16oz coke bottles for the price of 20oz bottles

Sorry for the off topic post, but while at the store earlier today to purchace a soda to quench my thirst from this heat I noticed that Coca-Cola products now come in 16oz bottles in place of the industry standard 20oz bottles - and they cost the same as their 20oz counterparts.

This is an outrage, and I recommend that you contact the CEO of Coca-Cola at:
phone: (404) 676-2121
fax: (404) 676-6792
email: officeofthechairman@na.ko.com

Hopefully Coca-Cola will realize that this was a mistake, and give its customers the 4 oz back that they stole from us, and that I can get back to posting on topic.

[EDIT] it took the CEO over 2 weeks to initially reply, to which he claimed the 16 oz was just another "choice" for consumers, and not meant to replace the 20 oz bottles. Yet I have not seen anywhere who stock BOTH the 16oz and 20oz products, so not sure what he meant there. He offered no resolution to the problem.  The second Email that I sent took even longer to respond to - and I advised him that he made no effort to retain me as a customer, nor provide an adequate response to my inquiry, and that at minimum I should have been provided with a coupon for a free Coca-Cola product, the response was that he did not think that offering a coupon would have remedied the problem, but claimed that I would receive a coupon in my mail - 6 months later, and I still have not received any coupon. EVERY issue from EVERY OTHER company where I made the CEO's office aware of a trouble I was provided with satisfactory, or better results, usually resulting in the CEO, or other management contacting me by phone less than 24 hours after my complaints, but not with Coca-Cola, they do not care about their customers. 

my latest recommendation for a "throw away" phone

6/30/11 Due to Virgin Mobile closing an account of ours that had funds in it, that should have been active for 365 days we can NOT recommend using Virgin Mobile at this time! 

6.27.13: WE ALSO HAVE ISSUES VIRGIN MOBILE TECH SUPPORT AT THE PRESENT TIME, AND AGAIN ARE NOT RECOMMENDING THEM - ALSO, THEY NO LONGER OFFER PER-MINUTE PLANS, SO THIS POST IS OUTDATED, AND NO LONGER RELEVANT.

I have always recommended the Net 10 LG300 for a throw away phone. The reason being that they cost $25 to $30, depending on if they are on sale or not, and comes with 300 minutes, that are good for upto 90 days. This phone and its 300 minutes plan is still good for low usage, where you do not expect to use all of the minutes in a single month, BUT if you need to use more minutes within a single month, then I have found an even cheaper alternitive.

 Virgin mobile has always had several phone models in the $10 range. Currently the kyocera TNT (flip) and JAX (candybar) phones are $10 each, and with a $20 paylo plan you will have 400 minutes to use to talk.

So for the same $30 you can have a Net 10 phone for 60 days and 300 minutes (with 10c additional minutes, if you actually add money to your throw away), or a Virgin mobile phone with 400 minutes (for 30 days, with 5c additional minutes.)

FREE dial up.

While most people are using broadband internet connections, or stealing WiFi illegally from there neighbors there is still people that are using dial-up internet. Either for there main connection to the internet, or as a back up, or for traveling. Years ago there was plenty of free dial-up service providers to choose from, starting with NetZero. It was mostly ad supported, and very limited. People figured out how to disable the ads, then it was patched, then they figured out how to disable them again. This was a constant cat and mouse game with NetZero and other similar services and the crackers, until finally most of the free dial-up ISPs just ended up going with a subscription model.
The good news is that there still exists several free dial-up ISPs. While I have not tested any of these, since the first thing I remove from every PC that I own is the 56K modem, and my portable PCs are netbooks with no dial-up capabilities, you should hopefully find something worth the cost of admission (free) for your dial-up needs, whether it is for your main internet connection, a back up when your DSL or cable modem goes down, or while traveling.


http://www.dialupforfree.com/
claims to have local access numbers across the country

http://www.fastfreedialup.com/index.html
has access numbers for CA, DE, NJ, PA

http://www.dialinfree.net/
has access numbers in the entire state of MI according to the site

http://www.freedialup.org/site/
has access numbers in NH, Mass, and RI

http://www.netzero.net/free
it appears I may have spoken too soon in the above post, netzero claims to have nationwide access numbers, but only gives you 10 hours free per month.

http://www.metconnect.com/
NYC's free ISP

http://www.freedialupnw.com/index.html
ID and WA access numbers

http://www.socalfree.net/
southern california access numbers

If you have any others, or want to share your experience about one of the above, then leave a comment below.

The following two posts were sitting in my draft folder from last month, and accidentally never got published.

OOMA premier $20 discount code

AS OF 6.27.13 THERE IS NO PROMOTION, OTHER THAN FREE SHIPPING FOR OOMA BUSINESS PHONE SYSTEM. THE SAME CODE IS USED, SO YOU CAN ALWAYS TRY THIS SAME CODE AND IF THERE IS A PROMOTION GOING ON YOU WILL GET THE CREDIT, SINCE THEY DO NOT CHANGE THE REFERRAL CODES FOR EACH PROMOTION! 

$50 off Ooma!! Click HERE or use code VEF3711 Ends 7/31/12

These codes are expired, follow NYPHONEJACKS on Twitter to get new Ooma codes when they become available!

[EDIT: This code is likely expired already. I have 3 single use codes that will save you $50 that must be redeemed by May 31, 2011 - email me if you want one. These are first come first serve]

[EDIT 3.8.11 -  Not sure if the code below works anymore, but I just got a new code for $20 off. PREM20OFF I believe that this code is also now expired]

Before OOMA restructured there rates, the premier used to cost $99 per year, but they raised the prices sometime last year. But now with this discount code you can get OOMA premier for $99 with this $20 off discount code - the code/discount only applies for NEW OOMA premier subscribers, if you already have an OOMA premier subscription then it won't likely work for your renewal.

The code is:
OOMA3413

Also included with this $20 discount is a free port of an existing phone number ($40 value) or a free OOMA scout ($60 value)



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New area codes planned

New NPA Location Old NPA Overlay? In Service Date Planning Letter(s) Status
227 MD 240 Yes Active
249 Ontario 705 Yes 03/19/2011 398 Active
274 WI 920 Yes 03/10/2012 385 Active
283 OH 513 Yes 316 286 264 Suspended
327 AR 870 Yes 05/18/2013 400
341 CA 510 Yes 206 190 Suspended
343 Ontario 613 Yes 05/17/2010 386 Active
364 KY 270 No 10/29/2011 391 376 371 365
365 Ontario 905 Yes 03/25/2013 Active
369 CA 707 No 238 210
380 OH 614 Yes 317 297 290 Suspended
447 IL 217 Yes Active
464 IL 708 Yes 195 Active
531 NE 402 Yes 03/26/2011 397 393 Active
534 WI 715 Yes 08/14/2010 384 Active
539 OK 918 Yes 04/01/2011 403
557 MO 314 Yes 303 279 261 Suspended
564 WA 360 Yes 298 239 196 Suspended
579 Quebec 450 Yes 08/21/2010 401 395 Active
627 CA 707 No 238 210
628 CA 415 Yes 206 191 Suspended
659 AL 205 Yes 289 284
667 MD 443 Yes 299 266 Active
669 CA 408 Yes 206 149 Suspended
679 MI 313 Yes 227 209 Active
689 FL 407 Yes 325 323 Suspended
721 Sint Maarten No 404 396
730 IL 618 Yes Active
737 TX 512 Yes 276 233 Suspended
764 CA 650 Yes 206 193 Suspended
873 Quebec 819 Yes 06/01/2013 405 Active
929 NY 347 Yes 04/16/2011 402
935 CA 619 No 230 128
938 AL 256 Yes 07/10/2010 389 Active
959 CT 860 Yes 255 217 Active
975 MO 816 Yes 304 280 262 Suspended
984 NC 919 Yes 306 271

some updates to the site

I have just finished doing some minor updates to this blog. I have added a search bar above, and to the right I have added a YouTube player for my channel NYPJ, as well as some advertising from Google ad-sense and Amazon affiliates. There are also some other widgets that I have added to the right side bar, hopefully it will be handy for some of you visiting this blog.

I have struggled with the thought of leaving my blog ad-free, but I finally broke down and decided to attempt to monetize the blog, even if it only brings in a small amount of money. I am hoping that the ads do not become too obstructive of the content of the site, and that I do not need to end up removing them. You can trust that even though I have placed advertisements on the blog that my commentary will remain unbiased for or against any product or service that I discuss on this blog.

If you have found the content on this website to be of help to you, the I ask your assistance in helping make the new ads on the site a success and click through any of the ads that appeal to you.

free phone service with gizmo + google voice

EDIT - This article is outdated, and the information no longer works. For free incoming/outgoing calls with google voice check THIS newer article. 

[EDIT: Gizmo is being discontinued by Google.]

I have seen many outdated articles related how to get GV and Gizmo to work together so that you can have not only free incoming calls, but also free outgoing calls.

Since Google Voice has disallowed incoming SIP connections, and since Gizmo no longer has this as an option, I will discuss the way that I have been able to make free outgoing calls from my Gizmo account using Google Voice.

My first test was to just use click to call to call into my Gizmo number, but for some reason when I answered the GV call from Gizmo the line only rang once and then I was faced with silence. Knowing that my GV number works, and that I am able to call into it with no problems with other phones, I figured that somewhere the GV number realizes that the CID is calling itself. Click to call displays your Google Voice number, not your Gizmo number as the CID, So I assumed that this is where the problem lied.

So with the above informatiion to guide me into a way to make free calls I decided to try one of the other Google Voice numbers that I have access to, in conjunction with my Google Voice number,

Here is the soloution - you will need 1 Gizmo account, and 2 Google Voice accounts.Gizmo is currently in closed beta so if you do not have a Gizmo account then you will need to find a different soloution (such as a VoIP buster account with an ipkall DID)

Gizmo account - self explanitory
Google Voice account #1 - this is the account that you will link with your Gizmo account (or other VoIP provider with a US DID)
Google Voice account #2 - this will be the number that you call from GV account 1, and will appear on your CID for your placed calls.

If you already have a GV account that you use that is connected with your phones, then you will want to use this account as the GV account #2

with GV account #1 (a new account if you have one existing GV number that you use to receive calls) link this with your Gizmo account, and set up an address book contact with your GV #2 account phone number.

unfortunately you can not add a GV number as a forwarding phone with your GV #2 account, so you will have to enter * and your pin every time you make a call, but I guess that is a small price that you pay for unlimited FREE calls to US and CAN.