Due to my recent break-in I had ADT reactivated, but really to catch anyone now-a-days it requires either some DNA or some good old footage.  Since I already had several webcams I set out to find software to help me use them.

I found this link and decided since they’re free I might as well try them all out.

I was looking for:

• Remote viewing (bonus for Android support)
• e-mail notification
• motion detection with few false alarms
• Multiple camera support
• IP Camera support

I thought that order was important, but I soon realized the motion detection with few false alarms is the most important unless I plan on being glued to the computer all day.  Some had great remote viewing, but the motion detector would e-mail me for every gust of wind and I didn’t see anything besides just a threshold to tweak to fix that.  Others just had no features.  Sure I could watch 16 webcams at the same time, but why? Some would send me a picture after the motion had ended and didn’t keep track of any time before the motion.

I found Vitamin D was #1 for a reason.  I found the settings for motion detection were fairly easy to setup.  I could define an area and it would only report motion in that area.  Vitamin D sends me an e-mail that actually shows me what is going on and highlights the motion.  I found some free webhosting with FTP and FTP all of my videos (FTP requires paid version).  Vitamin D allows one to specify how much of your hard drive to take up and acts as a DVR.

The drawbacks?  The free version only supports one camera.  I currently have 2 going and I’m looking to purchase another so I paid the $50 for the 2 camera version.  A good example of “try before you buy.”  There is no remote viewing even with the paid versions.  That’s OK.  I have logmein installed so I can check my cameras.  At the $50 price point there are probably other good applications, but I had already configured this one and it met my needs.  I’d like 4 camera support, but oh well.  I can cover what I need to cover with 2 cameras.

Vitamin D has a range of IP Cameras they claim to work with.  Those get quite pricey when features like Wifi and night vision are added so I will wait on that a bit until I can figure out which camera meets my needs (I wish i could just take a bunch home and try).

HomeCamera was a nice product as well as far as the e-mail, remote viewing, and multiple camera support went, but the motion detection would always send me pictures where the person had just left the shot.  I don’t need backs and legs!

This week I was flying out of Pensacola for the first time.  I always take my waterbottle out and place it in a bin to avoid issues on the other side of the xray (20 seconds to take it out saves the few times I have to wait 5 minutes for a bag check).  There was a TSO manning the entry to the xray arranging everyone’s stuff.  He took out my water bottle, pointed to it, and said Gate 7.  At first it took me a second to understand since I was mentally prepared for a “liquids are banned” or something like that.

Instead he was telling me where the one very hidden water fountain is in the airport.  I might not have found it otherwise and I would have just used a sink which works just as well with my filtering bottle.

I have talked about the changes that are coming with the United/Continental merger livery.  The new livery features the name United, but everything else is old Continental.  As with any change there are people who like this and people who don’t.  This led a group of United livery loyalists to create a group Save the United Airlines Tulip.

Although I like United Airlines and don’t care for Continental I don’t really have an opinion here.  The tulip represents the U in United so one would think that since the name stuck that the logo should have as well.  When I think of branding I do recognize the tulip as United right away, but more so than that the main piece of United branding to me isn’t on the plane but rather a song.  Anyone on hold with United for a single transaction besides just flight status should be familiar with Gershwin’s “Rhapsody in Blue.”  This song instantly pulls up images of United to me even if the song is not at a part that I can consciously identify.  This fact became apparent right before the 2008 Beijing olympics.  United rolled out new commercials that were quite long and unrelated to United at first.  Due to the music I kept thinking “this must be one of the new United commercials.”  As long as United leaves the music to go with the name I don’t really care about the outside.  Many United planes never got painted in the white livery anyway so hopefully the merger will push the rest of the fleet through.

2008 – Heart

2008 – Butterfly

2008 – Sea Orchestra

2008 – Moondust

I like the Delta Sky Club, but there are times when what was a 2 hour layover quickly becomes a 5 hour layover and the need for an unexpected meal in an airport arises.  This usually means I leave the Sky Club which is often quieter than the airport and I leave my outlet to venture off to get food.  Since outside food is not allowed in the club this means I have to eat it before returning to the club.

Other airlines have been piloting food in their clubs.  US Airways has had salads and sandwiches for a while.  Now it is Delta’s turn.

Announcement

New York City, NY – John F. Kennedy Airport (JFK)

• We’re adding cafés to all four of JFK’s Delta Sky Club locations where you can purchase made-to-order meals and premium liquors.
• As always, members may continue to enjoy the same array of complimentary snacks and beverages in these Clubs.

They are piloting it in JFK which doesn’t affect me much, but if things go well it should roll out.

So it turns out my house was broken into yesterday.  It’s interesting.  It could have been random, but it also happened the first morning I had been gone in a week.

They just took computer equipment so nothing that can’t be replaced, but they did tear the crap out of my door frame.  I had just put longer screws in the hinges too.  I have to wait until Friday night to double check everything.  I do have insurance, but since it is mostly just computer equipment that was taken and nothing really necessary in the grand scheme of things I will most likely not file a claim.  The worst part of this (besides the door) is that I had to file a report to my work because they took an old work laptop.  Oh well.  It could have happened if I worked in town as well.

I am still trying to avoid these things at all costs, but today’s circumstances led me to the machine.

• I was running late leaving my house today due to laundry issues
• I realized about half a mile from my house that I didn’t have my wallet and I had to turn around and go back
• I hadn’t printed my tickets at home (just checked in and printed to PDF)
• the Airtran kiosk takes 5 minutes to locate a PNR

All that transpired and I went to the C check point with about 30 minutes before scheduled boarding so I had a bit of time.  The C check point had about 40 people in line while the D check point had 4 so the were urging people to go over there.  Since I don’t use the elite line while flying AirTran (whether the TDC would stop me or not is not something I’d like to waste time to find out) I decided to go to D.  D is the farthest from AirTran, but all other checkpoints had about the same queue length as C.

I got in line at D and quickly noticed where the body scanner is.  It is the second line from the left of 4 total lines.  The left-most line was moving fastest so I entered it.

The lady in front of me was taking forever to clear the WTMD (belt, hitting the side, who knows) so while I was waiting behind her the lady manning the body scanner asks me if I have anything in my pockets thinking she means just things that would set of the WTMD I say “no” although I have my boarding passes and ID in my pockets.  She then determines I should go through the nude-o-scope instead (why me?  why not the lady who took 3 times to clear the WTMD???)

I politely said “I will not go through that thing”

She says I don’t have to, but I will get a special screening.  I have to wait for about 3 minutes for my special screener, officer Miller, to arrive.  In that time the lady manning the WTMD motions me through so I go through.  The lady manning the body scanner (who had since closed it off anyway) asked me what I was doing.  Well…your coworker let me through I thought, but instead I just made the VERY VALID claim that I was keeping an eye on my stuff since it had long since cleared the x-ray and I had no line of site from where they had me waiting.

Finally Officer Miller arrives and explains front of hand, back of hand, etc.  She was professional.  I wasn’t thinking and assumed a position not looking at my stuff and she quickly turned me around so I could watch my stuff.  She told me right away that I had the right to request a private screening.  Heck no!  If you are going to grope me I’d prefer to be where I have witnesses if  I need them.  She was thorough but not inappropriate so it wasn’t an issue.  There were a lot of things I wanted to say, but since I was approaching 15 minutes before boarding and I had to walk to the opposite end of CLT I didn’t say anything.  The screening ended after massaging my feet (do the body scanners really see the bottoms of my feet?  If not then why are you touching my feet) and taking one of the explosive detecting wipes to my ID, BP, and officer Miller’s gloves.  I came out clean and they let me go.

I wish I had remembered the name of the lady who pulled me aside and forced me through the ordeal.  I paid attention to the TDC and the secondary screener, but missed the other lady’s name.  Her ego was crushed when I didn’t want to play her game and even though she shut her machine down and I cleared the WTMD without an event I still needed to waste 2 officers’ time with my secondary.

Delta Air Lines Inc. said Thursday it’s launched a new “Ticket Window” on Facebook that will allow passengers to book directly on the social media site.It’s the first time an airline has allowed customers to reserve flights on Facebook, although nearly all major U.S. airlines use Facebook and Twitter to promote sales.

From Yahoo

I will probably never use this since I just go straight to Delta’s website, but it seems like the next logical step from a marketing point of view.  Delta also revamped Delta.com this week.  I haven’t checked it out yet so I will have to opine later.

Post merger United decided to update their livery from the initial draft.  This one features United written in capitals with a new font instead of United written in title case with the Continental font.

Small victories, I’ll take it.

I was working in Canada last week and needed to cross back into the US at Buffalo.  I don’t like to data roam on my cell phone so I didn’t check wait times at the checkpoints and I followed my GPS to the Lewistown bridge that I always take.

I got on the US side of the bridge and I saw 3 lines.  The left line had3 RVs and 5 cars.  The middle line had about 13 cars.  It was hard to tell how many cars were in the right line, but it was shorter looking than the middle line.  I was going into the right line at first because I thought (in hindsight correctly) that line split into more lanes.

Which lane did I choose?  The RV lane because I used the logic that 1 RV is the size of 2 to 3 cars so that line was shorter.  What I didn’t realize was that lane had everyone who required 30 minutes of processing to clear.  Not just the RVs, but the cars as well.  I sat waiting for 1:30 until it was my turn and I just got the basic “purpose of visit, length, bringing anything home? welcome back.”  1:30 waiting for30 seconds of questioning.  I don’t mind the 30 seconds of questioning, don’t get me wrong, but I was curious what was taking the other cars so long.  They weren’t being searched and nothing was being passed from the car to the agent after the initial presentation of documents.  Other lines were moving much faster and many people who entered the border 30 minutes after I did cleared waay before I did.

I didn’t have time to gas up my rental, but I did actually make my flight!

Moral of the story is never stand behind me in a line (TSA, grocery store, anything like that).

This is my second stay at the Crowne Plaza.  I usually stay at the Staybridge Suites in Hamilton, but I’ve been waiting too long to book my hotel and so I end up at the Crowne Plaza.

I shouldn’t really say “end up” though since it is a property that really seems like it is trying.  Downtown Hamilton is an interesting experience and there are several head shops, tattoo parlors, and pawn shops near the hotel.  There are also some awesome Asian restaurants so  I shouldn’t really complain.

Both times I have been upgraded to the club floor which includes continental (bagels and cereal) breakfast.  The pool I believe was recently renovated before my stay back in June because the extremely friendly waitress kept insisting I needed to check it out.  I did bring my bathing suit, but I checked out the fitness room instead (because I’m training for a marathon, not a triathlon).

My favorite feature of the room is the drape clip.  There are many times where the drapes just don’t meet properly or the AC likes to blow the curtains out.  Granted, I was on the 7th floor so a peek from a passer-by would be rare, but some mornings I don’t like the sun to wake me up!

The staff is friendly and helpful.  There is one main waitress in the restaurant and she will remember you from one visit to the next.  She will also let you know what’s going on.

The fitness room had a lot of different things compared to Hampton Inn fitness rooms.  I only used the lone treadmill.  It doesn’t reset after it has been stopped unless you pull out the emergency stop clip.  The treadmill actually felt safer when I was running than when I was walking.  It worked though.  There are 2 flat screen TVs in the fitness room and 1 is positioned with easy viewing from the treadmill.  There is also a bathroom with a sauna right across the hall.  There is a step out of the bathroom.   I wasn’t paying attention and didn’t remember it from the way in.  If the floor had been wetter I might have taken a tumble, but I managed to find the floor with both feet.

I like the Staybridge because it has nice breakfast and an OK dinner included in the rate, but the Crowne Plaza has better parking since it has a garage and doesn’t require double parking.

I’ve been doing a lot more Priority Club and although there is a software issue preventing most of their hotels from getting my room under my correct name (I book the room under my current name through my travel agent’s website and some how when I go to check in the reservation is under my maiden name with an address I haven’t lived in for 4 years).  I should probably reclaim the status with them I lost a few years ago.