Musings from Joel

The end of AT&T, Verizon and Sprint’s contracts

montytx — Sun, 01 Apr 2012 00:09:44 +0000

It’s coming, I don’t know when, but the days of contracts for phone service is doomed, DOOMED! I say this because I just found out that Google Voice now allows you to port your mobile number to them. What is google voice, read my earlier post about this great, free service. I use it from my desktop computer more than my mobile phone now. I call from my computer, text from my computer, and listen to voicemail from my computer. Essentially a mobile phone with Google voice is now nothing more than another device that connects to the internet for me and allows me to make calls, text and browse the internet. It just happens to be a mobile device that works on Sprint’s crappy network at $130 a month that I have locked myself into until 6/30/2012. I am counting the days til then hoping my EVO phone can make it to the middle of Summer. Its going to be close, my video no longer has audio, my camera won’t adjust to light, and my phone reboots when I try to browse the internet. It has survived almost 2 years, that is 4 times longer than my shitty iphone on AT&T lasted a few years ago.

But, that is my point, these carriers extort $1500 a year plus from me for their crappy service and crappy connections. Google voice eliminates all of this. Now that I can port my number to them for a small $20 fee I can move my phone service to the internet. Here is the part I really like, I have always thought my phone service should cost sub $50 a month, not a dime more. Anyone with a smart phone knows that is a ridiculous goal with the big carriers. I have always wanted to go to Virgin Mobile, Metro PCS, or one of the half dozen cheap as crap phone providers, but I couldn’t risk that the service would be sub par. With Google handling my calls, I don’t have to worry about it. I simply move my old number to them and have them forward my calls to whatever cave, mobile phone or destination I want. Its just that simple, the phone company is no longer my “life line ” for my business. I can swap my phone company out like a Lithuanian light bulb and throw it to the curb if I’m not happy.

So I am going to start saving $840+ a year as I switch to a cheap carrier. That puts a smile on my face. Of course the thing I find the most interesting about all of this is how quietly Google is going to put the screws to the phone companies as they muscle into their phone service with a superior product and give customers ultimate freedom. It will force these domineering behemoths to actually compete in an open market as contracts become a thing of the past.

Fedex’s F@ck Up

montytx — Fri, 23 Mar 2012 01:45:58 +0000

I run a couple of small businesses and I understand how hard it is to keep customers happy all the time. You can never keep everyone happy all the time. But, I bend over backwards to try to make things right when a client is not happy. That is what I consider normal.

Fast Forward to Fedex’s Faux pas

My son visits Houston frequently and flies Southwest. The last time he returned from Houston his bags didn’t make the flight for some reason. So they arrived on a later flight. Oddly, Southwest didn’t bother to so much as call us to let us know that they had his bags. Being a typical teenager, he waited 5 days to call them and see where the bags were. He was told they had been moved to a warehouse and would have to be shipped via Fedex ground to our house at a cost of $15 a bag. Being a typical Dad, I was annoyed, and made him work off the fee and arranged for Fedex to ship the bags from this mysterious warehouse here in Dallas, that we couldn’t just go pick up his bags from. I decided to check my CC bill today and was quite annoyed to see that Fedex had billed me 17.97 for the first bag and 133.93 for the second bag. These are both duffel bags of the same size ( 24 x 12 x 11) and both showed a weight of 16 lbs on the weigh bill. Somehow Fedex decided the second bag was $110+ more than the first. When I called them the first agent put me on hold, then hung up after 2 minutes. I called back and the second agent told me I was charged an oversized package fee. I asked her what that meant. According to Fedex’s own site a ground package is oversized if the girth and length are greater than 130″. In my case the girth and length would be 24″+46″ for a total of 70″, well below the 130″ Fedex considers oversized based on this document. The agent told me the charges were correct and refused to do anything to adjust them (rather smugly and rudely, I would add), even though I pointed out that the bag in question was slightly smaller than the Camo bag that shipped for $18. So, I hung up and filed a complaint with Amex trying to get the charge reversed. Of course, Fedex doesn’t know that I am not a person who takes being screwed over lightly. I will spread the word far and wide that they mistreat their customers. I own over 80 web sites and I will put my time and resources to trying to put a dent in their business. If just a few people use UPS or the post office over these pricks, I will have done my job. Southwest, shame on you for choosing a partner that has no regard for YOUR customers.

Your move Fedex, I’ll be waiting to hear from you, though I doubt I will.

Memory Foam Topper: Sparing my Back Misery

montytx — Mon, 13 Feb 2012 18:56:45 +0000

I have a bad lower back, sleeping on a normal bed only makes it worse, much worse. It has become such an issue for me that I have to be careful with my trips out of town and rarely travel without my foam. If I do, I have to stop and pick up some when I land in my new location. I have been to the doctor several times, had a procedure with cortizone that cost a few grand and still nada. The bad back persist and at this point I have decided it is a bad disc around my L2 that is the culprit. It’s severity comes and goes, but it is always present. Sleeping on a hard mattress will cause me grief for weeks if not months afterwards. I own an air bladder mattress that I purchased a few years ago. It helps with my back, but I still need my foam.

So, I recently purchased a new king size 4″ viscous memory foam for my mattress to replace my old one and after 2 weeks I really like it. It has a 4lb density, which is more than my old topper, and is firm, but not to firm. It provides ample support for my body and most importantly, my back. And at $240 it doesn’t break the bank. If you have lower back issues I highly recommend this topper.

Creativity versus the Reality of Logistics

montytx — Mon, 13 Feb 2012 16:24:07 +0000

My business is creativity. I have always enjoyed working with my hands and my mind. When people meet me and I tell them I remodel and do web design they see those two passions as a disparate. Then, I explain the obvious connection, both allow me to create things whether real or virtual and both allow me a creative outlet. That is where I find my joy in life. As long I can do one or the other I am happy. That brings me to my point, which is there are plenty of things about both of these choices that I would rather have someone else do. Logistics of materials, keeping a crew running and maintaining a mountain of tools on the remodeling side. On the technology side it would be data management, asset management, professional adwords management, billing and bids just to name a few. But, the reality of life is such that I am constantly dealing with all of these things. There is no way to get around them. I spend more than half of my day muddling through bids and billing clients as well as logistics. It is an inconvenience, but entirely necessary to keep a roof over my head and food on the table. As I get older and look for other ways to prosper I may have to turn to assisted living management or create software for assisted living. With the baby boomer population aging and moving towards retirement rapidly, these fields will likely be a very busy area of expertise. Something to consider, while I ponder my own, not so distant anymore, AARP membership standing. Hopefully when that time arrives I’ll still be able to swing a hammer and work a keyboard to find my own level of happiness in the professional area. Of course, my love life is a whole other post.

Understanding the real value of a Blogging

montytx — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 00:47:42 +0000

I am a reluctant blogger. I always thought blogging was for people who had little better to do and no life. I am quickly seeing the light on one of my sites. I am a virtual real estate tycoon, if you will, I own over 80 sites and make a decent living off of advertising. But, most of my sites are small, around 10 pages and drive little traffic. I recently made a New Years resolution, I want to blog 3-5 post a day on my remodeling how to site and I want a dozen videos on my remodeling youtube channel. So I have pressed myself hard to do 3 blog post a day. I haven’t made it every day but I have maintained momentum. The results are very encouraging. Traffic has ramped up 4x from roughly 40 hits a day to approaching 200. My goal is a 1000 right now. Advertising is already up from almost nothing to something worth mentioning. Lastly, I have a manufacturer tweeting about my site to their customers. All of this in 30 days.

This all proves the theory that content is king on line and I am aiming to dominate the remodeling niche within a few years, see you at the top.

Margaret Hill Hunt Bridge to No Where

montytx — Wed, 11 Jan 2012 23:54:32 +0000

It’s a stunning bridge to see as you head over on I-30. You can’t argue that it dominates the sky line when you are heading East or West on the South Side. But, where does it go? I know everyone loves to talk up Oak Cliff and how quaint it is and somehow it always comes down to Bishop Arts and just how neat it is. Oak Cliff is filled with old homes. I love old homes myself and live in a prairie style house closing in on 100 years old, but lets get real, this bridge goes no where.

Ridiculous Cost of The Bridge

Costing $130 Million and counting, this bridge dumps onto Singleton Blvd, which is a dump if I’ve ever seen one. This street is a shit hole, and why they opted to put a bridge to it has far more to do with this cities dysfunctional politics than anything else. How you can place a gorgeous bridge over a questionable river and have it dump into an area with such great businesses as Huerta’s Garage and the Taqueria across the street is a travesty. Maybe I need to get a used car from Abra Motors, or a something else from one of several dozen run down industrial arm pits located on this street. But, fear not, go down a few miles and its more of the same crappy industrial shit, pretty much we spent 13oM installing a sexy bridge to Harry Hines.

I suppose some dipshit in city hall figured, “build it and Neimans will come, ” trust me, Neimans ain’t coming anytime soon to this area nor is anyone else. It will take decades to turn that part of town around. By then the bridge will be rusting and costing us more to maintain it. Of course, I have always thought Oak Cliff would be better off at the bottom of a cliff anyway. There is absolutely nothing down there to sustain that area. That is also due to this cities politics of the past. I am sure all the ” save oak cliff” people are going to be upset that I expressed my feelings. They can go drown their sorrows at a Chilis, Walmart, Target, Neimans, Old Navy or Whole Foods… if only they could find one in their own neighborhood. At least I can pull a permit to build a bridge on Jefferson.

Google fixes multiple id login issue

montytx — Fri, 23 Dec 2011 22:22:51 +0000

I have a Google hosted mail account for my remodeling business. I signed up before they started charging people through the nose for the service so I am lucky enough to not have to pay for it. It allows me to check my email through a gmail interface and email people from my remodeling domain no matter where I am, it works great with my Droid phone, too. The problem is I also have a gmail account and with the roll out of Google+ I gained some great features, but I lost the ability to log into both of my accounts at the same time in the same browser. I was switching back and forth for about a week until I decided to run Chrome on another screen so I could see my remodeling email account as well as my gmail account (in Firefox). I’m not sure how this problem slipped by Google, but it did.
Well, it would appear they have finally fixed it after several months. Simply clicking on your email address in the upper right and then account settings you will see an option for “Multiple Sign Ins.” Select it and agree and you are good to go. You will have to do this for every account that comes through Google (ie.. multiple gmail accounts, or app accounts).
Hopefully this will help someone else out.

How I removed my harmonic balancer

montytx — Wed, 21 Dec 2011 22:42:32 +0000

Removing the harmonic balancer on any car is akin to trying to skin a cat with a hairbrush. To accomplish this Herculaneum feat you need massive leverage, fire and a mouth like a sailor.

I did this about a month ago with my Lexus ES300 and thought I would post the how to here and the video. The bolt that holds a harmonic balancer in place is quite large and about 2″ long. It generally will be rusted in place and if, like my car, yours has 150k in miles, then the screw has been screwed down even more with time.

Things you will need:

Rent or buy 1/2″ large breaker bar ( 3 feet ought to do it. Autozone has them for free with a deposit)
Extension rods to bring the clearance out enough to work with the breaker bar. I used 2 12″ to get the job done.
A jack to leverage against
A high temp torch, no cheap ‘ole propane torch will do the work
A breaker bar to hold onto the harmonic balanceer ( I made my own after watching a youtube video

I watched all sorts of videos to figure out how to do this and I had to try all of them to come to a solution that worked for me. I would under no circumstances suggest starting the car with a breaker bar attached to the balancer. That simply

didn’t pass the smell test with me and sounded like a great way to fuck up the engine. I opted for elbow grease and fire. Once the harmonic balance is exposed and ready for removal, you need to set up the system with a large breaker bar and a jack that will support the load of you standing on the breaker bar and trying to torque the nut off. If this doesn’t work after several tries ( I applied well in excess of 300lbs of torque with no luck then it is time to try fire. I broker out my

oxygen/ propane kit and got a nice hot flame and set it on the bolt for about 20 seconds to

get it really hot. I then tried standing on my breaker bar again and successfully broke the connection.

Breaker Bar I made from a metal rod and 1.5" pipe floor flange. I notched the floor flange with a grinder to fit over my balancer and drilled 2 holes to accomodate 2 bolts to fit in the harmonic balancer's threading.

The harmonic breaker attached to the balancer with the jack stand supporting my breaker bar.

Close up of the pipe flange with the grinder cuts I did to fit into the balancer.

Lexus ES300 Head Gasket Replacement

montytx — Fri, 02 Dec 2011 15:20:33 +0000

I have a 1995 Lexus ES300 that I enjoy working on. I bought it from my brother a few years ago and drove it until the head gaskets went bad this Summer in the 104 degree heat we experienced here in Texas. I decided it was not worth the money to fix the car with a Mechanic, it would cost what the car is worth. So I had to make a decision, sell it as a junker or do it myself. This was a much bigger repair than I have ever tackled with a car before. I like working on cars but I have always had 2 rules: stay out of the motor and transmission. But, I decided that worst case I sell it for junk and I am out the cost of a rebuild gasket kit, radiator and machining job.

I decided to use the Lexus/ Toyota Manual on line and carefully follow the instructions and bag and label everything as I went so I wouldn’t have a bucket of bolts left over at the end. I also decided to take dozens of photos and videos just in case I needed a reference point. The images are below. I have to upload the videos to youtube. I hope this helps someone else. This is not a job for a person who does not like to tear things apart. I took us 2 days of slow work to get this done.

Blown Head gasket in Lexus ES300

[Show as slideshow]

SEOopen Toolbar plugin for Firefox 9.x updated

montytx — Thu, 01 Dec 2011 14:56:57 +0000

SEOopen Toolbar has always been my favorite toolbar for Firefox. It simple, effective and doesn’t have a bunch of adware built into it. But, the owner quit supporting it a few years ago. I have hacked my way through it every time I have had to update Firefox to a new version. As more things change online I keep having to update it. Recently Yahoo did away with its backlink tool which has been killing me as I search for an alternative tool. I finally found a new search engine and decided to add it to SEOopen under the same spot as Yahoo for backlink checking. I’m afraid Yahoo is officially dead for me. The only thing they did really well was support webmasters and SEO types. Sad for them.

Anyway, I thought I would offer this updated plugin to anyone interested. Here is it. Just click on the file in Firefox to get it working, you may have to reboot. I have it set up to work until version 9 of Firefox. It is a .xpi file so it should slide right into firefox. IF you want to download the file and look at it you will need ti unzip the package.

Two big changes:

Fixed the Pagerank checker tool to go to a site that works

Changed the backlink checker tool to go to blekko.

Plugin