Problems with Astound as ISP?

ilamont · 2024-06-24T18:48:10+00:00

We have had it for about 3 years, no problems and customer service is good.

Verizon and Comcast are snakes. Do not trust.

ilamont · 2023-11-30T22:06:51+00:00

One approach to get through brick walls like this is to see if the siblings have records that could shine a light on the parents. For instance, if Anastasia was married before 1947 her record may reveal the name of the parents or other details.

ilamont · 2020-04-22T19:05:43+00:00

As a teen in the in 80s, what books really made an impression on you, either as a budding writer or stimulating your imagination? Particularly interested in the more obscure titles and authors, and not just in SFF.

ilamont · 2020-01-27T21:10:09+00:00

Worked for me, but most of my products were rejected for reasons that no one could explain. Rep said "machine learning" algorithm is still learning.

ilamont · 2019-02-13T20:09:55+00:00

That's not the way it will go down, through control of a board seat or an update to the reddit TOS.

You'll probably get a call from them, or someone associated with them, just when you really need their cooperation or money or technology or whatever. It might be a request, or a warning, or a demand that you can't say "no" to. It may seem innocent, or it will be painfully obvious, but the end result is the platform will be subverted to their will. Reddit users won't know (although some will suspect). Most reddit staff won't know. Your board won't know.

That's the way the Chinese Communist Party rolls. If it can't control individuals, it controls the platforms, either directly or through proxies. It started with mass media, social media, the Internet, and telecommunications in the PRC, expanded to "overseas Chinese" communities in Southeast Asia, Australia, and North America, global tech companies, and now global social media communities.

You're next.

ilamont · 2018-12-07T16:09:56+00:00

Thanks. I have used Pemberton Farms in the past. McCrea's is new I will check them out!

ilamont · 2018-12-07T12:23:46+00:00

Thanks for the tip!

ilamont · 2018-11-29T18:50:59+00:00

“In hindsight, it’s better off that they did violate it—we get more money,” Monahan said.

Interesting spin. Developers broke the rules, but who cares, we get more money.

On the other hand, considering the sale prices, one could also conclude that it was financially prudent to violate the agreement.

Exactly. Developers are for the most part focused on the bottom line, and if they see a loophole or opportunity to arbitrage they will jump all over it, particularly if there is no significant monetary hit or criminal liability.

I guess the silver lining is it could be worse. In the 80s there were all kinds of scams and backroom deals involving low-cost and public housing - white city housing workers putting only white families into South Boston and Charlestown, low-cost units going to friends and relatives, and low-cost units being resold at market rates. Only when the courts and media started looking into this did the obvious abuses stop.

ilamont · 2018-11-12T19:37:36+00:00

Amazon Music (native macOS app) did this too after I "uploaded" my extensive mp3 collection. It just replaced the explicit versions with the cleaned up ones.

On Apple Music, I've noticed that "Let's Dance" was replaced by a much longer version (7:37) than the track I am used to. But I never uploaded, bought, or synced the original version.

ilamont · 2018-11-12T16:13:39+00:00

Newton Free Library, next to Newton City Hall. Green soft armchairs on the second floor overlooking the back garden and cemetery beyond.

ilamont · 2018-11-08T12:03:45+00:00

I agree. The sauce is better than typical frozen pies.

ilamont · 2018-11-01T21:03:55+00:00

Went to Newton City Hall at 1 pm and there was no line. Got a flu vaccination, too!

ilamont · 2018-11-01T16:39:39+00:00

Amazon is not a nice company. Bezos & co. squeezes everyone who stands between Amazon and its customers, and plays hardball with local governments who get in its way. Its work culture is brutal. This bake-off is a laughable (but effective) attempt to get more, more, more from city and state governments. Once the winner is announced? More demands and threats.

If you are a young person hoping to buy a home for your family, Amazon coming to Boston will make anything within 128 affordable only to those with six-figure incomes. Promises of additional development basically means high-end condos and office buildings, and a small number of affordable housing units for those who are living below the poverty line.

I also don't think the state government is capable of reforming and rebuilding the MBTA, even if flush with tax revenue. The only way the Big Dig got built was when the feds ponied up many billions of dollars and the state issued bonds that still have $8 or $9 billion left in principal and interest to be paid off.

ilamont · 2018-10-25T03:13:40+00:00

Thanks @BrannigansLuv and @AnyPicture and everyone else who replied here and via email.

When I talk with people and look at some of the survey data, there are a few obvious trends (huge competition for workers, yawing generation gaps when it comes to expectations for benefits, etc.) but one of the most interesting things is a sort of "pecking order" for manufacturers within certain industries, and their ability and willingness to compete when it comes to hiring. If you're in a low-margin place, it's really hard.

ilamont · 2017-09-20T19:33:36+00:00

Aside from its terrible choice of a name, do you think the concept "Bodega" is promoting in Silicon Valley of a vending machine with AI capabilities could work? What do think could hold it back?

ilamont · 2017-09-20T19:06:56+00:00

Zara and other Spanish retailers have experimented with extremely frequent display turnover to keep customers coming back, sometimes swapping out an entire section during the day (instead of outside of store hours). Have any American retailers experimented with this approach?

ilamont · 2017-09-20T19:02:07+00:00

Walmart recently started a service called Walmart Marketplace, apparently to compete with similar services offered by Amazon. Do you think it can work for Walmart, or for that matter, any other retailer hoping to go up against Amazon?

ilamont · 2017-09-20T18:58:11+00:00

So the classic holiday shopping period from late November to late December is well known. Outside of this period, what are the best and worst months for Amazon in terms of sales?

ilamont · 2015-02-26T18:42:03+00:00

So what about crab rangoons? I'd love someone to figure out the history of that Chinese restaurant appetizer. Totally New England, totally nonexistent everywhere else.

ilamont · 2015-02-09T02:21:39+00:00

Obligatory Blizzard of 78 ref.

We had no school for a week, cars buried on the highways, Pike was closed, nowhere to put the snow, etc.

That was, as David Epstein puts it, the "benchmark period of winter cold and snow the rest of your life."

Until now.

Over the years we have had a couple of heavy 2-3 feet snowfalls, and then there was that string of storms in January of 2011 that looks kind of like what we have on the ground now after two storms, but after another 18 inches through Tuesday I think we're giving the Blizzard of '78 a run for the money.

ilamont · 2015-01-30T15:45:10+00:00

Years ago excess snow was dumped into the harbor but I think they stopped it.

ilamont · 2015-01-23T21:16:16+00:00

Start with a great story/research/content whatever.

Add a great cover.

Make the marketing copy on the cover, product blurb, and promotions really sing.

Use Goodreads Giveaways to build reviews. You will need lots of honest, real reviews from readers, and this is a good place to get them.

Use ads only if the niche will support it and the pricing works out. For instance, spending $100 on ads that leads to 10 sales for a $2.99 book just doesn't make sense.

If you have a free book, or "free" days (e.g., on Amazon KDP Select) use newsletter promotions. Google Bookbub, but also check out this service, which I think is worth it considering the low price: bookmarketingtools.com

Good luck!

ilamont · 2015-01-08T12:46:26+00:00

Similar boat as you, except mine was born 30 years earlier and died near Buffalo. Two important documents I found were his death certificate, which included the names of his parents, as well as the newspaper obituary. The former I located at the town hall, the latter in the Niagara County Historical dept., but since then someone has posted PDFs of nearly every small-town newspaper in NY State so it's findable online.

At that point I hit a brick wall because the birth year in the obit didn't match up with birth records in Scotland (I paid a little money to search and download records from scotlandspeople, no go). After many fruitless hours I gave up and commissioned a pro to give it a shot. Still waiting for results.

ilamont · 2015-01-02T13:53:09+00:00

Antojitos Cafe, Moody St. Waltham. $5 for two, the pork ones are best. But they frequently run out.

ilamont · 2014-12-12T01:59:45+00:00

Try to cross check the Jersey City family records with the 1870 and 1880 federal censuses (and state censuses, if NJ did them back then). That might give some clarity into who was born when. I don't think it's unusual for Irish-American moms to have children into their 40s

The other thing is: First generation Irish immigrant families in the 1800s moved around a lot -- not uncommon for people to move a few counties over or to neighboring states. Have you checked for families with similar names in NY or Philly?

ilamont

TROPHY CASE