The Hermitage Club: A Private Mountain in Vermont

The Hermitage Club.

Teaching my Mom the difference between HDMI1, HDMI2, and TV so she can get Netflix on the Amazon fireTV stick

I got my mom (89) an Amazon Fire TV Stick to allow her to watch Nextflix on her TV.


Installing the fireTV stick was easy, teaching her the the difference between HDMI1, HDMI2, and TV was hard!


Amazon fireTV stick connected via HDMI EXTENDER CABLE TO Monitor HDMI port

HDMI1 and HDMI2
Once I had the firstTV stick set up, it was time to teach my mom how to use it to access Netflix.

My mom has Xfinity and uses that remote to do everything. But now that I introduced a new input, I had to go find the remote that came with the TV to show her how to switch between Xfinity and the Amazon fireTV smart stick, which from here on out I'll call Netflix.

So I found the remote and showed her the SOURCE button.

Note: Maybe she oculd have used the Xfinity remote to do this. I'll have to take a look the next time I visit. Makes sense.



Me: Here mom. Use this remote to change between HDMI1 and HDMI2. HDMI1 is your TV, and HDMI2 is Netflix.

Mom: What does HDMI mean?

Me: I don't know, just press the SOURCE button.

Mom: What's HDMI1 and HDMI2?

Me: HDMI1 is your TV, and HDMI2 is Netflix.

AMAZON FIRETV STICK REMOTE
So we get Amazon fireTV stick display up on the tv and now need to navigate around.



Me: Use the circle to go up, down, left, right, and the button inside the circle to select. Try moving around.

Mom: OK.

When my mom pressed down, it moved down two locations instead of one, and sometimes she pressed the select button instead of navigation. We figured out that the black circle was not differentiated enough in color to distinguish it from the black selection button.

We figured that out.

NETFLIX
Then we moved on to selecting Netflix.


Netflix on Amazon fireTV stick

Once there we looked at how to select and watch a show.

Back to TV

After that we practiced going back to TV.

[Times Passes and we visit again]

Mom: My TV isn't working. It says No Signal. I watched Netflix on my computer at my desk.

So I went over to the TV and saw that the SOURCE was set to TV. Ah ha!

Me: Mom, when you press the SOURCE button, you don't go to TV to get TV, you go to HDMI1 to get TV, which is Xfinity. When you press the SOURCE button, you need to bypass the TV option and only go to either HDMI1 or HDMI2. No TV.

That cleared things up!

My Mercedes-Benz C300 Test Drive Story

Amazon fireTV stick: Easiest Installation Ever

[Video] Star Wars: The Force Awakens Official Teaser

[Video] Jimmy Fallon & Rashida Jones Sing Holiday Parodies of the year's biggest songs.

Note:

YouTube embed works on Twitter, not on Facebook

Twitter:

.@JimmyFallon & Rashida Jones Sing Holiday Parodies of the year's biggest songs. http://t.co/oUzaH2pIPP via @YouTube @FallonTonight

— Steve Garfield (@stevegarfield) November 28, 2014

Facebook:

FACEBOOK GROUP: Fox 25 for Blacked-out Verizon FIOS Customers

Boston Globe writes, Fee dispute leaves FIOS customers in Mass. without Fox 25, but doesn't link to the Facebook group that they mention in the story.

Wellesley resident Cimarron Buser, who launched a Facebook page for people who lost service, urged them to complain to the Federal Communications Commission. He and others suggested ways to work around the blackout. One idea: Hook up a high-definition TV antenna and tune into the station’s broadcast for free.

“I’m not sure who is to blame for this, but clearly two large media companies . . . are fighting it out,” Buser said in an e-mail. “The consumer is the pawn in the game.”

Cimarron Buser

Update: Globe added a link.

FACEBOOK GROUP: Fox 25 for Blacked-out Verizon FIOS Customers

MA Health Connector Website: Download in EXCEL Doesn't Open in NUMBERS

Massachusetts Health Connector website "Download in Excel" feature.

DOWNLOAD IN EXCEL


OPEN IN NUMBERS

Scanning Old Kodachrome Wedding Slides

Talking Heads UMass 1978 US Tour.

Scanned Slides from Grand Lake Lodge 1969

Epson Perfection V850 Pro Photo Scanner. Install and Auto Mode Test

Massachusetts Health Connector: BROWSE PLANS ANONYMOUSLY

The Massachusetts Health Connector let's you browse plans anonymously.



Be careful entering your birthday. 

Once you start typing, the MM/YYYY prompt goes away, so if you type MM/DD/YYYY instead , and get an error, you won't know why.



'Browse our plans' page asks for Date of Birth as MM/YYYY and NOT MM/DD/YYYY.

Date of Birth field label needs 'MM/YYYY' too.

Or, my preferred solution, change the field to accept, MM/DD/YYYY.

Massachusetts Health Connector: FIND A DOCTOR

Massachusetts Health Connector goes Live, November 15, 2014 at 8:00 AM.

NOTE: The URL is http://www.mahealthconnector.org, not .com



Shopping for Plans
When shopping for plans, the Massachusetts Health Connector site WILL NOT let you enter in your doctor to see which plan s/he is in.

You'll need to visit each plan site to see if your doctor is a member of that plan.

Available plans:


FIND A DOCTOR

when you are selecting a plan, it is very important that you check that your doctor is in that plan’s network (a network is the group of providers that participate with a certain health plan).

You will find links to health plan websites on the Health Connector website.

Be sure to visit the “find a doctor” tool (Provider Search) on these websites before enrolling in a plan to ensure that your doctor will be available to you.

That's 15 plans!

Oh wait, that's 16 plans!



The DENTAL and MEDICAL plans are mixed together here. Would be better to separate DENTAL to make it easier to search.

Also, some plans are for BUSINESS ONLY. I've noted that below.

Each link to a plan goes to an intermediate page. From there you click through to the plan's SEARCH page.

I've provided direct links to PLAN SEARCH PAGES here, and put DENTAL plans at the bottom.

Ambetter from CeltiCare Health

Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts

Boston Medical Center HealthNet Plan

Fallon Health

Harvard Pilgrim Health Care

Health New England

Minuteman Health

Neighborhood Health Plan

Tufts Health Plan

Tufts Health Plan – Network Health

UnitedHealthcare

DENTAL

Altus Dental

Delta Dental

Dental Blue

Guardian Dental - PLANS AVAILABLE FOR SMALL BUSINESSES ONLY

MetLife - PLANS AVAILABLE FOR SMALL BUSINESSES ONLY

PolitiFact:

Obama: 'If you like your health care plan, you'll be able to keep your health care plan'

Barack Obama says that what he'd said was you could keep your plan 'if it hasn’t changed since the law passed'

MA Health Connector Promotes New Website With Broken Link

MA Health Connector tweeted out a broken link yesterday to the new Health Connector website.

I told them on twitter.



It's still broken.



They need to be listening on Social Media.

If they aren't listening now, they aren't going to be listening Saturday, when the site opens up at 8 AM.

That's not right.

Massachusetts Health Connector Board Meeting 11/13/14

My Techstars Boston Demo Day Fall 2014 Recap

Cabot Farmers' Legacy Recipe Contest

I Hardwired my TiVo and Let it Choose DHCP Address

I had a problem connecting my TiVo Series 3 to my home network.

Error: No DHCP connection. 

It might have something to do with the power going out here for 12 hours.

I tried a lot of things and ended up unplugging EVERYTHING, and then physically connecting the TiVo to the Xfinity modem via a hub. I removed an intermediate WiFi device.

It worked.

Hard cable connection to a hub:

Over to a router:

Upstairs:

To the modem:

I donated to support The Brittany Fund and Compassion & Choices - Massachusetts

I donated to support Compassion & Choices - Massachusetts

Leeo Smart Alert™ Nightlight

Ireland's Brewery Tours: Carlow Brewing, Guinness, and Smithwicks

The Cliff House, A Seaside Resort in Ardmore, Ireland

Kilkenny, Ireland: A Church, a Castle, and a Bar.

We went to Waterford to see Crystal being made, but we just visited the store.

Two Stops in County Wicklow, Ireland: Avoca Handweavers and Powerscourt Waterfall

3 Ireland Whiskey Tours: Kilbeggan, Tulemore Dew, and Jameson

Two Great Dublin Hotels: The Westin and Contarf Castle

Traveling from Boston to Dublin: Aer Lingus and Hertz. 6 Tips for a Great Trip.

Havas Opens New Office in Boston's Burnham Building

Havas, which includes Havas Worldwide, Arnold and Havas Media, opened a new office in the old Filene's Building in Boston's Downtown Crossing. Havas employees around 800 people, who will help bring new life to the area. Here's my recap of their opening Burnham Bash party.

New Storytelling Tools: Hyperlapse and Snapchat

Boston Photo Walk with MarketingProfs

[Photos] Day One of the Marketing Profs B2B Marketing Forum 2014

Here are my photos from day one of the Marketing Profs B2B Marketing Forum 2014.

I Tw-Insta-Vined it. ;-)

Corning Museum of Glass

Rochester, New York: It's the Pittsford!

Our Seneca Lake Wine Trail Journey

Watkins Glenn State Park and Gorge Trail is Gorgeous

Ithaca, NY: Beer, Beer, Beer, Vegetarian, and Bagels

[Video] Love of the Hub: Steve Garfield

Love of the Hub: Steve Garfield from Good Natured Dog Productions on Vimeo.

Casey Neistat Explains Snapchat

Gregory Ng Quits Videoblogging

Freezer Burns

Wall Street Journal Best Selling Books: #4 Everybody Writes by Ann Handley

Wall Street Journal Best Selling Books: #4 Everybody Writes by Ann Handley

Congratulations Ann!

Buy on Amazon.com (Affiliate Link)

HARDCOVER:


Everybody Writes: Your Go-To Guide to Creating Ridiculously Good Content

KINDLE:


Everybody Writes: Your Go-To Guide to Creating Ridiculously Good Content

ChocoNillaPeanutButter Acorns

At the Amusement Park

Facebook is adding video view count

Post by Steve Garfield.

Testing: Embeding a Facebook post with Video

Post by FB Newswire.

Myers+Chang

My First Hyperlapse

Testing out Instagram's new Hyperlapse app.


Sped up 2X

Oh no!

Hyperlapse took over my camera and microphone!




Get it here: Introducing Hyperlapse from Instagram

Zaftig's Breakfast is So Good

Zaftig's breakfast is so good, they serve it all day long.


Inside the restaurant. There's also a small bar that you can sit at.

Brookline Location
335 Harvard St.
Brookline, MA 02446

Hours:
Sunday-Monday 8am to 9pm
Tuesday-Saturday 8am to 10pm.

Instaed of getting the typical eggs and toast breakfast, I went with the Zaftig's Combo. It's not on the Breakfast menu, it's under Starters.

ZAFTIG COMBO
All of our favorites! Cheese blintz, potato pancake, potato knish, sweet noodle kugel. 11.95

I love it.


Zaftig's Combo.



Video tour of Zaftig's Combo.


Here's a look at the crunchy and tasty Potato Pancakes.

At the register there are pastries and LARGE cookies!


Chocolate Chip Cookies $1.00

Havas Moves into Old Filene's Building

Cooperstown, NY: See, Stay, Eat, and Drink

They made a Poached Egg on Master Chef, So I tried it too.

Success!

Mercedes-Benz CLA250 Roadtrip Photos and Test Drive Highlights

After I did a video review of the Mercedes-Benz CLA250, courtesy of Mercedes-Benz of Burlington, they asked me if I wanted to take it for a longer test drive.

It was perfect timing since I was planning a road trip to the Finger Lakes in New York. So I accepted without any requirements on my part. They said it would be nice if I could share some photos along the way.

That, I took as a challenge.

ROADTRIP PHOTOS:

Here are some of my CLA250 photos from the trip. I'll be posting a review of all of our stops in a future post.

Taking off from the Larz Anderson Auto Museum in Brookline MA


I was excited when the MBUSA Instagram account Re-Instagramed this one!



COOPERSTOWN: OTESAGA RESORT


ITHICA: We Saw Lots of Corn


FINGER LAKES WINE: Glenora


CROTON on HUDSON


BECKETT, MA


BURLINGTON, MA
Turning in the car at the site of the future Mercedes-Benz of Burlington.



After spending 28 hours and 1,100 miles in the car, I can say that we loved everything about it.



TEST DRIVE HIGHLIGHTS:

- The CLA250 is fun to drive. Side view mirrors are BIG and helped see blind spots.
- Has great pick up from a stop, and goes really, really fast when you need to pass. ;-)
- Air conditioning was very good, with dual controls for each passenger.
- This test drive came with SiriusXM. I always enjoy that when I get it in a car.
- Bluetooth connectivity to my iPhone was easy to connect. Plays music seamlessly.
- The seats are very comfortable. After 1,110 miles in it, I have no back problems at all.
- Headlights were very bright on the Western Mass back roads, and the Mass Pike where it was very very dark.

Questions:

- When we were on the highway and a large truck blew past us, the car shook.
- There wasn't a spare tire in the CLA250. Do cars come with spare tires any more? Answer: AMG’s and CLA/GLA don’t have them. They usually have Extended Running tires.
- It took a while to figure out how to use the control knob for the multimedia display.
- We had trouble finding a good place for an the iPhone running the Waze navigation app. Would be nice if Apple CarPlay gets integrated in the 2015 CLA250. I'd give Apple Maps a try. Otherwise, an iPhone holder would need to be purchased.

Disclosure:
Thanks to Mercedes-Benz of Burlington partner, Craig Meece, from Allbrandautos.com, for arranging delivery and pick-up of the car. Craig is great. If you need help purchasing a Mercedes-Benz, or any make of car, contact Craig.

Thanks to the future Mercedes-Benz of Burlington for the test drive. Looking forward to a future partnership. Stay tuned.