Jimmy Mancusi Dot Com

A Tiny bit Obssesive

Tue, 13 Jul 2010 12:37:38 -0500

So on June 24th I got the new iPhone4. I waiting in line at Tice's corner, even though I had a reservation for the phone. There were a few reasons I choose to do that, 1. I was traveling all weekend so I wouldn't have gotten the phone for a few more days (Horrible right?), 2. I went with a bunch of my co-workers at RustyBrick, so it was a good time.

After having the phone for a few weeks now I can say it is a fantastic phone. I love the huge improvement in speed (I had a 3G) and the video camera is awesome. I have already shot a couple hours of video between a few weddings and some home movies. The quality of the video is much better than any other camera I currently have, and considering it is part of my phone which is always on me is a great plus.

However after only having the phone for about 4 days and really babying it for those 4 days, I noticed that there were a few nicks on the screen. 2 on the front and 2 on the back. After my boss Barry dropped his phone and got it replaced due to the damage, I figured I would head over to a local apple store and take my shot. After quickly being dismissed as cosmetic damage (not sure what other type it would have been), I left the store and immediately had a Zagg Invisible Shield put on my phone.

So far I would say I am happy with the shield, it defenitly protects the device but there are a few draw backs.

Has a much more plastic feel, and is pretty sticky, so dust and lint etc.. stick to the phone constantly
If the install isn't perfect, you can end up with small rainbow lines (most likely from the adhesive solution) on the phone

The second point there has caused me a lot of trouble. I have actually had the screen reinstalled by the kiosk at the Palisades mall 4 times (so have a couple of my co-workers), and I still have a few rainbow lines on the phone. At this point I have given up and need to accept it for what it is. Under normal use it is pretty hard to see the rainbow lines, but they show up pretty clear on white back grounds (Mail/Safari/SMS). One of my other coworkers ended up going to a different mall and the installer there did a near perfect job, so I guess it really depends on the installer.

The main reason I gave up in the quest to get it perfect is the shield already has a couple of small impressions on it (from what I have no idea, I still have yet to put the phone in my pocket with my keys or anything) so I realize that in a few months I will probably be requesting a replacement shield and be installing it myself. Hopefully I have more luck with that since I am obviously a little obsessive when it comes to things like this. I have also thought about trying a Clear Coat shield instead, since they claim to have the easiest install, guarantee the install, and appear to have free shipping on replacements.

Barry, RustyBrick, iPhone

I have a blog, part 2

Mon, 12 Jul 2010 14:35:02 -0500

I know I have said this in the not so distance past, but I do intend to start writing here, or doing something with this website! I am still not quite sure what I would like to write about on an everyday basis, maybe that is part of the problem. But I suppose I should just start writing and see where it goes....

Let's see how long I can stick with it this time.

Like a Good Neighbor?

Thu, 01 Oct 2009 15:42:04 -0500

Over the last couple of days I have been dealing with my insurance company, State Farm regarding a mold issue in my basement. A bit of brief background information: 1. We have had a mold issue for the past few months (maybe 4-6) and it has recently gotten worse. 2. I have never really thought about what caused this issue (until I had to deal with State Farm), just know that it is there. 3. We recently had it analyzed by MASLabs , who we have been very happy with, and it turns out to be black mold, which is not good and we need to get it out of there. 4. Treating the mold is not going to be cheap

NHL 09 Review

Wed, 10 Jun 2009 18:36:42 -0500

Ok, this review is completely pointless because it has already been reviewed about a billion times since it has been out for almost a year, and NHL 10 is coming out soon. But since this game took a TON of my time over the last 6 months, I wanted to give a quick review and some spots I think they could do better for NHL 10. Then I will get into the game that is currently stealing my sleep...

CityMove.com

Tue, 09 Jun 2009 17:33:00 -0500

I haven't ever written about any of the sites that I have worked on here but this site is pretty cool, and very well done ( ::wink wink:: ). CityMove is a great site if you are looking to move, especially in the city. The site lets you go through everything you have, room by room, so you will be better organized, and then it lets moving companies bid on your job. You can get flat rate quotes or hourly rate quotes. Really pretty cool, and the design is awesome (props to our designer Mabe).

I have a blog?

Tue, 09 Jun 2009 12:19:06 -0500

I know that I haven't written anything here in a while, so I finally opened it up today and saw that the last entry was from January. Time really flies, I really didn't think it was 6 months already since my last blog entry. I really need to try to get into some kind of rhythm with this blog thing, lunch time updates or weekend updates or something.... Anyway, a lot of stuff has been going on recently, so let me give quick updates to anyone interested: 1. Just went on vacation with my whole family (my side) to Williamsburg VA. Emily's first amusement park, and first water park. Was a blast! Thanks Mom and Dad! 2. A lot of people know, but not everyone since I wasn't as diligent calling everyone I know, so if you don't know and this is how you find out you can call and yell at me if you want. Amanda is pregnant, so we are expecting our second child in December. #2 should really be #2 - #50 since keeping up with Emily and taking care of my pregnant wife is taking up much of my time :) 51. Video games! Anyone that knows me knows I have a problem when it comes to video games and lately they have taken lots of sleep away from me :) I will get into this more later with some video game review posts.... Well thats just a quick update, hoping to get some more up later, and try to actually use this blog for a while... So maybe I will update later, or in 6 months....

NFL Cutting Jobs

Thu, 15 Jan 2009 12:00:08 -0500

This is old news by now, but it was something that riled me up a while ago so I created a post for it and never got around to it. Obviously the economy is not doing well, and many companies, if not most companies are having to lay off employees and cut costs. It bothers me though when companies use the down turned economy as an excuse to be able to cut costs and stream line things. For instance The NFL is cutting 14% of its staff . Really? The NFL, a multi-billion dollar business has to lay off some staff members because of this economy? The NFL's revenue last year was 7 billion dollars. I realize that is revenue and not profit, but do you really think they need to cut 150 jobs because they may only make 6.9 billion in revenue this year? I feel bad for the people that got laid off and their families. The layoffs were early - mid December, perfect timing for the holidays. I am sure the top execs in the NFL were happy though, no better way to cut costs than to cut people. Business as usual I suppose....

Houston Round 2

Thu, 15 Jan 2009 12:00:00 -0500

I created this post quite some time ago, but life has gotten a bit hectic again lately so I haven't been able to do much of anything. Just a quick update, my father flew out to Houston again on Monday, had another procedure (the same one he had last time, just patching up some smaller leaks this time) and everything went well. My parents are probably sitting in the airport in Houston now getting ready to come home. Pretty amazing that they can preform a surgery on your heart and a day later you are discharged from the hospital. Hopefully this will correct the issues that my father has been having. There is a good chance that he will have another procedure to help more issues that his heart is having, but this one should correct the serious problems. Here's hoping the problem stays solved this time....

Home Remodelers Group - Customer Service, or lack there of

Sun, 16 Nov 2008 10:10:22 -0500

A few months back we decided to get new windows in our house. Our house was built in the 1950s and the windows in the house were still original, so as you can imagine they were a bit drafty and inefficient. So we began the process of getting estimates and had some really poor experiences, and a few fair ones. First of all our worst experience was with Castle Windows. They seem to like to use guilt as their main selling tool, and would recommend you look elsewhere if you are looking for new windows. I could go into this estimate in great detail with a lot of ranting and raving... perhaps another day... Come to think of it though, I don't have a recommendation for you since the company we decided to go with, Home Remodelers Group seemed like a good choice at the time, and the windows are nice, but their customer service is absolutely horrendous. For anyone that has been lucky enough not to have a window estimate, let me fill you in on one thing. They all take 3-4 hours. Seriously. These sales guys come into your house and want to put on a complete show. They go into detail about their competitors, how great their windows are and why their competitors are no good, warranties, service and so on. My first consultation ran close to 4 hours, and 2 family members of mine received consultations from separate companies and also ran over 3 hours each. So after our first horrible experience we would tell the sales guy we already knew all of those things and wanted to get right down to it, and were able to get through our next couple of estimates in under an hour.

Long Time No Blog

Tue, 14 Oct 2008 13:16:16 -0500

It has been a very long time since I blogged about anything, over 2 months. The problem isn't that I have nothing to blog about, its that I have too much to blog about! To many things are keeping me way too busy and I haven't had any time to update this site. I think I am going to try to post much shorter to the point things for a while and see if that can get me going again. I have a lot to say so hopefully getting the juices flowing again will help! Anyway... I am back! At least for a couple of blog entries :)

Houston Update

Fri, 01 Aug 2008 21:10:24 -0500

The title of the picture to the right is "Houston Has A Big Heart", and I find that very fitting with everything that has transpired over the past week. As I mentioned in an early post, my parents flew out to Houston so my dad could have a "procedure" to fix a leak in his heart. As with most things in life, there were a few speed bumps in the process. Once my dad got out there, they ran some tests to get an idea of what they were dealing with before they jump into his heart. When they did these tests they found what turned out to be tissue from one of his original valves that was removed years ago. With this tissue in the heart, the doctors weren't sure if they could preform the procedure as they planned and it looked like we were heading toward another open heart surgery...

Houston has a solution

Wed, 23 Jul 2008 19:09:14 -0500

Many of you that have known me for a long time know my father has had some heart issues over the past 6 years. For anyone who hasn't known this here is a quick recap of what has happened so far. About 6 years ago (not exactly sure on dates) my dad wasn't feeling well and ended up going to the hospital. They ran tests and found out that there was bacteria growing on one of the valves in my father's heart. Since there was risk that the bacteria could break off and cause a major stroke, he needed open heart surgery the next day. Everything went well and we were out of the hospital and on to recovery. Then a year or so later they found that he had bacteria on another valve, so once again we were off to the hospital for a second open heart surgery. My father has had a few issues or side effects from the two surgeries, including some memory problems and fatigue. The fatigue continues to get worse since one of the valves in his heart is leaking. This leak is a condition that normally only people who have multiple heart surgeries get, or as we like to call them, the lucky ones.

Plurk!

Thu, 10 Jul 2008 12:46:31 -0500

For all of you who are loyal, die hard readers, you obviously noticed the new addition to the site since the last time you visited. OK, I am not fooling anyone I really don't have any die hard loyal fans.... yet :) I just signed up for Plurk a couple of days ago because Barry wanted another friend sign up to help him get a red star in his profile. Anyway, after joining I figured I would give it a go for a little while to see if I could understand the fascination behind it. Applications like Plurk and Twitter have become very popular lately. For anyone who is unfamiliar with either of these services, they are basically away messages (think aol instant messanger) on steroids, or another way of thinking would be its like mini blogging. You can update what you are doing at any time during the day and other people see it comment on it and so on. Yet another form of communication to reach all of your friends that are sitting behind computers all day long. Since most of my family and friends don't spend their entire day behind their computer, I don't have a lot of friends on Plurk yet, maybe I will make some new ones... But anyway, I figured I would add it here so that anyone is interested can see what random things I do or what random thoughts I have throughout the day. As long as I am plurking, might as well blog the plurks. Did anyone catch that?

All work and no play

Wed, 09 Jul 2008 20:52:35 -0500

Lately work has been taking up most of my time. Thankfully I enjoy what I do, most of the time. For anyone that doesn't know I am a PHP and MySQL engineer. Say what? Just a fancy way to say I am a Web Developer, or a Web Programmer. One great thing about my occupation is there is no need to be in a specific location to do work. Everything is done with computers, and therefore you can be anywhere as long as you have internet access. This also provides plenty of opportunities for side work, which is a great thing and a horrible thing all at the same time :)

Surprise! Happy Birthday Sheryl

Mon, 07 Jul 2008 12:30:41 -0500

Surprise!

This weekend we had a surprise birthday party for my sister in law Sheryl. The party went really well and we think she was surprised but I haven't heard the verdict on whether or not we really got her. I wont tell you how old Sheryl is, that wouldn't be nice, but if you were to say take 20 and double it, you would be on the money ;) The surprise plan went off pretty seamlessly but I think she may have been onto something. One of her friends was suppose to get her out of the house around noon, and return around 2. We left our house with the intention of getting there to help set up around noon, but we ended up circling random neighborhoods in the area waiting for a text message letting us know she had left the house. As soon as she left the house we had to circle a bit more to make sure she passed us on her way out. This is when Amanda got a call from Sheryl asking what she was up to today. We found out later that she had placed a few of these calls to different friends trying to figure out what they were doing today/tonight, which is why I think she might have been onto us. Even if she was onto us, I still think she was surprised. We had all the cars parked off site, and shuttled everyone to the house. So when she pulled up there were no cars. She opened the garage to park, and we were all standing there waiting for her. Either way we all had a blast so it was a success. Happy Birthday Sheryl.