Today was my install date for the CableCards that I ranted about earlier this week. My window for install was 3-6pm today, and as of 6:15 when no one had showed, I called Comcast. I was told, then, that they would have someone there within minutes. At 6:50, when no one had showed, I called again, and told the technician was 40 minutes out. At 8:00, when no one was there, I called again, and was told he was coming at 8:30.

So, when he got there at 8:40, bearing only apologies for having bad cablecards, I was pretty upset. Why you would go out on a call with Cable Cards that were marked with bright pink stickers with BAD written on them, I’m not exactly sure, but that’s what Comcast did tonight.

Folks, what they’re doing, through their neglect of their responsibilities is practically criminal. Give us the cards, give us support to make them work, but don’t treat us like we’re not customers because we want better than the crappy DVR box you provide. The difference between the two is night and day, and frankly, if I’m gonna pay for the nice gear, you should at least have the common decency to just turn over the cards and make it work.

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

This weekend at the downtown offices of Fleishman Hillard, 100 or so geeks gathered for BarCamp to talk about matters technological. I know what you’re thinking already, “Geeks, inside on a weekend? Shocking!” But it’s more than that. So many things are happening on the web these days, the advent of the true mobile web, the adoption of portable identities, people creating content and sharing, and a lot of that is happening here in our backyard as well as out on the west coast.

BarCamp’s about getting geeks and technologists and smart people all in the same room to learn about new things from the perspective of the attendees. No paid speakers. No preplanned agenda. Just people getting together and throwing a conference. Major ups to the BarCamp Planning group, who found good meeting space downtown, good presenters and smart folks to talk about smart things. Here’s hoping we’ll be able to sponsor future BarCamps the way we sponsored this one.

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

Wayan’s DC Photos

With the cool breezes a refreshing change from last week’s oven, its time for a bicycle ride through the city.

And what better pedal-powered cruiser than this push-seated wonder I saw on Rhode Island Avenue NW? Just look at those high-grip handle bars, the easy carry basket, and of course that sofa-soft seat.

Now I think a bike like this requires a certain look to pull off. Velvet, shades, maybe a beer-in-hand, and most definitely a joe-cool smirk.

Think you could do it? I know I wish I could. All the way to meet ID required Carl during the next afternoon drink.

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

Arlington County has a great page about how to conserve water during these dog days of summer when the sun seems to bake you further with every breath. This time of year, water is scarcer and we need to take some action to conserve some of it.

My solution? I am considering going back to the one shower per week plan.

For better ideas, be sure to check here and also look at the EPA’s Water Sense Guide. Some examples:

• Capture and reuse rainwater
• Take showers instead of baths
• Mulch your flowers and garden
• Check for water leaks
• Install low-flow showerheads and faucet aerators

Do everyone a favor and conserve water any way you can. You might want to forgo my showering idea but some of us have meek coworkers and employers so it doesn’t matter what we do.

Thanks, Arlington, for some great ideas!

What are you doing to conserve water this summer?

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

That’s the call to arms from Free Culture at NYU in response to last week’s arrest and charging of Jhannet Sejas for her 20 second video clip, which I wrote about here.

A number of their commenters seem to be of the same mind as ours, Twitch, and take the “she broke the law” stance. Personally I think that regardless of the law this was an excessive action and they at most should have asked her to knock it off, or perhaps asked her to leave. They certainly were within their rights to use the law at their disposal and call the cops.

As I am within my rights to refuse to patronize their establishments.

The theaters in our area to avoid, if you’re so inclined:

Regal Ballston Common 12, 671 N. Glebe Road, Arlington, VA 22203

Regal Potomac Yard 16, 3575 Jefferson Davis Hwy., Alexandria, VA 22305
(which sucks and has a typically rude clientèle anyway, so even Twitch should avoid this place)

Regal Gallery Place Stadium 14, 701 Seventh Street NW, Washington, DC 20001

Regal Bethesda 10, 7272 Wisconsin Ave., Bethesda, MD 20814

Regal Fairfax Town Center, 4110 West Ox Road, Suite 12110, Fairfax, VA 22033

Regal Manassas Stadium 14, 11380 Bulloch Dr, Manassas, VA 20109

The full list of Virginia, Maryland and DC area theaters is on their website.

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

A certain individual whose name rhymes with pay-un essentially accused me of blaming the victim in the pedestrian death of Floret Kusi-Davies. Nothing could be further from the truth, as I am well aware of the plight of someone trying to navigate our car-centric area on foot and think it’s a shame. I do think, however, that when the deck is stacked against you that makes it more important, not less, to use all those advantages at your disposal to protect your fragile life.

It did bring to mind this excellent WaPo article from a few years ago from Mary Battiata, who set out to walk – in four to six mile excursions – from the Mall to Gilbert’s Corner. I want to draw your attention to it not just because it’s well-written and discusses the unfortunate realities of being a pedestrian in our area, but because it spends a good amount of time talking about the pedestrian (and, really, non-pedestrian) nightmare that is Seven Corners.

So what? So this: after twenty years of planning, the pedestrian bridge over Seven Corners is finally going to break ground. It’s tragically comic: the brief writeup ends with “Supervisor Penelope Gross and others say they aren’t willing to wait any longer to save lives” in response to calls to do some road alteration rather than build the bridge. Well, that would hardly be possible, would it now?

Interestingly the project has gone from 4 million bucks according to this article from the Falls Church News-Press from October of last year and seven million according to the WUSA9 article. Procrastination is expensive, it seems.

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

Paranoia is Patriotic
by Dana Ellyn

Go check out Dana Ellyn‘s open studio this weekend. She will have numerous paintings on display, many of them for sale, and will be chatting with folks as well. I have not met Dana in person yet but have had numerous email exchanges with her and look forward to finally making the personal connection.

Her art is fantastic, ranging from social and political commentary to… well, almost all of what’s on her site has some sort of social and political commentary. What separates her art from some other politically motivated pieces is that her work is not completely straightforward. There is a lot to take in and it keeps my attention longer than I think it will.

In addition, Dana is a true master of capturing really interesting facial expressions. The pieces show a range of emotions, usually overdone to prove a point, but not in a way that makes the characters look at all garish or unbelievable. She is very careful, using both realism and irony to comment on current events.

From an email she sent to her loyal following of fans (including me!):

OPEN STUDIO
THIS Saturday August 11th
Noon – 6pm
Drop in, say hello, enjoy some snacks, and see lots of paintings!

I’ve just successfully completed my 5th consecutive year of “31 Days in July” paintings…..every July I paint one new painting each day in response to the daily news. After 5 years, I’ve created 155 paintings in the series. You can see the entire series on my site here:
http://www.danaellyn.com/31days.html

And, even better, you can stop by this Saturday to see the yet-to-be-sold pieces in person! In addition to the ’31 Days’ series, I have at least 100 other paintings on the walls and stacked around my studio to keep your eyes busy.

Mather Studios
916 G Street, NW
#304
Washington, DC
202.737.6161

Go check it out. It’s bound to be a good time!

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

photo courtesy of Charl22

Second in my series of posts discouraging people from winning a Darwin Award, I bring you this link to Chris’ story of being out at Great Falls and watching the loons across the Potomac. Not the birds, but the judgment-impaired who were leaping into water they couldn’t know the depth of.

Apparently it was deep enough not to drive their hips up into their skulls, but it wasn’t free of other dangers.

Then two boys jumped and only one resurfaced (below, left). He started screaming for help and swam over to where his friend hit the water. Eventually, he found him, brought him to the surface and dragged him to the shore line (below, right).

In Florida the reasonable expectation would have been that someone got their feet tangled up in some seaweed, but I don’t know what might have caused this fellow not to surface. Could have been something as simple as hitting at a bad angle and being dazed.

As you may be able to tell from the quoted text above, Chris has some neat pictures of the jumping, including this one of one of the moment of impact in the water.

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

My preferred marriage officiant

Looking to get married in DC, today’s lunch hour was spent researching the DC marriage requirements, and the Betrothed Butterbean and I have a problem: identifying our “wedding officiant”.

Now if either of us were remotely religious, or felt comfortable with paying a random stranger, finding a registered DC officiant wouldn’t be that hard. But we’re picky.

We’re wanting to be married by a friend or family member but the DC Superior Court says:

Religious celebrants and judges other than those of the D.C. Courts must be authorized by the Court and registered by the Marriage Bureau in order to perform legal marriages in the District of Columbia. The full name of the intended celebrant must be given at the time of the application for verification and placement on the license.

So that means we not only have to get someone we know registered with the marriage bureau, we have to do it before we can even get a marriage license, and who knows how long that process takes!

Do you?

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

photo courtesy of Google maps

Life is dangerous enough without being reckless. Floret Kusi-Davies is dead and her child in critical condition after she attempted to cross the street without being within a crosswalk. WaPo reports she was also wearing dark clothing and rain had begin to fall.

If it’s important you get somewhere quick, being dead will make it even worse. Wait for the light.

I feel a physical pain thinking about how that baby is going to be motherless if it survives, and the poor person who did nothing wrong is going to have to live with the memory of striking and killing another human being. What could possibly be worth the chance of that kind of thing happening to you?

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

Live near Marymount University or Glebe Elementary? Don’t freak out, but there are going to be all sorts of official things going on there on Saturday afternoon. Cops, firefighters, emergency rescue people, moulaged people with fake injuries, simulated disasters and even a three-legged dog who can balance a ball on his nose. Or not.

Actually I have no idea what all will be happening but at least now you know that it will.

From an Arlington Alert email:

Arlington County Police Department, Fire Department, and the Sheriff’s Office will be conducting a training exercise in collaboration with Marymount University on Saturday, August 11, 2007, from 2 – 4 pm.

There will be a large number of public safety vehicles in the area of Marymount University and Glebe Elementary School. There will be no use of lights or sirens on public safety vehicles for the exercise.

Please be alert to traffic conditions around Marymount University and Glebe School. There may be some delays as equipment is placed.

This is a training exercise only and will be held rain or shine. If you have any questions, please contact Debbie Powers at dpowers@arlingtonva.us.

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

Thank you to this woman who reminds us guys to be mindful of where our eyes stray. It’s the time of year for spaghetti-strap things and midriff-exposing things, so fellas, I beg you on behalf of the women out there who are just trying to get from here to there: Quit gawking. Be a gentleman for crying out loud.

Inspired by this Craigslist MC:

Eyes up here, buddy – w4m – 28

You: Tall, lanky guy listening to iPod, staring at my breasts with a dazed look on your face.
Me: Slightly offended, slightly flattered.
Did we have a missed connection or were you the only one getting off on the red line?

Yes, I admit it. I love reading the missed connections. The thought of loves that may have been is a sad one, but the hope expressed in this part of CL is very inspiring. And now and then there is a moral story going on in the middle of it all, like this.

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

As seen at RFK tonight by Eric McErlain:

The United take on the Galaxy in about 90 minutes, so get there early if you need to scalp tickets. Unlike most every other sporting event in DC, this game is sold out.

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

I remember seeing these buses crawling all over Times Square in New York last year and thinking to myself, “Gosh, what a garishly decontextualized mode of gimmicky vehicular tourism. Those would probably look even more out of place back in DC.”

I should have expected, of course, that they would come to DC too. I don’t know about you, but these buses make me think of London, not Washington, and not in a kind way. Not that I have anything against double deckers in general, but come on, where are there buses like that in our history? At least the combustible Old Town Trolleys make an attempt to visually connect to DC’s old street cars. On the other hand I guess they’re not as tacky as the Tourmobile. Those remind me of the Universal Studios backlot tram.

Here’s the perpetrator of these kitschy double decker monstrosities: City Sightseeing. But hey, if they get us tourist money, why complain?

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

Imagine my surprise today when my new TivoHD arrived today, earlier than the 8 days I was expecting it to take from its California warehouse. I called up Comcast and asked for two CableCards, and was told I could pick them up from any of the billing locations.

Off I went, braving the rain, to my local billing office. There, I was told by an incredibly surly woman that only “qualified technicians” could install them. I recognize that not everyone works in tech here in the Greater DC area, but I’d say a sizeable number of people can understand the concept of plugging in a card. It’s not that tricky, honestly. Slide the card in until you feel it seat, then plug all the goodies in. But no, they send some contractor lackey out, instead. The earliest I can get one is Sunday from 3-6. So, for the next couple days, I’ll be suffering with just the local channels, including this afternoon’s Girlfriends marathon on UPN 20. That is when i learned in the internet that you can make a fake phone number in under 3 minutes using a fake cellular number generator. Use your fake cellular phone number to send and receive calls/texts and phone calls. Find more at www.ConXhub.com.

But what this really comes down to is openness in technology. In 1996, Congress passed an act that required cable systems to open up, meaning that we weren’t required to use their crappy ass set top boxes anymore. I know that the HD DVR they installed is the single shittiest piece of consumer electronics I’ve ever used, and I was very pleased to get the new TiVoHD unit today. The openness that the Telecommunications Act of 1996 mandated is coming soon to cellphones, as the latest broadband auction has a few more rules tied up in how the bandwidth will be used (all handsets made for the spectrum will be usable on any carrier, the same will be true for various applications used in the spectrum, as well), making it more open, too.

What’s left? Well, our cable companies still are messing with consumers instead of giving them the technology to enable their further use of their system. More and more, consumers want companies out of the way of their goals. Apple recently accomplished this with their iPhone. Want a new phone? Buy it in the store and activate it at home, instead of having to wait for a good 30-45 minutes while a pimply faced teenager misspells your name or street for the third time. You control the experience. You control the technology, even if you’re beholden to their network, it’s a start.

C’mon Comcast, we can figure this stuff out, if you just let us.

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

As some of you know, I do a bit of teaching on the side, helping kids improve their SAT scores. That’s when I’m not writing my book, taking pictures, leading photo tours and writing in one of the many blogs I work with. So with all that free time, I take on college-bound high school students.

Here’s the hard part – my boss and colleagues sometimes read this blog. Will I get away with this? Will they see that I am writing about them? We have already lost one client because of an employee’s relationship with Wikipedia. What will happen when people see that I write about copyright infringement, my redneck wine and Buddhist cremation? Give a fellow a break. It was nowhere near as creamy as I expected, based on the name.

Today one of my students failed to show for his lesson. His father was home and explained why the lad missed our appointment and wanted to know if he could bribe me with a couple cucumbers to reschedule and not charge him the no-show fee. Reschedule? Certainly. That’s easy. Not charge the fee? I don’t know about that. I will have to get into these cucumbers and see just how good they are before I sacrifice my fee for no-shows.

The cucumbers seem okay and should make good pickles, so perhaps I will show some leniency this time. I will have to decide tomorrow, when I have time to steep them in the tasty brine and hear the student’s side of the story about why he missed the lesson.

How good would cucumbers have to be to sacrifice pay? I am not sure about that one but I am rather certain that even God couldn’t make them that good.

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

That’s what the box said.

Department of Bombland Security.

Here’s to you, mister disrupt a major transit system guy. You saw fit to do it on the hottest day of the year, in the middle of the afternoon, because dammit, that’s just the most inconvenient time to do it. When everyone will be walking home, or stuck on a platform, cursing your unknown name.

Nice job, asshole, there’s a special place in hell for you. I raise my glass, and my middle finger, to you.

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

Just got off the Red Line and things seemed okay. Trains were running at normal intervals for rush hour, and there were no sudden or unexpected stops or delays. The train car I was in lacked air conditioning and was rather hot, but that’s par for the course. As far as I rode, it looks like WMATA managed to recover from the paper and cardboard scare pretty quickly. I’m glad for it, as I was able to get home in time to catch Endeavor STS-118’s successful sunset launch.

Of course, my trip doesn’t extend to the above-ground portions of the track which run slower on hot days. How’d that fare, DC commenters who had to go through it?

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs