Author Archives: jrothmanshore

Shortcut: Getting your money’s worth from shampoo and styling cream containers

Posted on January 16, 2011 by jrothmanshore

Now, you might think I’m just cheap, but it drives me crazy that you can never get all of the product out of a container if it is a thick cream like shampoo or styling gel.  You can turn the … Continue reading →

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Why I’m sticking with AT&T when Verizon releases the iPhone

Posted on January 10, 2011 by jrothmanshore

With Verizon expected to announce an official launch of the iPhone tomorrow, analysts are prediction that 9-12 million Verizon iPhones will be sold in 2011.  The actual number of AT&T escapees is expected to be limited, however, by AT&T’s high … Continue reading →

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Nighttime adventures with an old-fashioned iPod

Posted on January 6, 2011 by jrothmanshore

Sleep has been in short supply in our house this week.  A combination of colds, a teething six month old, and prolonged bedtime dramas from our daughter Ayelet, who is going through a “terrible two” stage, has left everyone exhausted. … Continue reading →

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Use Amazon’s Barcode Scanner in a store to look up product reviews on your iPhone in 10 seconds flat

Posted on December 30, 2010 by jrothmanshore

Over the weekend, I found myself in a mall looking for a new camera for my father-in-law.  He’s not convinced that he needs a new one, but his daughters have objected to the fact that it requires using a view … Continue reading →

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Performance: An awk script for computing 95th percentile times straight from web log files (IIS, Tomcat)

Posted on December 28, 2010 by jrothmanshore

When analyzing performance, looking at 95th percentile response times is one of the most useful metrics.  While the average can be a good indicator, it can be heavily skewed by lots of small requests or a few extremely long ones.  … Continue reading →

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On 21st century babysitting, and whether Skype will be the next Xerox or Asprin

Posted on December 22, 2010 by jrothmanshore

I’ve been meaning to get a flu shot.  I’m a big believer in vaccination, and if getting a shot gives me a decent change of avoiding a debilitating, multi-day illness, then sign me up!  Unfortunately, my doctor’s office is no … Continue reading →

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Comcast shows social media savvy and keeps my internet service business

Posted on December 20, 2010 by jrothmanshore

Last week, I posted about an odd experience I had with the “Live Chat” functionality on Verizon’s plan comparison web page.  I was looking at Verizon’s offerings because of an extremely poor experience I had with arranging a Comcast service call, and … Continue reading →

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New TiVo and over the air antenna bring crystal clear, free TV

Posted on December 19, 2010 by jrothmanshore

A week ago, I ordered a new TiVo premiere on the hope that it might allow me to actually cut out cable TV.  We watch so little television these days, and most of the shows we watch are on the major … Continue reading →

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Performance Tuning: Clear hidden form variables to avoid unnecessarily large post backs #browser #html #javascript

Posted on December 17, 2010 by jrothmanshore

To create rich web applications, it is fairly common to encode data in JSON on the server and then manipulate it using javascript on the client.  For example, when creating a rich Datatable in YUI, rather than rendering the data … Continue reading →

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I’m not convinced that Verizon’s “Live Chat” is really live

Posted on December 15, 2010 by jrothmanshore

After a very negative run-in with Comcast’s repair service (they cancelled my appointment after I didn’t answer a phone call listed as “Private Caller” that they didn’t tell me to expect to a different phone number than the one I … Continue reading →

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