A thunderstorm buffeted the New York City region this evening and lightning flashed across the sky.
Mar 292009
Mar 292009
This past Saturday, New York City dimmed the lights of many buildings as a statement towards conserving energy. It was very strange to see the Brooklyn Bridge unlit.
Sarah and I were hanging out in DUMBO. For some reason, it was like I was seeing double.
Mar 262009
Yesterday’s New York Times Dining In/Dining Out section, aka the food section, had eight pages. Excluding advertisements by and for the New York Times, there was a single full page display advertisement and two small display classified advertisements. If that doesn’t make the Times management a little nervous, I don’t know what does.
In other New York Times Dining News, Kim Severson and Julia Moskin had dueling dinner parties to see who could cook the best meal. Frank Bruni, the restaurant critic for the Times was the judge. Unfortunately, in a non-critical piece, he ultimately weaseled. Unsurprisingly, it’s more difficult to criticize people you know and work with than it is to visit restaurants anonymously and potentially destroy their livelihoods with your critiques.
Jan 172009
Last week I decided to order Verizon Fios. I’ve been tired of Time Warner Cable’s anti-competitive practices, their poor customer service, and their flaky appointments. In addition, Verizon Fios offers high-speed Internet for the home; I decided to order their 20 Mbps upload and 20 Mbps download package. (Compared with TWC, this is quite a different; my maximum download speed has been 10 Mbps and my maximum upload speed has been 1 Mbps.)
Signing up with Verizon should have been easy. On Monday, I went to their website, picked the correct package, chatted with the online service rep. and scheduled my installation. I confirmed with my manager that I could work from home on Friday to accommodate Verizon’s very large installation window of 8 am through 5 pm.
A few hours after signing up, I received a phone call from Verizon: they did not have the CSC code from my credit card. I know I entered my credit card information correctly, and I am not in the habit of giving out private credit card information to random incoming calls. So I let them know I would call back. When I called back, it turned out that Verizon had no record of my order at all. Apparently, when I did not give them my CSC code the order was canceled completely.
This wasn’t a huge problem, I thought and we were able to create a new order and reschedule the installation for the same date. The only minor snafus were when the Verizon representative attempted to get additional personal identifying information from me, such as my birth date and social security number. When I asked why they wanted that information, I was told it was totally unnecessary.
After the phone order was completed, I received email from Verizon confirming my order. Then, I received a phone call confirming my appointment. And finally, a few hours later, I received another phone call from the New York dispatcher’s office confirming my appointment. The next day, I also confirmed the appointment online.
Yesterday, I sat around my house trying to do work. Unfortunately, I found out that my company’s VPN solution does not play nicely with my cable modem, so I was only able to read email. Around 2 pm, I decided to check with Verizon to make sure they were still coming. And after navigating their phone tree and waiting on hold, at 2:30 pm I was told that I would get a call back within two hours.
At 4:30, my phone rang. It was Verizon telling me that my appointment had been scheduled and then canceled at 7:57 am. Needless to say, I was a big annoyed by this revelation. There was no explanation for the missed appointment, nor any guarantee of credit. (For what it’s worth, New York City has regulations where if a cable company misses an installation appointment, they must perform free installation and give one free month of service. Verizon was trying to get this provision waived for Fios.)
I scheduled another appointment for Saturday from 8 am through noon. At 12:05 pm, since no one from Verizon had shown up, I gave them a call again. I got through to a rep around 12:15 pm and was told I would get a call back by 1. At 1 pm, I called again–I was told that they were running two hours late.
And now we get to 2 pm. A Verizon tech just arrived at my apartment. He has never wired a large co-op apartment before and does not know where to put the ONT or the power supply. His current proposal is to drill a large hold in my closet wall to access the apartment power supply. At best, that would look terrible, so he is going to make a few calls to see what he should be doing.
I’m going to file complaints with New York City DoITT, my council member, and probably the FCC–this kind of service is absurd. I’m curious to see if I’m going to get anywhere near of a good resolution.
Update 2:41 pm: I’ve spoken with the technician who has come to install Fios. Like all of the people I’ve dealt with at Verizon, he is smart and enthusiastic. Unfortunately, the Verizon management has over-scheduled the techs and not given them the equipment they need. In this case, the tech was sent out without the equipment to thread the fiber from the main distribution point on my floor to my apartment. We’re waiting to see if he can get the equipment needed.
I’m not sure what’s so hard with this installation. Everyone I’ve dealt with is professional and pleasant, and it’s unfortunate that the employees seem hobbled by poor management. Verizon, you seem to have good product and good people! Why is this experience so unpleasant?
Update 4:30 pm: The technician from Verizon did not have the equipment he needed to perform the installation in my apartment. (He needed a tool to thread the fiber from the floor wire closet to my apartment.) His manager did not call him back, and he had to leave at 3:30 pm. (Verizon is not authorizing overtime.) I spoke with Verizon after he left for a bit, and I now have an appointment for February 1st. Who knows if they will be showing up. As I wrote before, I filed complaints with DoITT, the FCC, and my city council member. It will be interesting to see what kind of response I get. Hopefully, the official complaints will prompt change from the senior management of Verizon to run a tighter ship and bring some better management to their dispatcher teams. Also, note to Verizon: don’t overbook appointment slots.
Ironically, I would be a much happier customer if Verizon had proactively called me to cancel or reschedule the appointment. I know it’s a shocking idea for a phone company.
Jan 172009
Like everyone else in New York City, I was fascinated by the miraculous ditching of US Airways 1549 on the Hudson River. Several coworkers mentioned to me that the plane was visible from the offices of the 15th floor, and they watched it float down the river. The Hudson river has a strong current, and the water was frigid, and the prompt actions of the ferries, tugboats, and emergency services saved lives. (One friend of mine walking down 10th Avenue shortly after the crash saw more ambulances at once than she had ever seen.)
Two websites caught my eye after the crash. The first was FlightAware, which provides live tracking of airplanes. You can see the minute-by-minute progress of flight 1549; I’ve also grabbed a screen-shot from flightaware.com.
Another site that had a unique view of the rescuers was Tugster. I mentioned this website previously; Will Van Dorp had some terrific photos of the ships involved with the rescue.
Incidents like this make me proud to be a New Yorker–the city has so many heroes.
Jan 082009
Shortly before Thanksgiving, I was taking a walk downtown with a friend of mine. We stopped by the South Street Seaport to take a look at the river and saw this barge pushed beneath the Brooklyn Bridge. (The Brooklyn Bridge goes over the East River in New York City.)
My friend Phil notes that this is a crane; the large posts are pylons that sink into the riverbed and keep the crane steady. I wasn’t able to find any references to this barge in five minutes of searching, but I did find this interesting blog about the New York Harbor.
Nov 242008
Last week, while I was still at PhotoShelter, a coworker and I looked out the window and wondered what the commotion was outside of a van in Union Square. it turns out that it was newspaper distribution. The next morning, she picked up what seemed to be The New York Times from a person handing them out.
The New York Times wrote an article about the prank; there is also a well-done companion site.
Nov 242008
You might think it is too late in the Fall to be hearing about the spider in my window; you would be wrong. Just this afternoon, I looked out my window to see the spider creating a giant 2-foot diameter web. After completing the web, it rested in the middle before hiding once again.
This spider has had some interesting behavior. I’ve seen it out at night a few times; as the nights have gotten colder this has stopped.
I think there may have been two spiders near my apartment at one point. I saw a desiccated spider body caught on a web at the same time as the live spider.
I’ve often wondered where the spider goes when it gets cold and windy. A few weeks ago, I found my answer.
As you can see from this photo, the spider is actually hidden in the sill, specifically between the outer lining and the window.
More interestingly, the spider actually had two legs out hooked to a thread. The thread ran to the center of the still intact orb. In other words, the spider was still hooked into it’s main web and could detect if an insect landed on the web itself.
I’ve never heard this behavior described before.
Here’s a photo that really shows off the web
I’ve taken a couple of videos of the spider. The spider doesn’t move a lot, and when it does, it’s difficult to capture all of it’s movement. (I think this is why you always see spider webs being shown fast-forward.)
I had to swap out the audio of this movie since what I had from the television was even more annoying than the music I swapped in.
Nov 182008
Empire State Building from 43rd Street and 6th Avenue on November 6th
Nov 072008
Two of my friends have also had this stomach flu; it’s probably what I had when I went on a cruise around Manhattan: another bout of stomach flu.