Open Thread Wednesday 3/18/09

By on March 18, 2009 12:50 am in Brooklyn Heights
Flickr photo by cheesenpickles

Flickr photo by cheesenpickles

What’s on your mind? Comment away!

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  • Jazz

    I want to do the wifi and laptop coffee thing today, where should I go?

  • Matt

    @Jazz Go to Coffee Peddlar at Court and Warren. The Stumptown brew is pretty darn good.

  • nabeguy

    Just want to give a hearty recommendation for Rob Mara, the Tile and Grout Guy that someone posted about recently. A total professional who was on time (Sunday, no less) neat, and he prices by the job, not the hour. Covered a 4′ x 2′ patch of missing wall and re-tiled it perfectly.

  • zb

    OK my pet peeve of the day….parking slobs. Please neighbors, be considerate when parking your car on the street. If you are at the end of a block, back up or pull forward to the edge. You don’t need to leave 6 feet in front of you. How about pulling up so more people can fit on the street?

  • zb

    OK my pet peeve of the day….parking slobs. Please neighbors, be considerate when parking your car on the street. If you are at the end of a block, back up or pull forward to the edge. You don’t need to leave 6 feet in front of you. How about pulling up so more cars can fit on the street?

  • http://mermaidsonparade.blogspot.com melanie hope greenberg

    Shameless plug: I’ll be reading and signing my children’s picture books at the Moxie Spot
    81 Atlantic Avenue on Sunday March 22 from 11 am to noon. I’ll be focusing on a couple of my books but mostly A CITY IS written by Brooklyn poet laureate Norman Rosten. The children will be creating 3-D city scapes to take home. Come on down.

  • anon

    What was up last night with the big movie lights (the four big swirly lights) in the southern sky down in Cobble Hill or furhter south? Anyone know what was going on?

  • Nancy

    Brownstoner is stating that Armandos is returning within 3 months. The telephone number has been re-installed. Now if we can just get that lobster back

  • John

    Nancy get a life! we all loved Armondos, but life go’s on
    we will all live without the lobster. more important when is Verizon Fios coming to the Height’s.

  • Topham Beauclerk

    How did it come about that St Francis College should have been allowed to tear down its beautiful old library in order to put up in its place a particularly dismal specimen of modernism? Isn’t landmarking supposed to prevent such atrocities?

  • Nancy

    John:
    I have a life, thanks for your concern :)

  • GHB

    John,

    “we all loved Armondos, but life go’s on”, “…to the Height’s”

    At least Nancy can put together a sentence and spell!

  • Publius

    Regarding FIOS, it can’t come too soon.

    Just got a letter from Time Warner that they are raising rates in a month. Can’t wait to give TW the heave-ho.

    FIOS is advertising the same price for download speeds 5x faster than that dinosaur TW. Hopefully there service won’t be as spotty as well.

    TW is trying to get people to “lock in” the old rates if you commit to two year contracts with early termination clauses. Don’t be fooled.

  • AB

    Thanks, Publius.

    I noted that my “triple play” bill from TW was higher this month than previously.

    My dissatisfaction with their phone service grows: (1) One must dial rapidly or a recorded voice interrupts, aborting the calling attempt; (2) the quality of the sound is poor; and (3) any modem disturbance means bye-bye to phone service.

    And we know how frequently modems die….

  • AB

    (Oooops. That’s me, AEB, just above.)

  • alex

    Any coffee shop recommendations a bit closer than the Coffee Peddlar?

  • yo

    topham…that building fell outside the landmark zone and thus wasn’t protected…

    on the other hand, 180 Montague, also owned by St. Francis, is on track to be landmarked (mostly because of what happened to the building across the street)

    http://www.brownstoner.com/brownstoner/archives/2009/02/180_remsen_stre.php

    also see here:

    http://brooklynheightsblog.com/archives/6429

  • Publius

    AEB: I’m on my 5th year with Vonage as my primary business phone (I work at home), and I have to give it high marks for price, service, and quality. I believe they have the best VOIP product out there.

    In 5 years, maybe I’ve had a total of 3 outages, none more than 10 minutes. The voice quality is amazing. Much better, IMHO, than a land line, and those whom I speak with on the phone agree to the quality.

    Customer service seems to be in India, which I love, since my experience with Indian call centers has been very positive. I had a router issue (my own equipment) and the tech walked me through the diagnosis and remedy painlessly and patiently. He even called back a few days later to make sure the cure still worked.

    Vonage has all the features, and also supports free calls to many Western European countries, and very low prices to all other countries. I make calls to Europe frequently for family and it’s an amazing deal.

  • Heights

    Cany anyone recommend anyone to come to the home to do haircuts?

  • AEB

    Thanks for the info/recommendation, Publius.

  • nabeguy

    Thanks for cluing me in on that speed dial thing AEB. For the life of me, I couldn’t figure out why I kept getting that message when I was trying to dial in a number too slowly. Unfortunately, I just signed on with TW, and it has been nothing but headaches, from the installation tech who left the phone jack boxes unattached and loose on the floor, to the phone going dead the next day, to the re-installation tech who showed up 1/2 hour after the time slot and cancelled the appointment when he rang the wrong bell. I finally did get everything installed by someone who knew what they were doing but it took over 2 weeks (2/24-3/14). I can’t speak for other VOIP’s, but TW definitely bites. And now I’m stuck with them.

  • jay

    this may have been covered before, but does anyone have recommendations for a housekeeper/cleaning person for a small apartment?

  • AEB

    Sure, nabe.

    The dialing thing is particularly annoying if you’re trying to read a number and dial it (archaic terminology, but what’s the correct sub?) at the same time.

    What do you suppose is the technological rationale for requiring one’s foot to be on the treadle, so to speak, all the time?

  • Teddy

    Some FIOS info:

    http://www.dslreports.com/shownews/Will-Verizon-Hit-FiOS-Targets-in-NYC-101302

    Basically, FIOS doesn’t seem to be taking off at the moment in the city. Many of the building owners who have been approached by Verizon are saying no to FIOS wiring. Some tenants in the Heights may have a struggle with their landlord to get FIOS into their apt. when it finally arrives on their block.

    I hope my landlord agrees to it, but if he doesn’t, then what? A tenant in my building was complaining about something a few months ago and my landlord told him that he can move if he wants to.

  • my2cents

    Wouldn’t it be ironic if Landmarks refuses to let the Armandos Lobster sign back because it isn’t historically fitting?

  • Melissa

    Nabeguy, will you share Rob Mara’s contact info?

  • alex

    Any suggestions for a good and reasonably priced accountant to do taxes?

  • nabeguy

    Melissa, I’ll get back to you with that, but try doing a search for Tile&GroutGuy and see what comes up.

  • williams

    hello alex, i’m a cpa with one of the big 4 firms…i work in audit, not tax, but i can handle most kind of returns…how complex are we talking here?

  • TS

    Heights — for haircuts in your home – my partner cuts several people in the hood and can come to your home – he’s been a stylist for 20+ years. email me at tms4@nyu.edu and I’ll put you in touch with him.

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