought them for my father-in-law, a dentist. Like most doctors, he was/is a bit technology-challenged, but I knew he was missing out on acquiring some new patients via Google.

When I gave my keynote at Market St. Louis, I decided to finally put up a web page. Yes, a single web page at his new web page, University City Dentist. He has been servicing the St. Louis area since 1973 (yea, he is old) and his office is in a location of St. Louis named U-City or University City.

The main reason I made the web site was not to have the web site rank for U City Dentist type of keywords but to enhance his new and verified Google Maps Place page. All he needs is some positive reviews, like he has at Yelp already and he should show up in Google for keyword searches relevant to his services.

This is a major step for my father-in-law, so if you do drop a review, be kind.

Oh, and no making fun of the University City Dentist web page. I did use the "Made on a Mac" button, so it doesn't get any cooler than that!

Posted at 4:29 PM | Permalink | Category: Apple Macs | Comments (2) (0)

I recently installed a baby gate upstairs and it turned out that I needed wall anchors. I messed up and one of the anchors I used made a big hole in the wall. So I bought myself some spackle and paint and closed up the four holes I made in one wall and made four new holes about an inch to the left of those holes. I wanted to let you all know that I can also paint and spackle.

This gets added to a huge list of other things I can do, even though my father doesn't believe me.

Other things I can do include:

• Operate a circular saw
• Baby proof a house
• Build a Sukkah
• Remove squeaks
• Install plumbing
• Fill in walls
• Water seal a deck
• Install a ceiling fan
• Hang paper shades
• Hang pictures
• Install wall timers
• Change a light bulb
• Install light fixtures

So I think I am pretty useful, don't you think? I do way more than blogging. ;-)

Posted at 9:25 AM | Permalink | Category: Homey | Comments (2) (0)

Most people really do like Pizza, I do and I am sure you do also. But do you love pizza that much where you would spend close to $1,000 for a pie? Probably not.

But as you know, it was just Passover and that means, no bread and clearly no genuine pizza. People crave Pizza the whole Passover and wait to eat it. So when Passover was over, this Tuesday night at about 9pm (EST), people ran out to get a slice of Pizza.

In fact, YNet, a big Israeli news site, reported that pizza deliveries rose 38% the night after Pesach (Passover). In Israel Passover was over Monday night, YNet reported:

The website measured the food delivery orders as of 7:30 pm, when the holiday ended. According to its report, the sharpest increase – of about 50% - was recorded in the pizza arena, while hamburger orders saw a 30% rise.

The yearning for leavened food appeared to be bigger than last year, as deliveries were up 20% on Monday night compared to the end of Passover 2009.

It appears that Israelis' biggest craving was for pizza. The Domino's Pizza chain reported selling 90 pizzas a minute from 5:30 pm Monday.

Domino's Pizza is not kosher here in the States, I don't think - but I guess some chains in Israel are?

Clearly, Jews want their Pizza after Pesach. Personally, I never had a slice of pizza on the night after Pesach. The last place I want to be is a pizza store at that time. But a lot of people not only go for the food, but to say they had a slice that night. Kind of like waiting on line for an iPhone or iPad, I guess.

Now, charities are smart - they use this as a means of auctioning off the first and second pies. Here is an example of a pie going for over $700 and here is another example.

Pretty crazy. I wonder what non-Jews think of this?

Posted at 11:41 AM | Permalink | Category: Food , Religion | Comments (2) (0)

Woot is the one deal a day web site, but sometimes they do "woot offs" that sell out items throughout a single day. I was lucky enough to purchase what is known as the B.O.C., also known as the Woot Bag of Crap. They sell out in seconds and I beat out Alex, who is a veteran Woot Bag of Crap owner, by seconds to successfully order it, while he was shut out this time.

What did I get? Well, Alex got even cooler stuff, but I did get the High School Musical Decal Wall Clock, a Woot T-Shirt, a Daiwa bag and Plantronics Gaming Headset. Here are pictures of me decked out with my Woot BOC.

Joe was particularly interested in the Daiwa women's bag:

Posted at 12:20 PM | Permalink | Category: Just Funny | Comments (3) (0)

About four months ago, Verizon announced the launch of "FiOS TV On-Screen Caller ID."

This is a feature many cable providers already had. It basically shows you the caller ID of an incoming call not just on your phone but on the TV screen.

Since I never answer my house line, I kind of find this feature nice. It is interesting seeing who is calling, even though it is never for me.

With FiOS, you need to activate it on each cable box you have in your house. I believe you go to menu > settings > caller ID and then check the availability. Then you can configure the location, color and length the little caller ID box is displayed on the TV.

For this to work, you have to have Verizon Call Assistant working and configured.

Posted at 10:24 AM | Permalink | Category: Computers | Comments (1) (0)

As some of you remember, I have been baby proofing my house recently. I purchased the Kidco G20 hardware mount for the top of the steps, but found out later, I need to get an extension for it. So BabiesRUs and other stores didn't have it, but Amazon does, so I ordered it from there.

It happened to be shipped from a company called Home Naturals. It arrived this week and let me show you how it came.

The box is barely on the gate, I mean, it looks like it is hanging off the gate. Typically, when these things are shipped, they are placed in a box, and then in another box. Here, it looks like this was from the back of the stock room. I didn't open it yet, so I hope all the pieces are in there. If not, I have this picture to show Amazon or whomever.

It was shipped via UPS, but I highly doubt UPS did this to the box. I get UPS deliveries all the time and never saw anything like this.

Posted at 3:31 PM | Permalink | Category: Shopping | Comments (2) (0)