jpreardon.com

This is not breaking news. Nevertheless, the New York Public Library offers free wireless internet access at many branches. The NYPL offers wired access and workstations at all branches as well.

Carl’s Steaks has gotten good reviews since it opened and I personally think they make a tasty cheesesteak. However, after what I witnessed the other night, Carl’s is off my list.

One would expect the steak and onions in any cheesesteak to be freshly cooked, so I was surprised when the cook pulled a large grey plastic tub full of cooked, chopped steak from the cooler and dumped half of it on the grill. He also had a large lexan full of pre-grilled onions that he proceeded to dump onto the grill.

When were these items cooked? Earlier in the day? Last night? Last week? Who knows?

As if that wasn’t enough, while the steak and onions were reheating on one side of the grill, he dumped at least a gallon of water on the other side to clean it off. Now, regular grill cleaning is a good thing, but it seems like it would be better if the main ingredients were not getting soaked with water during the cleaning process.

While there is probably nothing unsanitary about any of this, it just seems wrong. For $6.00, or any price for that matter, the ingredients should be at least somewhat freshly prepared. Not pre-cooked and reheated.

Okay, I’m the last person on the planet to get a Treo but it’s new to me. The setup was fairly easy, although, I’ve had Palms before so I am used to the HotSync software and its idiosyncrasies. For example, the Outlook calendar conduit kept defaulting to “do nothing” today. We’ll see how it goes tomorrow. Anyway, here are a couple random thoughts about the 650:

• The Versamail/Exchange active sync does not work with our server. No surprise there, we’ll probably need to do some work on the server end to get that working.
• Versamail works well. The IMAP folder synchronization seems a bit flakey though. Perhaps it works well with providers specifically supported by Palm (e.g. Earthlink). I’m trying to use the mail server from my host and synchronization works sometimes but normally fails. Sending and recieving mail works fine though. I’ll need to keep searching for the answer to folder syncing so that I don’t get dupes on my desktop and webmail clients.
• After less then 10 minutes, the blinking service light was driving me to distraction. Is it just me or is a blinking green service light on a wireless device akin to Homer’s “everything is OK” alarm? Why there is no built-in way to disable this is beyond me. Luckily, LEDOff, a freeware application, let’s one configure the light.
• I could not perform the first HotSync using bluetooth. The setup instructions might actually tell one to use USB the first time around. Wether they to or not, the HotSync worked fine with USB (an later with Bluetooth).

Engadget has a HOWTO for creating your own keyless entry system. For under a hundred bucks, you can build your own system and have doors buzzing in no time.

As the commenters on Engadget point out, this project seems particularly suited for apartment buildings with existing buzzers. Even then, it is not without issue. Any phone call to the line connected to the system will open the door. That could probably be remedied with some more technology to check caller ID or ask for a security code.

If you attempt this project, you might want to keep it on the sly. If the building catches wind of what your are doing with their intercom system, they are probably going to be a little upset.