Cartoon Barry Blog - Barry Schwartz's Personal Blog

My Flickr Sets Keep Disappearing

I am a big Flickr user for both professional and personal use.

For some pictures, mostly personal, I use Flickr sets, so I can group them together and send out a link to my family, so they can access the private pictures.

Normally, I'll upload the pictures, place them in a set and then email the family with a URL to access the images.

A day or two later, the set disappears. It is gone, like it never was there.

At first, I thought it was iPhoto removing the set. But I totally disconnected iPhoto to Flickr.

Now, I have no clue what is going on.

The images don't disappear, I don't think. But the sets are deleted and gone.

Any clues?

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

Replaced My AMEX With Chase Continental Card

A month ago, I applied for the Chase Continental Presidents Plus card.

I got the cards this week and already moved all my known spending to this card.

I will soon be free of American Express. Don't get me wrong. I don't mind AMEX, they have been good to me. But I am leaving AMEX only because they will soon have no deal with my preferred airline, Continental.

So switching to a credit card that gives me the only CC perks I use, i.e. buying airline tickets and getting airline perks, is the main reason.

The Chase Continental Presidents Plus card gives me all these perks and more.

I have not cancelled my AMEX yet, but I will before the renewal charge.

Goodbye AMEX, I will miss you.

Posted at 4:04 PM | Permalink | Category: Business , Travels | Comments (0) (0)

Head Cold Causes Numbness In The Face? Careful What You Google

As some of you know, I had a head cold earlier this week and now I sound pretty congested - no big deal, I am normally in a state of congestion.

But this morning, I freaked out a bit.

I woke up, opened my computer, did some work immediately - like I always do. Then I had to sneeze. So I ran over to the bathroom and I think I sneezed two or three times.

I came back to my computer, began working again.

Then I felt tingling and numbness on my left side of my face. Mostly coming from the left side of the nose, running down to my top left lips and gums.

To be honest, I was freaked out. But I didn't want to freak out anyone else.

So I did some searches on Google and became even more freaked out. I decided to be more specific with my searches and found some people saying a head cold and bad sinuses can cause that feeling.

Using that rational, I went back to the bathroom and blew my nose a few more times. I figured maybe something is blocking blood flow and sneezing would move things around.

I guess it worked. 10 minutes later, after likely 15 minutes of real numbness, the numbness started to subside. It was all better in 5 minutes and I was happy.

But I was freaked out.

Lesson, be careful how you search on Google and what you read after you click on results.

Posted at 12:36 PM | Permalink | Category: Just Weird | Comments (1) (0)

My "Naked Parts" Courtesy of Airport Security

Past few weeks, I have been in a bunch of airports. Some of them had the new "Millimeter wave scanner" body scanners. If you have been reading the news this week, you would have noticed lots of complaints about them.

Well, I went through at least one in the past week or two and I wanted to share a picture of mine for all to enjoy.

The picture was provided by Gizmodo and I decided to admit it was mine because @Matt_Siltala requested to see my naked parts.

Hope you all are happy now.

FYI, I am kidding, this is not me but it could have been.

In any event, I don't see why this is such a big deal. These images barely show anything. There are some scanners that show a heck of a lot more.

Of course, there are many concerned with being exposed to more radiation. That is a fair fear.

Posted at 2:29 PM | Permalink | Category: Travels | Comments (2) (0)

Bad Spelling = Good Spelling

Yesterday, I wrote a brief story on Google's new service named Hotpot. The thing is, when I posted on it, I thought it was "Hotspot" and not "Hotpot."

Dumb, lazy mistake - I attributed it to not feeling well. @patrickaltoft called me out on it and I fixed it minutes later.

But within that time frame, I received over a 1,000 visits from Google searchers who were also misspelling it.

Here is a screen shot of the referrals I received from Google for people searching "hotspot":

As you can see, sometimes bad spelling can translate into good results.

I'll try not to do it again.

Posted at 1:16 PM | Permalink | Category: SEO Tips | Comments (2) (0)

Dead Blog

Sorry for not updating this blog in a week or so.

Past two weeks I have been traveling.

This Monday, I got sick.

Now feeling a bit better.

I'll get back into the swing of things.

I have been tweeting, so you can follow that at @rustybrick.

Posted at 12:37 PM | Permalink | Category: Blogging | Comments (0) (0)

Daylight Saving Time : Where Did It Come From?

Sunday at 2am the U.S. moved their clocks back. Any parent knows that their kids don't move their clock backs simply because it is a rule.

I wondered where it came from, why do we have daylight saving time (DST) and does everyone observe it?

Wikipedia, of course, has good information on all of this.

It has always been around on some level. Many workers and people adjusted their days based on the hours of sunlight on a specific day. In fact, many of Jewish laws revolve around how many hours of daylight there is in a day.

But it wasn't until 1895 when George Vernon Hudson came up with modern day DST. He submitted a paper a few years later and countries began adopting it. The United States adopted it in 1918. Of course, there were changes made to it over the years.

But it was not adopted everywhere. He is a map from Wikipedia showing where it was, wasn't adopted.

   DST used
   DST no longer used
   DST never used

Interesting stuff...

Posted at 11:12 AM | Permalink | Category: Just Interesting | Comments (1) (0)

At Gate Change Fees: Borderline Theft

Yesterday, I was on the way back from the BlueGlass Conference from Fort Lauderdale Airport (FLL). I happen to walk into the lounge and ask, are there any flights going back to Newark before the one I was on.

I was at the lounge, through security at about 2:20. The Continental rep said there is one going out at 2:30, a gate away from the lounge. She got me on the flight, but for a $50 fee. The flight had plenty of available seats, but according to Continental's Same-Day Change Policy, I had to be charged $50 or wait for the next flight, which happened to be very booked.

Think about it - I am at the airport, ready to board a plane that is not full. It doesn't cost them anything to put me on that flight. In fact, they can likely sell my seat on the next flight - but yet they have to charge me $50.

A year or two ago, this was not an issue. It happened to me a lot. Continental often have several flights going out a day to their hub, Newark. So options are always there. Normally, I'd arrive at the airport and see a delayed flight being boarded. I'd ask to be put on that flight and they would put me on it without question and without a fee.

Now, they charge - no matter what. Except if you are a Platinum Elite status. Here are the fees for the various levels: