FiOS Installation - Smooth as broken glass!

I had visions yesterday moring as I drank my coffee waiting for the installer of posting a fancy demo on YouTube and pretty post with screen shots on JstJmpN, but alais, those dreams were dashed at 11:30am yesterday. I am working on a detailed post for later but I would like to post a quick update:

1. The installation went from 9:00am until sometime after 8:00pm.
2. Telephone service was out from 3:00pm until 7:30pm.
3. Verizons Activation servers were down from 11:30am until 3:00pm.
4. I don't have the latest "Interactive Media Guide" as promised on when I signed up and when I received a reminder courtesy call on Tuesday.

I did have a chance to play around with the box in the bedroom last night. I had a go-live at work until midnight so it was a very busy day.

FiOS Anticipation

I'm sorry it has been a while since my last post.

Tomorrow is the big day. My wife and I have our Tivo intervention hosted by big bad Verizon. It is going to be a hard breakup. I have had Tivo since 1999, when it was only sold on an infomercial. My wife learned about and became addictted to Tivo when we started dating. It is the one piece of technology we agree on. She has hardly noticed to 20" wide screen monitor. We went to DirectTV specifically to get the integrated DirectTivo when they first came out. We now have two.

Last night, we were getting ready for bed, and my wife exclaimed, "Oh my God, we have to watch all of our shows...'they' are going to take the Tivos!" I assured her that no one is taking the Tivos, that we own them, and I will hook them up after the FiOS install so that we can watch the recorded shows we have not seen. She exhaled and was much more relaxed.

I am trying to be the strong one and hide my fears from my my wife. The scariest thing is that we signed a 2 year agreement with Verizon. If we want to break that contract they are going to want our first born child. I know that if this does not go well she is going to take it out on me.

I'm scared! :P

There is hope with the release of the new HD Tivo. However, it may be a while before you can get a cable card out of Verizon.

FiOS Update - Interactive Media Guide Roll Out

Story at Engadget

The role out of the Interactive Media Guide is beginning! Its apparently starting in Rhode Island, parts of New Jersey, and beyond. The upgrade will be automatically installed so no user intervention is necessary.I think that Springfield, Virginia will be a part of "beyond." I was promised during my calls to Verizon to order FiOS that I would be getting the Interactive Media Guide with my installation or very soon their after.

read more | digg story

Ins and Outs: Does YouTube fit on the boob tube?

Story at Engadget

I agree with this article 100%. YouTube videos are too short and too low quality for them to be accepted on the TV. A couple of models might improve adoption:

1. What about a TV show called "YouTube's Funniest Videos." It could feature the weeks most popular clips that are appropriate for primetime TV. This would expose YouTube to a larger audience and further drag television into the reality TV black hole! The networks would love it because it would cost next to nothing to produce! Genius Pure Geninus

2. Use a thumbs up thumbs down, a la TiVo, approach to a the YouTube Channels idea discussed in the article.

read more | digg story

First Corner Cuisine Meal

Tonight we had our first Corner Cuisine meal. Tonight was "Shrimp Tacos." My wife and I realized another great benefit of the service. The portion sized are nutritionally correct and they are balanced meals. This is a really nice way to help my wife and I enforce our diet and set a good example for our kids.

The shrimp tacos were quite tasty. My wife and I each got good sized taco and the third taco was divided between my wife and I and our two year old. Sophia calls shrimp "pony tails" and she LOVES pony tails.

Samsung 205BW Update

Well I got the Samsung 205BW this evening at Costco. It cost me $199, with $30 off coupon. So far so good! The picture is beautiful, however, I have not watched any video yet. With the 6ms response time its not the fastest but I think it is going to be plenty fast for my purposes.

I still think that 2 x 17" monitors is better for most desktop purposes. Tomorrow I'll boot to Fiesty and get the resolution set there. Wish me luck I may have to run x.org!

Discovery: Corner Cuisine!

This morning my wife and her friend went to "Corner Cuisine." In an hour and a half, my wife made dinners for the next 24 nights. Corner Cuisine is a local version of a chain called "Let's Dish." My wife and her friend decided to go to Corner Cuisine instead of Let's Dish because it is A)Closer to our house, B)Cheaper, and C)Local Small Business.

In case you have not heard of the concept of these types of places, let me explain. First you select your menu, then you schedule your day, then you take a cooler to the company's location. Next, you go from station to station preparing your meals. At each station are the ingredents, instructions, and packaging for the meal. Ingredients are already prepared so the onions are already diced, garlic minced, etc.

The cost for my wife's visit was about 200 dollars and 1 hour and a half. The best part. There is no extra ingredients to go bad, no dishes or clean up to do, and its fast. With a two year old and a twin infants my wife said, "I could NOT have completed the grocery shopping for this many meals in a hour and a half."

One additional point:
Corner Cuisine also allows you to call ahead hand have them prepare individual meals that you can pickup on your way home from work.

I'll let you know how the food is at the end of the 24 days.

The Twins 1st Week of Daycare

...and my wife's first week back to work is over! The twins are now 3 months old and my wife's maternity leave is over. I think she is pretty happy to be back to work. Our biggest concern was getting them to take a bottle at daycare. My wife has been very successful breast feeding the twins. Which is no easy accomplishment, believe me. Twins must be feed at the same time otherwise there is zero chance of parents getting any sleep, at all, ever! Picture that in your head! My wife and I get asked all the time how she does it. I'll post a review of the gadget that allows double breast feeding soon.

The girls took to the bottle on their Thursday, their second day of daycare. We were really stressed about that. Meghan, did not like the bottle when we tried to prepare them for daycare. Believe me, saying that Meghan didn't like the bottle is being gentle. She would scream if she saw a bottle on a counter or table. She would scream if my wife or I said the word "bottle" while holding her. Reilly, we call stone face, because most of the time she has the same some what angry somewhat apathetice look on her face, would take a bottle begrudgingly until she heard Meghan!

The daycare center, the pediatrician, and my mother all said that it could take both girls a while before they will take to the bottle. By "a while" our pediatrician clarified by saying weeks. This caused my wife to almost pass out!

My wife took the twins and our two year old daughter Sophia daycare this week. This, however, will not be the norm. This was so that she could breast feed them when they are dropped off and picked up.

Starting next week I get the put on my bus driver hat! I have been taking Sophia to daycare her entire life so I'm used the the process. However, I don't know how I am going to get myself ready, all three of them ready, out to the care, and dropped off by myself. My wife has been home, on maternity leave, with the twins three days a week and with the twins and Sophia two days a week. She has managed to get herself, and the girls all up and out the door in a hour and a half!

If I can get the same done in two hours on Tuesday I will be so lucky! I'm going to pick my wife's brain this weekend to figure out how she did it.

During that time she has made it a point to get out of the house every day.

Monitor 19" vs 20"

I've been looking at getting a new monitor. My old 20" CRT is getting a bit tired and I swear it appears to get larger every day!

I've looked at alot of options. Click here to see my spreadsheet.

I narrowed my choices down to the 20" Samsung 205BW and the 19" Samsung 906BW. Both are available for the same price on line. The real question dilemma is, do I buy a smaller monitor with great specs or a larger monitor with good specs. Online they both can be found for the exact same price.

Unfortunately, there are few reviews on either model. I made a trip to my local MicroCenter and was able to see the 906BW and it looked really nice. The glossy screen and fast response time (2ms) were very impressive. A few days later I was able to find a 205BW at a Costco that I could see. Though it didn't have the glossy screen the 6ms response time was plenty fast.

I have decided to go with the 20" for the extra screen real estate. Also I really don't do any gaming any more so the extra fast response would offer me little benefit. Also, Costco I have a coupon for $30 off the 205BW starting on Monday. This discount actually makes the 20" cheaper than the 19".

JmpN to Verizon FiOS

Today I jmpd into Verizon FiOS. I am super excited about I am getting Telephone, TV, and Internet over fibre. FiOS has been in my neighborhood for quite a while now. I think we were one of the first areas to get FiOS and then later FiOS TV.

The biggest thing I had to overcome was my addition to Tivo. I am currently a DirectTivo subscriber. We have two in the house. However, I have had a Tivo since it was advertised on an infomercial back in the late 90’s. I do really hate breaking up with Tivo, even though its really Direct Tivo.

What convinced me was seeing a demo of Verizons on Interactive Media Guide . I also read a review about it on engadget.

Another factor is HD. The DirectTV HD DVR is still getting thrashed all over the internet. I have zero confidence in it and moving to it would still require that I breakup with by longtime love, Tivo. I have a Samsung HD receiver that I have to reboot every two days and my OTA reception is spotty at best.

I spent a lot of time online chatting with Verizon and also calling their customer service. I was able to get them to confirm that the STBs I will receive are capable of the new IMG, if not already installed. I hope that the IMG gets my wife and I over our Tivo addition. If not its going to be a very painful process.

Sign-up Process:

I would have signed up for FiOS online, but, there is no easy way to sign up for the triple play. You have to sign up for the TV/Internet @118.00/month (in my case) and then call or go to another verizon site to transfer the voice package and the hope and pray that you will be able to get the discounted $99.99 price.

So I called the Customer Service Center and had them set me up with the Triple Play. They were able to do the whole thing and quote me a price of $125.00 plus tax. This price gets me 5/2 Internet, TV w/HBO and two STB, and caries over my existing Freedom Essentials voice package. They have confirmed and installation date of July 25.

Gulp! Wish me luck!

Just Jump In Already!

OK so I have been a geek for a while and have put off this whole web 2.0 thing because I wasn't sure what I had to say. This morning on my way to work I desided, "what the hell," I'm never going to get out there and do step one! So Step One: Create the damn thing! Thus my name "just jump in" or jstjmpn in Web 2.0 speak!

So here is what I am jmpn into right now:

1. I signed up for Verizon FiOS internet/phone/tv - the "triple play."

2. I started my gmail account. I have been using a MSN and Verizon account for email for the last two years.

However they are so filled up with mailing lists from Cnet, eweek, zdnet, etc that they are hardly usable. The sad thing is my handle bsavage3 going back to my AOL days is taken. Hell I probably had it at one time but for got the password and never used.

Besides it time to reinvent myself as a modern geek. So my new name is rbsavage3.