Archive for the ‘Technology’ Category

Hello from Buffalo

Monday, December 8th, 2008

UK flagI left Erie on Sunday evening and drove to find my corporate apartment in Buffalo.  Thanks to the miracle of GPS I arrived without any hassle.  Due to the weather conditions I drove the full way without cruise control and it was much more like driving the motorways in the UK.  I arrived a little tired, rather than bored.  Now, if they’d add some features to Interstates to make it more entertaining I wouldn’t mind the drive so much :-)

Apartment fine.  But no internet access.  Cable, and a cable modem with necessary wires, but no access.  Sorted that out this evening, eventually.  Apartment office says Time Warner to blame, Time Warner say apartment firm to blame, the usual stuff.  Luckily, the usual stuff that I’m used to, so it is now sorted.  All credit to Time Warner who were very responsive.  No idea where the bill is going though!

The first two days of the job are orientation days.  Hectic, far too much information to take it all in.  At least on Wednesday I should have some peace and quiet.  (That’s a joke….)  Lots of stuff to sort out - I need to find a medical practice here and register everyone so we can join the company health scheme.  I need to understand the complexities of the US tax system.  (Another joke….does anyone understand them?)

So, end of day one.  Lots of emails to catch up with about the house purchase, but maybe after work tomorrow I can head to a mall or somewhere and find a decent pillow.  Ho hum.

Our new name will be…

Wednesday, December 3rd, 2008

UK flagAfter much consideration, or as much time as we can give to the subject amongst everything else that needs to be progressed towards our move to Buffalo, we have decided that we will change our blog name to….

                           Erieversible

It has been pointed out that:

  • We will still be living in Erie County albeit in NY
  • We will still be close to Lake Erie
  • We will still be visiting Erie, PA very often
  • We will still have massive connections to Erie, PA with family living there
  • We still aren’t going back!

Surely that’s enough to justify leaving the blog name exactly as it is?  The tag-line of “A one-way ticket for a move to Erie” is still true.

The only thing that will need to be changed is the graphic at the top - it reflects PA.  I need to switch it to be more Erie County, NY based.  Or New York state based.  A first look around suggests no obvious graphic image.  And I need to find some symbol to replace the PA keystone graphic.

So much to do….  :-)

Our new house

Monday, November 24th, 2008

UK flagToday we probably looked around our new house.  We took the video camera with us, as past experience shows when you look at a load of houses in one day they all begin to blur into one another.  The video files are processing right now onto DVD so we can review immediately and the kids can have some input too.  house graphicYes, we could review directly from the camera to the TV but we will undoubtedly want to revisit sections far more than once, so easier just to burn to a DVD.

On the one hand this is a very big decision, on the other hand we ideally need to move fairly fast.  Finding the right balance between those two positions is the difficult bit!  We think we’ll head back on Wednesday to take a closer look at these two properties, but there’s a lot of debating to do between now and then - starting as soon as the DVD has been burned.

The new bluetooth headset worked fine.  It did exactly what it said on the box.  Whether that was due 100% to the headset itself, or in some part to the quality of the phone it was paired with (an iPhone, of course) is debatable.  The end result is what counts, and the end result was great.