Dusty’s Last Hoorah!

March started out with a bang with Dusty’s Bachelor Party in Orlando Florida.  While I can’t post much about the experience…  I can say it was a blast!

Dusty's BP

ZJ

ZJ continues to grow at an unbelievable pace.   If you haven’t seen it yet check out Video Clip’s of our Growing Son!  ZJ is currently 15 lbs.

Growing Strong

Fire Scare

While Lauren Cattaneo and Lissa (who always seems to bring the heat) were in town we came home to a 2 alarm fire in our townhouse complex!  Scary day.  Jess Zaks and Lauren came to Maddy and Molly’s rescue and put them in Jess’s car while the fire was extinguished.

Fire Damage

Forced Vacation

I apparently accumulated too much vacation over the last 6 months and was forced to take an unscheduled break from the daily grind.  I happened to play the break during St. Patricks day and Chris Odom saved the day by coming to Charleston to party it up!  It was great to catch up and slam a few car bombs with a good friend.  The day after St. Patricks day we were pretty hung over so we decided to do something fun and sober so we checked out the Patriots Point Naval & Maritime Museum.

This picture cracks me up!

March Madness

Maryland’s defeat was brutal and my bracket is shot.  Enough said

Work Projects

1.  I am still working on Dunn & Bradstreet Reverse Transition Application Inventory & Compliance.  I have learned some interesting processes on managing application inventory, licensing and compliance.

2.  I am starting up my role as PM in charge of managing all items network related in a mainframe migration for Zurich.  We are moving a Mainframe from a Zurich Data Center in LA to a CSC Data Center (CDC) in Chicago.  Hopefully I can find an excuse to travel to either as I would love to see the Piaggi’s in LA or the (soon to be) Walkers in Chicago.

Personal Projects

Small projects moving along.

1.  My projects for Paula vW. Dail, PhD are almost complete

writingladllc.com

MemoriesofyouBook.com

2.  We just updated melissabarrickphotography.com to ProPhoto 3

3.  I need to build Casey Spears http://prestonlandscaping.com/.  Thank you Casey for your patience.

4.  I finally finished creating Erin Shaklee’s DVD of her wedding.  It includes a short video that is fun to watch

5.  I need to make Jimmy and Christa’s wedding video.  Now that I am done Erin’s I can get to it.

Fun Month coming up…

April 9th - Lance Visits Charleston to meet ZJ  We also timed his trip right so he could catch…

Spiritual Rez plays Sunday April 11th @ Chai’s Lounge & Tapa’s.  It is definitely the best place in Charleston to watch them play and grab a drink.  If you have no plans definitely come.

April 23rd – Mom & Pop’s fly down from Maryland for ZJ’s Baptism

April 25th – ZJ gets Baptized

April 27th – ZJ’s Half Birthday!  6 Months Old

April 28th – Taylor visits Charleston!

*

That’s it for now.  I hope everyone has a good April Fools planned

Dear Zane And Karen,

You are receiving this email because you added unlimited Blu-ray
access to your account for $1 a month. The number of Blu-ray titles
has increased significantly and will continue to do so. As we buy
more, you are able to choose from a rapidly expanding selection of
Blu-ray titles. And as you’ve probably heard, Blu-ray discs are
substantially more expensive than standard definition DVDs.

As a result, the monthly charge for Blu-ray access is increasing for
most plans and will now vary by plan. The charge for monthly Blu-ray
access on your 3 DVDs at-a-time (Unlimited) plan will increase from $1
a month to $4 a month. The price of your 3 DVDs at-a-time (Unlimited)
plan is not changing and remains at $16.99 a month.

The new charge for Blu-ray access will be automatically added to your
next billing statement on or after April 27, 2009 and will be
referenced in your Membership Terms and Details.

If you wish to continue unlimited Blu-ray access for $4 a month, you
don’t need to do anything. If not, you can remove Blu-ray access
anytime by visiting Your Account.

If you have questions about this change or need any assistance, please
call us anytime at 1-888-923-0898.

-The Netflix Team

Dear Netflix,

I have been a valued customer since September 26, 2005 (minus a hiatus in ’07 when I moved to S.C.). I have promoted your service to friends and family. I have gifted 6 month memberships multiple times. Since 07/23/07 (we created a new account when we moved) I have paid you 337.34 in on time scheduled payments and have rented 111 movies (averaging around $3.03 a movie). I am now canceling my account

I am tired of getting nickel and dimed by corporate America. I just learned last week that Comcast raised the price of my DVR by $1 and HD by ~$4 with 0 notification. I guess I should be happy that Netflix sent me an email notifying me of the increase. The problem I have with this is that Netflix claims they are raising the price due to the higher cost of Blu-Ray discs. While that does seem logical at first do you really think they are going to lower the price when Blu-Ray costs drop? I don’t think so! Did airlines remove “Gas” fees when the price of fuel dropped? No sir. I know how this game works and I’m not playing.

Fortunately for us there is competition out there. While I HATE Blockbuster WITH A PASSION I have to say that their current plans are appealing (and cheaper then Netflix). You can get the exact same plan I had previously with Netflix (3 x DVD/Blu-Ray’s mailed to our house for 17.99) for only $15.99. Karen and I decided to try out Blockbusters Total Access for 16.99 / mo + tax. With this plan we get 2 x DVD/Blu-Ray’s with store trade ins. This means that we can go inside the blockbuster right down the street, hand in a mailed DVD/Blu-Ray and receive a new DVD/Blu-Ray instantly. I kind of miss walking the aisles to pick a flick and am looking forward to revisiting the experience. We can do this up to three times a month. After that we can exchange mailed movies for $1.99. Visit Blockbusters Total Access site to learn more. The only thing blockbuster seems to be missing is the ability to stream movies to my XBox 360. I am not worried about it though. I never really found the titles online worthwhile and used it a total of 3 times the entire time I had it (more to ooo and ahh at the ability to do it).

If you are interested in canceling your account I have found some good information online @ netflixunderground. Upon canceling Netflix your account is immediately stopped and any unused portions of the month that you have already paid for are lost. I just renewed my account on 3/20 so I plan on canceling my account on 4/13 to give me enough time to mail in final movies (According to Netflix Underground if you haven’t returned your movie by the next billing cycle you are billed again).

Another post on this subject by Engadget:
http://www.engadget.com/2009/03/30/netflix-raising-rates-for-blu-ray-subscribers-by-around-20/

I expect that in 4 months you will find me here again bitching about how the teenage cashier in Blockbuster annoyed me, or how some hidden late fee bit me in the behind and I am going back to Netflix. But, For the moment I am content.

Update: My alarm just reminded me to cancel Netflix. Done. I have 7 days to return all movies or I will be charged for them. Mailing them tomorrow. So Long Netflix…

Do you ever find yourself struggling to figure out how to manage the torrent of new web services available out there? Probably not. I doubt you sit up at nights trying to figure out how to avoid using duplicate services for single purposes. Good news is I do. If your tired of trying to figure out what service to use for what task I prescribe using something similar to what I use. (I am very well aware that this is not the only way to do things online but I have found it has worked best for me.)

So without any further introduction, here is a Visio brainstorm of how I currently have my “Social Network” set up. This will likely change as new services come to be with better prices or products.

This chart is a little deceiving. The double sided arrows are misleading. The chart has a top down topology where items above “Feed” into the nodes below.

What are these services, why did I pick them, and How do I manage feeds?

• Links (http://www.tumblr.com): When you find a picture, video or link online and you want to share quickly but don’t really feel like posting a long blog about it? You need a Tumblog. I use Tumblr because I believe it was one of the first Tumbleogs and from what I have experienced it works great.

  Tumblr has two features I like:

  1. A great “Share on Tumblr” bookmark. This makes adding a link to your Tumblr page as easy as pushing a bookmark button on your toolbar. Adding the button to your toolbar is easy too. Just login and click the “Goodies” link. Follow the instructions for the Bookmarklet.

  2. RSS Feed importing. You can import any RSS subscriptions. To do so go to the Dashboard, Customize, Import feeds. This is how WordPress and Vimeo are imported on the chart above.

  WordPress has a bookmarklet feature similar to tumblr but I like to separate quick posts from blog entries as I don’t want to ambush email subscribers with links that I find throughout the day. My tumblr page is http://zaneperry.tumblr.com/ and it currently serves as the default homepage for http://www.zaneperry.com. My Tumblr account automatically updates my twitter account.

  Update: Here is a video I found demoing Tumblr http://vimeo.com/2864076

• Blog (http://www.wordpress.org): I use WordPress, an open source blogging web application, which allows me to customize every detail and runs on my server. WordPress feeds my tumblr (described above) and Facebook.

  Any blogging service that outputs an RSS feed (almost all do) will work. Alternatives to hosting your own blog arehttp://www.wordpress.com which is a free commercial version of WordPress and http://www.blogger.com. You are currently on my wordpress blog.

• Video (http://www.vimeo.com/): There is an infinite variety of video sites out there to use. I am a fan of Vimeo’s simplicity, features and user base. Alternatives include Youtube (of course), ustream.tv, blip.tv, dailymotion.com and much much more. My vimeo account is at http://www.vimeo.com/zane
• Photo (http://flickr.com): Flickr has managed to continue to be the best bang for your buck. $24.95 USD a year for infinite storage. Since I have over 24k pics (and growing) this was my only real option. Picasa Web Albums has the best photo manager features but prices start out at 10 GB for $20.00 USD a year. You can use Picasa Photo Manager to upload photo’s to Facebook and Flickr but you will not have the “autosync” features that Picasa Web and Picasa Photo Manager have. I use Picasa Web’s free 1GB of storage to host my most recent albums as it allows other users to download the entire album with the push of a button (again, using Picasa Photo Manager). If you have ever visited a close friend or family’s photo album and had to manually save every picture you liked you will respect this feature. My flickr account can be found at http://www.flickr.com/photos/zaneperry/. I have also created a shortcut to my sets at http://flickr.zaneperry.com/.
• Facebook (http://facebook.com): Facebook is quickly becoming the best social network for friends and family out there. It quickly replaced MySpace as the #1 tool due to cleanliness and functionality. Many people today are still hooked on MySpace and refuse to make the change. Some people refuse to use either at all! I currently pull Tumblr, Flickr, digg (my digg page) and WordPress posts to Facebook using applications and Facebooks import feature. I feed Facebook Status updates to Twitter by using Facebooks MiniFeed (http://www.facebook.com/minifeed.php) and twitterfeed (http://twitterfeed.com/ which allows you to input any RSS feed to twitter. My Facebook profile is http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=503638088.

Last but not least

• Twitter (http://twitter.com): Twitter… What is this beast that is taking over everything from customer relations, to Police Dispatch! It took me over a year to figure it out. It’s founding use was to share information quickly with your friends or family (like a text message) but it has adapted a broader use of sharing quick information with the world. Many people notice the similarities between Facebook and Twitter. That is because Facebook is trying to adopt Twitters stream-like qualities. I have only recently begun adopting the tool but until more friends and family create users my use of it directly will be limited. You can find me on twitter @ZanePerry.

Well, thats it for now. I hope you found this article useful. Given the rate of change these days this graph will probably be completely different in a month. Tell me what you think, what you use and post any questions as a comment. I look forward to hearing from you.

Update 4/29/09:

In case you were wondering how to feed Facebook status update to twitter. Google twitterfeed and make an account. Then follow the following instructions to get your Status RSS feed.

In FB, go to your Inbox > Notifications page
At the bottom of the right column, there’s the link for the Notifications feed… right click on it and copy the link
To test that it works, paste that URL into your browser and hit enter. (You’ll see your notifications feed show up)
In that URL, change ONLY the portion that stays “notifications.php” to “status.php” and hit enter. You now have your status rss feed.
You can also replace “notifications.php” with “notes.php” to get your “notes” feed.

]]> http://www.zaneperry.com/wp/the-internet-today-is-a-little-confusing/feed/ 3 http://www.zaneperry.com/wp/blog-updated-again-subscription-update-required/ http://www.zaneperry.com/wp/blog-updated-again-subscription-update-required/#comments Tue, 17 Mar 2009 05:53:57 +0000 Zane Perry http://www.zaneperry.com/wp/?p=384 While helping Melissa Wise Barrick update her photographer blog I decided it was time to change my own blog theme as well. My old theme had too skinny of a format that constrained the photo and video size of what I could post and the side bar was too crowded with widgets.

I believe you will like the new design. I need to improve on the Banner images but the overall look is 10 times better in my opinion. For those of you interested I am now using the prophoto 2 WordPress theme. The Pro Photo theme creators allow two installation of their theme so Melissa and I decided to split the costs. The theme is more aimed at photographers but I think it works well for any purpose.

While installing and personalizing the new theme I learned of a email subscription service called feedburner that I believe will make subscribing to my site an exponentially better experience then it is now. I really, really, really, really hope you decide to renew your subscription by following the instructions below. It will take you no longer then 10 seconds to do.

If you would like to continue your subscription to my site please visit the following link and input your email address:

>>> Subscribe to Zane Perry’s Blog by Email <<<

I will be disabling the old subscription service April 1st so if you haven’t subscribed to the new service you will no longer receive email updates (boo hoo, I know!). There will always be a Subscribe form at the bottom of the new page so if you decide not to subscribe now and then change your mind in the future you can always re-subscribe. I have set my subscriptions to be sent at 7AM-9AM EST so people can check out my posts while at work and to allow me to catch any mistakes in posts before they are distributed. I hope this improves your experience.

Write a comment and let me know what you think. If you have any trouble subscribing feel free to send me an email or write a comment.

I look forward to writing more this Spring and hope you continue to read! More to come



Update: If you are interested in using the ProPhoto2 theme use referral code ZANEP588 and receive a $10 discount

]]> http://www.zaneperry.com/wp/blog-updated-again-subscription-update-required/feed/ 3 http://www.zaneperry.com/wp/my-cousin-rachel-gordan-karen-on-low-country-live-this-morning/ http://www.zaneperry.com/wp/my-cousin-rachel-gordan-karen-on-low-country-live-this-morning/#comments Wed, 25 Feb 2009 19:42:47 +0000 Zane Perry http://www.zaneperry.com/wp/?p=324 Karen is @ 4:06!

Low Country Live 2/25/09 from Zane on Vimeo.

Great Job Rachel! You should be a Talk Show host

Way to go Karen! Your were so beautiful! Your a Natural Model

If your in the Charleston area tomorrow night swing by Rachel’s show. There is a TON of talent at these shows and an Open Bar! Hope to see you there!

Rachel Gordon Style




]]> http://www.zaneperry.com/wp/my-cousin-rachel-gordan-karen-on-low-country-live-this-morning/feed/ 0 http://www.zaneperry.com/wp/eat-a-pita/ http://www.zaneperry.com/wp/eat-a-pita/#comments Sat, 31 Jan 2009 19:17:53 +0000 Zane Perry http://www.zaneperry.com/wp/?p=295 Karen and I just had an excellent Pita from Eat-A-Pita on Rt 17. I don’t think I have had a pita since Wendy’s stopped selling them (damn you Wendy!). I’m not sure if this store is a chain or not. If you ever see one I recommend you give it a try. Their Pita’s are great and the fries were delicious (they had vinegar and seasoning to put on your fries too which is nice). A little expensive ($18 something for the two of us) but worth it.







Post updated: I just read this post which previously said only “Karen and I just had an awesome Pita from Eat-A-Pita on 17. It was Awesome.” and was a little embarrassed. I guess I need to learn some more Adjectives . I have updated the post with a little more detail.

While having the ability to post from my phone is cool I think I will wait until I go on a trip to use it.

Here is a cool review of the program I used to make the post called WP to go.

]]> http://www.zaneperry.com/wp/eat-a-pita/feed/ 1 http://www.zaneperry.com/wp/facebook-zaneperrycom-blog-integration/ http://www.zaneperry.com/wp/facebook-zaneperrycom-blog-integration/#comments Wed, 07 Jan 2009 03:05:42 +0000 Zane Perry http://www.zaneperry.com/wp/?p=256 I just learned how to integrate my blog with Facebook using the facebook-connect wordpress plugin. Test it out and let me know if it works for you
]]> http://www.zaneperry.com/wp/facebook-zaneperrycom-blog-integration/feed/ 5 http://www.zaneperry.com/wp/refurbished-merchandise/ http://www.zaneperry.com/wp/refurbished-merchandise/#comments Mon, 05 Jan 2009 23:31:44 +0000 Zane Perry http://www.zaneperry.com/wp/?p=207 Exactly 4 years and one day ago I exchanged a 19″ LG LCD with a burnt out pixel for a new one (of the same kind). I know that because today I attempted to figure out how to repair it (it broke) and found out the warranty was expired. Not surprising since it is over 3 years old. I opened up the monitor and found what I think was the culprit (a bad power supply). When I found the part online I found out it would cost $83 to buy a new one. Since I was only 80% confident the power supply was bad and the price of a 19″ monitor today was around $100 (wow! old one cost me $579) I decided to get a new one.

Enter the Gateway® FHD2401 24″ LCD. This monitor looks pretty sick. My favorite feature of this wide screen is its HDMI input. You don’t usually find those on monitors today.

Here’s a shot of it:



I found one refurbished at tiger direct for $269.97. Of course I am taking a risk that there might be a flaw in it but I check LCD’s pretty closely before accepting the purchase (try Dead Pixel Buddy to check your next one. If I find a burnt out pixel I’ll send it back (and probably update this post to bitch about how much Refurbished hardware sucks ).

I also recently bought 2 Refurbished Magellan Maestro 4250 for Xmas gifts at $125 a pop. Both arrived in white cardboard boxes with specs printed on b&w labels but both worked perfectly (they even have Blue tooth to hook up to your phone as an extended speaker phone). I updated the firmware and they were good to go.

In short… given the current economic problems I would look into buying refurbished electronics online if you are thinking of getting something new. From what I have seen so far it seems you can get more bang for your buck. I guess I’ll know for sure on Thursday

If you ever have any questions on where to find refurbished hardware you know where to find me. If you have any good or bad experience buying refurbished post a comment below

Check out…

http://www.amazon.com
http://www.tigerdirect.com

for great deals and refurbished items.

And never forget to check http://www.woot.com/ daily.

Update: 1/07/09

Monitor arrived today. It’s perfect!



]]> http://www.zaneperry.com/wp/refurbished-merchandise/feed/ 0 http://www.zaneperry.com/wp/2008-picture-video/ http://www.zaneperry.com/wp/2008-picture-video/#comments Sat, 27 Dec 2008 22:42:54 +0000 Zane Perry http://www.zaneperry.com/wp/?p=194 I made a little video showing some of my favorite memories of ’08. I hope ’09 is just as fun!
]]> http://www.zaneperry.com/wp/2008-picture-video/feed/ 0 http://www.zaneperry.com/wp/brian-westbrook-must-fail/ http://www.zaneperry.com/wp/brian-westbrook-must-fail/#comments Mon, 15 Dec 2008 14:22:13 +0000 Zane Perry http://www.zaneperry.com/wp/?p=183 I’m Comfortable Thunder. I need Brian Westbrook to fail tonight to clinch 2nd place in my fraternity fantasy league. Will be watching tonight’s game closely.

(click image to see screenshot)


Update: I Won the League!


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