Matt Silverman

Free & Rare Trial of Amazon Prime

2008-09-03T12:37:00.001-07:00

Amazon Prime, otherwise known as free 2-day shipping on most Amazon items, is offering a rare 30-day FREE trial of their service. It costs nothing to sign up for the trial, and you and up to 3 family members can take advantage of the offer.

Amazon Prime includes:

FREE 2-day shipping on any eligible item from Amazon (No minimum $ order)
$3.99 overnight shipping on any eligible item (usually $20+)

I normally would not post a free trial offer here, but last time they ran a free trial of Prime I got a ton of use out of it when ordering books.

Get 30 days of Amazon Prime Free

Best Bus Lines From DC to NYC Review

2008-08-23T18:46:00.001-07:00

BoltBus at its stop outside Sbarro's in NYC (33rd and 7th ave)

Need to take a bus from DC to New York City (NYC), or from NYC to DC? After taking four different bus lines I am now confident that I have found the best one: BoltBus. I rode on Greyhound, Chinatown's Apex Bus, and Tony Coach in the past, and they all pale in comparison to Bolt.

Here is quick summary of why you should use BoltBus:

Express service from DC to NYC and back (no shady stops in Baltimore)
Onboard Wifi for Laptops
Power Outlets on first ~12 rows of seats
Pseudo-Leather Seats
Rewards program (After 8 rides you earn 1 free ride)
Amazingly responsive customer service (via e-mail at customerservice[at]boltbus[d0t]com)

Price
BoltBus is comparable in price to most of the other bus lines. If you are the first person to book a ticket on a ride, your ticket only costs $1. After that, the tickets go up incrementally. Do not expect to pay under $15 for a one-way ticket. In general, expect to pay around $20 each way to get to NYC. Bolt also offers service to other cities including Boston and Philadelphia. BoltBus does sell available seats for $25 each way on a walk-up basis, but these seats are never guaranteed. Your best bet is to always book online in advance.

Reliability
BoltBus is about as reliable as a bus can be, which is at best only slightly reliable. My experience with DC to NYC buses in general has been riddled with delays on all bus lines, BoltBus included. This usually cannot be held against any company, as they do not control traffic. BoltBus is by far the most reliable of any buses I have taken.

Service
BoltBus drivers generally have a great personality, and make a legitimate effort to make sure everyone feels accomdated. BoltBus uses Southwest Airlines-style boarding, in which every person belongs to a boarding group (A,B, or C) and board the bus starting with group A. This is an ingenious idea, so people do not have to worry about showing up early to get a good seat on the bus. If you have an "A" boarding pass, you can feel safe arriving there 20 minutes before scheduled departure. Any later than that and you will be stuck boarding behind everyone else.

Wifi + Power
The one thing that really made BoltBus stand out for me is as simple as power. There are few things that can make a 4-6 hour bus ride enjoyable, but having unlimited use of power for a laptop is about as close as you can get to making it tolerable. To make matters better, they have wifi on board all buses. The wifi is VERY temperamental, so by no means should you ever depend on having internet access via BoltBus wifi. That being said, the wifi has worked much better as of late than it did when the bus line was first starting out.

DC Location
Boltbus picks up and drops off at 11th and G St NW, right at one of the entrances to Metro Center.

NYC Location
Boltbus picks up in multiple locations in NYC, the one I always prefer is the Penn Station stop, which picks up at 33rd st and 7th Ave, right outside of Sbarro's.

In closing, if you find yourself needing to travel between NYC and DC for cheap, Boltbus is definitely the best and most cost-effective method. Riding on buses for more than an hour is never fun, but BoltBus really does make the trip as enjoyable as it could possibly be. Feel free to also check out MegaBus which picks up in the same DC location as Boltbus. I have not tried it yet, but it is definitely a good second option should BoltBus ever be unavailable.

If speed is the most important factor, forget the bus, and even forget flying. Take the Acela, which generally costs around $130-$190, EACH WAY. It will get you from Union Station in DC to Penn Station in NYC in a blazingly fast 2 hours and 45 minutes (I clocked the speed of the Acela in excess of 140mph at some points of the trip via my Blackberry GPS), but you pay dearly for it.

Error 668 Sierra 881 Wireless AirCard ATT 3G

2008-08-12T06:56:00.000-07:00

Purchased my AT&T Wireless 3G card about 2 months ago. Has worked flawlessly since then, up until today. Out of no where, when trying to connect with a full 3G signal available, an error message stating Error 668 caused the connection to terminate. I tried the usual problem solving of removing the aircard and reinserting it, restarting the ATT connection manager, and restarting my laptop. Nothing worked, and it continued to produce the Error 668 message.

As I would rather squeeze turnip juice than call AT&T Wireless for any technical support issues, I tried A few Google searches which netted some promising results. While I am not sure exactly what fixed my problem, it is now working again without any hardware replacement. Feel free to try the methods below.

Reinstall the Firmware

If you have a different model or Mac OS, you can start at the Sierra Support website
Otherwise, visit the 881 AirCard Support Downloads page for Windows
Download and run the firmware application, while keeping your aircard plugged into the PCMCIA slot.
Some people mentioned that installing the Connection watcher utility from the support downloads page may also help with this issue, but I did not need to use it.

After reinstalling the firmware, I attempted to connect again but still received the same error 668 code. I then moved to this next little workaround.

Install New ATT Connection Profile Using wap.cingular

This is what I think finally fixed my problem, but it did not work without first reinstalling the firmware.

1. Edit connection profiles in ATT Wireless Connection Utility

2. Click the "Add" button on the profile manager window, then select "AT&T" and hit next.
3. Change isp.cingular to wap.cingular, and leave all the other input boxes as is. My result looked like this:

4. Hit next, make sure both radio buttons are select to "Obtain IP Address Automatically" and hit next again.
5. Give your new profile a name, I used AT&T (2). I changed the connection options window to "Automatic" from the default manual, and that seemed to work for me.

6. Hit Finish, close out of the profile manager, select the connections drop down window in the AT&T connection utility, and then select the new AT&T (2) connection profile that we just created.

Hope this was some help to you. Please post in the comments if this did or did not work for you.

Stop and Delete Print Jobs Windows Vista/XP

2008-07-21T22:00:00.000-07:00

One of the biggest headaches with printers, especially USB printers, is getting a print job to stop once it has already started. Sometimes you can click cancel on the print job, but other times the job will go until completion. Even turning off the printer does not always solve the problem. I finally came across a solution that fixes all printing problems for me.

Step 1. If you need to immediately stop the printer from wasting paper/ink, turn off your printer. This may involve unplugging the power cord from the surge protector if the regular power buttons fail.

Step 2. Go to Start button > Run > net stop spooler

Step 3. Click OK

Step 4. Start > Run > C:\Windows\System32\Spool\Printers

Step 5. Hit OK, and delete all files within the "Printers" folder you just opened. This will delete any print jobs you had remaining.

Step 6. Start > Run > net start spooler

Step 7. Hit OK, and turn your printer back on.

All of your printing problems should now be solved. Please post comments if this did or did not work for you.

Disable Automatic Updates in Adobe CS3

2008-04-07T19:27:00.000-07:00

I recently realized that Adobe Photoshop CS3 and Adobe Premiere CS3 were updating themselves without permission to do so. I looked for an option within each respective application to disallow automatic updates, but could not find one. After doing some searching, I found this workaround.

To disable automatic updates in Adobe CS3 for Windows Vista:

1. Start > Run > C:\Program Files\Common Files\Adobe\Updater5\AdobeUpdater.exe (if this does not work, navigate to to the common files folder and follow the same directory structure to get to AdobeUpdater.exe.
2. Adobe Updater will open, and select continue as it searches for updates.
3. On the screen where you tell it to download the updates, it will have a preferences link. Click the preferences link.
4. Un-check the box that says "Automatically check for updates." and hit okay, then close out of the updater.
5. Enjoy.

Jimmy Kimmel - I'm F**ing Ben Affleck

2008-02-25T12:08:00.000-08:00

Jimmy Kimmel has finally responded to Sarah Silverman's "I'm Fucking Matt Damon" video, with his own amazing piece, "I'm Fucking Ben Affleck." He went above and beyond, and deserves recognition for this one.

How to Watch .MKV Files

2008-02-13T20:47:00.000-08:00

I recently came across a video file that was .MKV, and had to do some sleuthing to figure out how to watch it. The best solution I came up with was downloading and installing the codec pack from cccp-project.net. Select all of the default options as you go through the installer. After installing on Windows Vista 32-bit I received an odd "String Error" message, but the install worked fine.

To play my file, I still had to use Windows' "Choose a program to view this file" and it selected "media player classic," which is included in the CCCP Project installer. After all was said and done, the movie files were playing correctly in the newly installed Media Player classic.

Social Media Optimization (SMO)

2008-02-11T10:54:00.000-08:00

Dropping the term SEO is no longer in style. There's a new acronym taking its place, and now is your time to learn it. The term, SMO, or Social Media Optimization is the new SEO. Rohit Bhargava has been credited with coining the term.

What is SMO?
To understand SMO, you must first understand Social Media. Web sites like Digg, StumbleUpon, Fark, Reddit, and Del.icio.us are just a few examples of the recent surge in social media web sites. So what is social media? In a nutshell, it is content powered by you, the visitor. You decide what you want to see.

In 2000, if people wanted to get updates on Britney Spears, they would have to constantly refresh a page like People.com or CNN. In 2008, Joe Schmo can create a web site from his basement and run a Google Maps API that updates in real time with Britney Spears' location. Will CNN link to Joe Schmo? Of course not, which is why they are no longer the primary source for news.

Benefits of good SMO:

Attract visitors/readers/customers who are genuinely interested in your content
Get those visitors to share your content with other like-minded people
Web "word of mouth" spreads like wildfire, generating many new visitors

How do you improve your SMO? As a quick start, you need a service like AddThis on your web site. AddThis essentially aggregates all of the most recent Social Media site bookmarking widgets into one easy to implement button. Instead of trying to keep up to date on the latest social bookmarking site, let AddThis keep track of it for you. When users click an AddThis button on your site, they see something like this:

AddThis

This article is still under construction... Sorry :| -- 2-11-08

2008 Super Bowl Commercials

2008-02-04T08:28:00.001-08:00

The 2008 Super Bowl commercials have all been posted to bestviral. Enjoy.

Turn Off User Account Control Windows Vista

2008-01-24T22:14:00.000-08:00

One complaint about Vista that is completely unwarranted is anything in regards to Windows Vista User Account Control (UAC). UAC is what causes those horrendous warnings to come up every time you try to make a change in the system. Why is the complaint unwarranted? Because it takes about 60 seconds to turn off. To turn off user account control, follow these steps:

- Go to Start > Settings > Control Panel
- Find User Accounts

Windows Vista Control Panel

- Open user accounts, and at the bottom, there is a link to "Turn User Account Control on or Off"

User Accounts Menu in Vista

- Follow the next step, turn off UAC, and restart your computer.
- Voila, Vista is one step closer to becoming usable.

Take the DC Metro to BWI Airport

2008-01-24T21:44:00.000-08:00

Okay, this may seem easy to some DC natives, but even after living here for four years I still had problems getting concrete information on how to get to BWI using the DC Metro. Let me tell you, unless you are getting a ride from a friend or taking a cab, there is no pleasant way to get to BWI from DC or vice-versa.

I first tried the method of taking the Metro to Union Station, and then using the MARC train, but frankly, that method sucks. You pay for the metro, you pay $6-$12 for the MARC (depending on weekday/weekend), and then you still have to take a 10 minute (albeit free) shuttle from the MARC BWI station to the airport. That's right, you wait to get on the metro, you wait to get on the MARC train, then you wait to get on the shuttle bus to finally arrive at a place you probably don't really want to be. YES!

While the WMATA isn't exactly a magic carpet ride, it at least saves you some money, and saves you from dealing with Union Station, which is a very questionable place.

In case you have stumbled here looking for step by step guidance, here you go.

GETTING TO BWI USING DC METRO:

Check the B30 Bus Schedule [PDF] ahead of time.
Take Metro to Greenbelt station, which is at end of the Green Line.
Look for the B30 Bus when you get off at Greenbelt, the stop will be outside in the parking lot. It costs $3.00 with a SmartTrip, or $3.10 with cash (don't ask).
The B30 is an express bus that will take you right to BWI Airport. The bus ride takes around 35 minutes or so, but depends on traffic.

GET TO DC METRO FROM BWI

The hardest part for me was finding the public transportation bus stop. There will be about 500 bus stops for shuttles to take you to a parking garage, but you have to keep following signs to "Public Transit" or "Regional Bus" in order to find the B30 Bus stop. It is on the lower level outside baggage claim, but depending on which baggage claim you get out at, you may have to walk for 5-10 minutes to get there.
Once you actually find the bus stop (B30 will be posted on the wall), take a sigh of relief. The hardest part is over. They have the bus schedule posted on the inside of one of the bus shelters. The B30 will take you directly to Greenbelt, just make sure you are getting on the B30.
Follow the instructions above for any further details.

BWI's Official(ly Lacking) Instructions are here.

I will try to get some pictures to aid your voyage soon. Check back.

Hotel Drinking Glasses Video Gains Global Attention

2007-12-30T14:30:00.000-08:00

On November 23, 2007 I posted the Don't Ever Drink From Hotel Glasses video on bestviral. Since then, the video has spread around the globe and back. As of today, the video has received over 2.1 Million views from 197 different countries. These are the views from bestviral.com alone, not including views to the same video on LiveLeak, Break, and a number of other video sites.

Even more disturbing was the follow up video in which the same news team hid a camera in 4-star hotels and found that even a higher price does not dictate improved cleanliness in a hotel. While comments from viewers have ranged from outrage to apathy, it is hard to argue with what is caught on camera.

Bizarre Google Adsense Ads

2007-11-29T22:44:00.000-08:00

I like to think that I am pretty experienced with contextual advertising by now. Every once in a while, I see a "relevant" text ad that just blows my mind though. When viewing the Kermit Watches 2girls1cup video, I noticed the following text ad on the right:

Why God?

What does Kermit the Frog have to do with the 2007 Ford Escape Hybrid SUV? What kind of ridiculous keywords is Ford's web marketing division bidding on if they are paying for clicks to a Kermit The Frog link? Really, what kind of ROI could that possibly yield?

Mind boggling really.

Update 12/30/07:

Apparently Ford has some sort of Kermit the Frog campaign going for their new hybrids. Still a questionable bid for blind Kermit the Frog keywords that have nothing to do with cars.

YouTube Down

2007-11-25T09:56:00.000-08:00

YouTube has been reportedly down for over 30 minutes, as of 11-25-07 at 12:55pm EST, with the following error message:

Http/1.1 Service Unavailable

This seems to be affecting all YouTube sites including:

UK YouTube (uk.youtube.com)
CA YouTube (ca.youtube.com)
YouTube Blog (youtube.com/blog)

This is not the first time YouTube has gone down for an extended period of time. It experienced over 5 hours of downtime in August of 2006, with little explanation from the company.

More details to follow as they become available.

Update:

As of 1:20pm EST, YouTube is back up. No word yet on the cause of the outage.
On 11/29/2007 YouTube was again inexplicably down with the same error message. If you can't take the traffic, get off the highway.

Use Blackberry 8800 as USB Dial Up Modem

2007-11-06T22:49:00.000-08:00

After wanting to do this for a long time, I finally was able to get my Blackberry 8800 to work as a USB modem for my laptop. This means you can get internet on your laptop/desktop wherever you get ATT/Cingular Service. I got it to work on Vista, but the instructions below are for XP. Vista basically has the exact same setup instructions though. It was confusing at first, but below I wrote out instructions that even a CHILD could follow.

You need the following before we begin:

Blackberry 8800 (Most likely will work with any ATT/Cingular phone)
AT&T Wireless Service with unlimited data plan (unless you like paying fees)
USB connector cable

Okay, you're ready to begin:

If you have not already, download and install the Blackberry Desktop Software.
Go to the Windows Device manager. Quickest way: Start > Run > devmgmt.msc
Click + button next to Modems, double click "Standard Modem"
Click the Advanced tab
Enter this into the empty box (no leading space): AT+CGDCONT=1,"IP","wap.cingular"
Hit Okay, and close device manager.
Go to network connections. Quickest way: Start > Run >
Paste in the following line and hit enter:
explorer.exe ::{7007ACC7-3202-11D1-AAD2-00805FC1270E}
Click Create a new connection on the left, and follow these steps:

Welcome to ... Wizard --> Next
[Select] Connect to internet --> Next
[Select] Set up my connection manually --> Next
[Select] Connect using a dial-up modem
Type in a connection name of your choice (example: ATT dialup) --> Next
Enter this as the phone number: *99***1# --> Next
Enter user name (ALL CAPS): ISP@CINGULARGPRS.COM
Enter and confirm password (ALL CAPS): CINGULAR1 --> Next/Finish

Open the desktop manager and plug in your Blackberry via the USB cable. Make sure it detects the Blackberry as connected.
Go back to your network connections window (step 7), and double click the new ATT Dialup icon.
Your password, username, and dialup number should already be saved. Just click "Dial"

This worked for me on the first try. It will not incur extra charges to your Blackberry plan on AT&T as long as you have the unlimited data plan.

What kind of speed will you get with this? According to my bandwidth test, not much. It's still very useful to check e-mail and do light web surfing. The speed clocked in at around 78Kbps which is slightly faster than a 56k modem.. ick.

Updates:

Thanks to Ken Hanscom for further improving these instructions, and linking back to me. I will be making a revision to my instructions per his improvements after testing.