Billy Blogs

Google Does Something Idiotic

2010-01-29T14:50:00.000-04:00

Google has done away with the Saved Locations feature on Google Maps. That's right. You can no longer assign labels to addresses and save them in Google Maps. Instead, they're pushing people toward using Web History to save their addresses, along with everything else they do online.

Who's the genius at Google responsible for this "feature" change? Give yourself a pat on the back. Congratulations on moving loyal users to competitor sites.

New Organic Restaurant in Arlington, VA

2009-10-28T20:30:00.000-03:00

A new vegan-friendly, organic restaurant has opened in Arlington, VA. Details here: http://vegtalk.blogspot.com/2009/10/new-organic-restaurant-in-arlington-va.html

Hopper Full of Pellets

2009-10-07T18:46:00.000-03:00

Here's the pellet stove hopper full to the brim. This is two bags of wood pellets (80 lbs), which will burn for 48 hours on my pellet stove's lowest setting. The lowest setting is sufficient most of the time (unless it's extremely cold outside) and does a great job heating the entire main floor of the house.

Fired Up the Pellet Stove

2009-10-04T23:06:00.000-03:00

I've already had to fire up the pellet stove a few times. It looks pretty though, doesn't it? This thing throws a lot of heat. I keep it on the lowest setting and it heats the entire main floor of the house.

And, one of the rooms in my basement is dedicated to storing wood pellets:

Online Movie Ticketing Comes to PEI

2009-09-30T16:01:00.000-03:00

Prince Edward Island continues to (slowly) join the modern world. Empire Theatres, which operates one theatre in Charlottetown and one in Summerside, has introduced online ticketing.

City Cinema, Charlottetown's independent movie theatre, has offered an online ticketing service for quite a while. (They charge 50 cents per ticket.) However, this blog post refers to the island's mainstream movie theatres.

I decided to try out the service last night when I went to see Surrogates (good movie by the way). I browsed to the movie showtimes for Charlottetown and clicked on the time I wanted to see the movie. I was then prompted for my email address and payment information.

A six-digit booking reference number was then displayed on the screen and emailed to me. I brought the printout to the theatre with me just in case. When I arrived at the theatre, I went straight to an automated box office machine and clicked, "Pick Up Tickets." I input the six-digit booking reference number and my ticket spit out almost instantly.

Verdict? I really like the service. It was much faster than waiting forever for the automated box office machine to approve my transaction or in a line at the ticket counter. Best part? The service is completely free. Empire Theatres does not add a service fee at all.

Here's the link for those of you wanting to purchase movie tickets in Charlottetown: http://www.empiretheatres.com/theatre/showtimes/61

Heating with Wood Pellets

2009-09-25T11:29:00.000-03:00

I had my pellet stove serviced the other day because the Canadian winter is quickly approaching. I'm trying to be as prepared as possible for the deep freeze this year.

Last year my wife and I purchased a Flame FP-45 pellet stove (pictured to the left) at Home Hardware, our local hardware store. It burns wood pellets and puts out a maximum of 45,000 BTUs.

I highly recommend a pellet stove for those of you who live in areas that have pretty cold winters.

My pellet stove has six heat settings. I usually run it on the lowest setting, which burns just one 40lb bag of pellets a day (a bag costs about $6). So, in the Canadian winter, I'm able to heat the main level of our home with just one bag of pellets a day. The heat produced by the pellets feels really nice and does a great job warming up the house. I do have to heat the basement with oil but the main level is taken care of by the pellet stove.

For those of you who have hot water baseboards in your house I highly recommend installing the product ThermGuard. The device manually calls for water from your boiler every so often in order to prevent them from freezing. You are able to set the interval (how often the device calls for water) and the duration (how long it circulates water for). I set mine to run every 2 hrs for 5 min at a time.

Wood pellets burn clean and are a renewable heat source. It's much more eco-friendly. I highly recommend a pellet stove for those of you interested in using less fossil fuels.

Steps to Solving Climate Change

2009-09-24T11:48:00.001-03:00

(Cross-posted at Vegan Talk: http://vegtalk.blogspot.com/2009/09/steps-to-solving-climate-change.html)

I'm sick and tired of government, politicians, and corporations dancing around the issue of climate change. We're sacrificing our planet for economic reasons. Don't you think that's crazy? We've also become accustomed to our way of life and are reluctant to change.

We've been destroying the earth for far too long and we need to take action now.

Here's what we need to do to fix climate change:

Adopt a vegan diet

Raising animals for food is an ecological disaster. Eating animal products is the single worst thing you can do for the environment. It takes far more resources to raise animals for food when we could be using less by eating lower on the food chain. If you really care about the planet and want to make a change please go vegan. Take action now: Read more about veganism and even get a free vegan starter kit at Vegan Outreach.

Farm organically only

Conventional farming methods are not sustainable and the pesticides, herbicides, and many chemicals are killing us and our planet. We need to stop subsidizing products that are killing us, ban chemicals, and farm organically only. Take action now: Support organic farmers by purchasing only organic produce in your grocery store. Better yet, visit your farmer market and find organic and local produce there. You can also purchase clothing made with organic cotton.

Green the grid

There's a disconnect between flipping on a light switch and understanding how the electricity got there. Most of the grid is powered by fossil fuels (coal). We need to switch to solar and wind power and stop using fossil fuels and nuclear power. If we invest in renewable technology we'll create a sustainable system and many jobs in the process. Take action now: Invest in solar and wind power or install the technology yourself.

Stop using oil

At the same time we're greening the grid we should invest heavily in designing and manufacturing electric cars. GM created an electric car with a decent range years ago but then pulled it before it went to market (watch the movie Who Killed the Electric Car? for more information). The technology is there. We just need to stop letting the oil companies control our policies and our planet. Those that are smart will switch to renewable energy, those that aren't will die out. This will also mean people will stop using oil to heat their homes. Instead, people in colder climates can use electricity from the green grid or something like a pellet stove. Take action now: Drive only when you need to and buy a fuel-efficient vehicle.

Ban incandescent bulbs

We can't just green the grid and still consume the same amount of power. We ultimately need to use less. Australia has banned incandescent light bulbs. Why can't we? It's such a simple change and uses only 1/4 of the electricity. Take action now: Switch out your light bulbs with CFLs.

Manufacture only products that meet Energy Star guidelines (where applicable)

For the same reasons as above, we need to produce the most energy-efficient appliances. Take action now: When you need a new appliance look for one that has the Energy Star certification.

Recycle everything

I can't believe some areas still don't have decent recycling programs. We need to be recycling everything we use. On the same note, we should be manufacturing products with post-consumer material to reuse and cut down on the resources we need. Take action now: Be diligent about making the most of your area's recycling program. Recycle everything you can.

Do you have ideas? Please add your comments.

Wednesday is Raise-A-Reader Day

2009-09-22T10:18:00.000-03:00

Wednesday is Raise-A-Reader Day here on Prince Edward Island. Newspaper hawkers will be out across the island. The money will go to the PEI Literacy Alliance, which focuses on literacy outreach and education.

So, those of you on PEI have a good reason to buy an actual newspaper tomorrow. I'm sure many of you are like me and have transitioned to digital news but let's support a good cause tomorrow.

You can read more about Raise-A-Reader Day at The Guardian's website.

Great Mouse for Portability

2009-09-19T10:28:00.000-03:00

Here's a great mouse for people on-the-go or for those of you who also work remotely. It's the Dynex DX-PMSE. It's very compact and has a retractable cord, which is wonderful for packing away into your laptop bag and maximizing your workspace in a cafe.

It's only about $15 at Best Buy, although mine came from work so it was free.

Getting Back Into Shape

2009-09-18T19:34:00.003-03:00

I always said that I wanted to have my own mini-gym once I owned a house. I've been a homeowner for a year now and still don't have my gym. Well, I finally ordered a weight bench today!

I found a decent-looking weight bench on Sears' website and decided to order it. It was on sale for $200 and even comes with some weights.

I lifted for a while back in college and it felt good. I just got out of the habit of going to the gym and then stopped. Anyway, I may have found a good use for my basement now. The only bad part is that I have to wait until September 29th, which is the estimated arrival date.

New Spiffy DVD Player

2009-09-18T11:21:00.001-03:00

A friend told me about how his Pioneer DVD player had a USB input which enabled you to play files directly from a USB flash drive. Pretty sweet.

So, I went to Future Shop (PEI's Best Buy) and bought the Pioneer DV-420V-K DVD Player. The sole reason I purchased it was for the USB playback capability.

This is a great DVD player. I've tested it with numerous DivX and Xvid files and it works flawlessly. Here's how simple it is:

Put some DivX or Xvid files on your USB flash drive

Edit: There is a 14-character limit with file names. If you go over the limit the menu on the TV will simply strip off the additional characters. Also, be sure not to include any spaces in the file names, as that causes problems. I tried playing a file with spaces last night and it said the file could not be read. I simply removed the spaces and it worked.

Stick the USB flash drive into the USB input
Turn the DVD player on and click the DVD/USB button to switch to USB mode
A menu will appear on the screen that will display your USB's file contents
Choose a file and click play

It takes a few seconds to load the file (I'm assuming it's preloading or caching) before it starts playing. I've noticed fast-forwarding is a little trickier but it hasn't been a big deal.

The Pioneer DV-420V-K supports HDMI to your HDTV and upconverts to 1080p, which is a higher resolution than my 720p HDTV. It's also Energy Star qualified.

My verdict: Definitely worth the $110.