Sconzo.com

I ran 20 miles at Mercer County Park with Bill Scannon this morning. It snowed yesterday into the evening, even though Halloween hasn’t come yet! This caused more than 600,000 power outages across NJ including my home which slightly affected my punctuality for the 5am run.
So that made today’s training run tough, not because it was 20 miles but because the Mercer County Park bike/running path was frozen over with ice and snow. It was particularly difficult to see where the ice and snow were on the path at 5am, even with my headlamp. So my plan of running consistent 8:30s was crushed. I had to slow things down to about a 9:00 pace for the first ten miles because of the conditions.
This run was not ideal for marathon PR training, but it was a tremendous workout for all my stabilizer muscles. Even after ditching the path and running the roads, we still encountered lots of frozen spots, much of it black ice. When we met up with the rest of the Sunday morning distance runners at 7am in the East Picnic Area, we recommended they skip the path and stick to the roads. Once the sun rose things got a little better (note: a little, not a lot better). So we managed a few 8:30s and 8:40s in the last ten miles. This was to be my last long distance training run before the Philadelphia Marathon three weeks from today, but now I’m tinkering with the idea of a second long training run later this week.
Nice running with you today Mr. Scannon.

Wow – this is a pretty cool photo taken from the North Hollywood Metro Station. The sky as viewed through the entrance looks like the planet Earth from space: LA Times – Sky Looks Like Earth

That was incredibly easy. The folks at WordPress make it very simple to post blog updates from an iOS device. The app was free and configuring it to post to my self-hosted blog was a piece of cake.
Perhaps this will help me post more regularly to my blog. See you soon.

I have been pretty negligent with my site; I doubt anyone really reads it anyway. My last post is from May 2011… Life gets busy and there’s little time for writing updates. I’ve turned toward posting updates on facebook.com much more frequently than on my wordpress blog. It’s just easier since I have an app on my iPhone for it. I’ll have to see about changing that. Perhaps there is an iPhone app to make it easier to post.

It’s about four weeks until the Philadelphia marathon, and only three weeks until the Tough Mudder. My plan is to qualify for Boston 2013 at this November’s Philly Marathon. Based on my age, that means I now need a 3:10 finish to qualify. My performance at the recent Asbury Park marathon leaves me with much doubt that I can accomplish the task. Sure, there was wind and sand on the boardwalk, and most of the mile markers were missing. But really, how can one truly gauge how they will perform on marathon day when all the training is done at different speeds? Slow long runs, fast repeats, easy runs, etc. My last set of Yasso 800s averaged out to about 3:06, but that’s not really a very scientific indicator.

I ran a good 15 miles on the tow path with from friend Dimitri yesterday. The pace was 8:28, which I was happy with. Unfortunately, my kneecap is suffering some pain from that run. Hopefully today’s workout and stretching help it recover. I’ll use ice again tonight too. And my Tuesday morning yoga class always helps to set things straight. I really need to get in a speed workout tomorrow, and I’d like it to be another set of Yasso 800s.

Mark your calendars: Friday May 27, 2011 6:30pm

Jam for Japan at the Ewing Community Center.

My son Peter is hosting a concert as a “pay it forward” project to raise money for relief in Japan, through the Red Cross.
He and some of his friends will play songs on guitar, piano, and trombone.
The concert will last approximately an hour.
Admittance is only $5 per person or $10 per family (additional donations are welcome, of course 🙂

The Ewing Community Center:
999 Lower Ferry Road
Ewing, NJ

Here is the flyer Peter made (PDF): Jam for Japan.pdf

Facebook was not responding this morning. We were receiving socket timeout errors in chrome.

I wanted to post the fact that facebook was down, but facebook was down. So I’m posting it on this older-style web technology called a blog 🙂 That’s sooo early 2000’s.

Chat Subject: FiOS Television (No Picture / Picture Quality)

Your Question: I’ve had no TV since last week. New set-top box arrived. I installed it, and auto-activation failed. Details are: RF Check: MoCA TX RATE (151 Mbps) IS LOW.

A Verizon Service Representative will be with you shortly. Thank you. (19:07:04)

Agent Dig has joined. (19:10:14)

Dig : Chat ID for this session is 03071174364. (19:10:14)

Dig(19:10:29): Thank you for contacting the Verizon FIOS technical chat support. We thank you for your patience in reaching us. In order to pull up your records and assist you better, May I request you to confirm the telephone number , name and address on the account.

F J SCONZO(19:10:54): xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Dig(19:11:09): Thank you for the information .

Dig(19:12:09): I see that the box failed to activate , am I correct ?

F J SCONZO(19:12:19): Correct

F J SCONZO(19:12:39): It is currently displaying a picture, but the picture quality is very poor.

Dig(19:12:49): I apologize for the inconvenience caused .

Dig(19:14:19): Let me go ahead and see where the issue is .

F J SCONZO(19:15:55): The last support representative said “I assure you that the set-top box once receive will work as you expect. I am 100% confident about it, you can trust my word on it.” But it is not working.

F J SCONZO(19:16:00): Thanks for looking into the problem.

Dig(19:16:15): I apologize for that .

Dig(19:17:40): So now you have picture on the TV, however the quality is bad ?

F J SCONZO(19:17:50): Correct.

Dig(19:17:55): Okay .

F J SCONZO(19:18:10): The image is very pixellated, and different parts of the screen update at different times.

F J SCONZO(19:18:25): Also, the sound is delayed at times and not in sync with the picture.

Dig(19:18:35): Let me go ahead and run some advanced commands on the box that should fix the issue .

F J SCONZO(19:18:46): Please proceed.

Dig(19:21:41): May I know the serial number of the box that has an issue, it would start with < M > ?

F J SCONZO(19:23:41): It is M00000XXX000

Dig(19:24:36): Thank you .

Dig(19:27:06): I have already send out the commands .

F J SCONZO(19:28:11): The picture still looks bad.

Dig(19:28:31): Well the commands are still in process.

F J SCONZO(19:28:56): okay

F J SCONZO(19:29:41): Okay, the set-top box just shut off again.

F J SCONZO(19:29:56): And is now restarting…

F J SCONZO(19:30:26): The display on the box now shows “–:–” instead of the time or channel.

Dig(19:30:31): Correct .

Dig(19:30:41): Please wait for some time .

F J SCONZO(19:30:51): Okay, now it shows the time.

F J SCONZO(19:31:16): The Verizon menu appeared on the TV, saying “Press MENU to watch FIOS TV”

F J SCONZO(19:32:57): Should I press the MENU button on the remote, or continue to stand by?

Dig(19:33:46): Please wait .

F J SCONZO(19:33:56): Okay. I will wait.

Dig(19:34:06): Thank you .

Dig(19:35:36): Mr Sconzo, may I request you to now check and see .

Dig(19:35:46): I am sure the issue should be now fixed .

F J SCONZO(19:36:01): The set top box display is completely blank.

F J SCONZO(19:36:11): Should I power it on first?

Dig(19:36:26): Please turn it off and turn it back on .

F J SCONZO(19:37:16): It is back on, but the picture and sound problems persist.

Dig(19:37:31): Oh. Okay .

Dig(19:38:01): May I request you to unplug the coaxial cable from the box to the wall jack and replug it back .

F J SCONZO(19:38:16): SURE

Dig(19:38:56): Thank you .

Dig(19:39:16): Just to let you know, in case the chat gets disconnected due to any issue at either end, please re initiate the chat through the same channel or call our FIOS phone support at 1-800-837-4966, whichever is convenient to you.

F J SCONZO(19:40:26): I disconnected and reconnected the cable, again.

F J SCONZO(19:40:31): The picture is looking better now.

Dig(19:40:41): Great!

Dig(19:41:16): I am sure that you should never face the issue again .

F J SCONZO(19:41:31): Thank you.

Dig(19:41:36): I see that your email address is verizon@sconzo.com. Shall I go ahead and send you some quick troubleshooting tips for your future reference?

F J SCONZO(19:42:01): Sure thing.

Dig(19:42:31): Thank you .

Dig(19:42:46): Is there anything else I may assist you today?

F J SCONZO(19:43:21): No thank you. My family is happy to have their television programs are available again, after a weekend and several days without them.

Dig(19:43:31): Oh. Okay .

Dig(19:43:46): I am really sorry for the delay .

Dig(19:44:17): However you should never face this issue again as Verizon always wants a happy customer .

F J SCONZO(19:44:31): Great. thank you.

F J SCONZO(19:44:41): Have a good day.

Dig(19:45:01): Our goal is for you to be completely satisfied with the service you have received and that you recommend us to your friends and colleagues. I am glad I could help. Additional help on all 3 FIOS services is available on our website fioshelp.verizon.com. You can also make use of the Verizon In Home Agent for your Windows and Mac computers which is available for download onwww.verizon.net/connect .Please navigate to this website and click on the link Get In-Home Agent to download and install it. This software would help you in troubleshooting basic issues that you face with your FIOS services before you contact us. Thank you for choosing Verizon and have a nice day.

Dig(19:45:12): To Save/Print the chat session:

Please click on “End Chat” and scroll down to the bottom to Print/Save.

Please click on “Exit” to end the chat session.

[ At this point my ten year old son Peter began typing in my absence, and the conversation that follows is pretty amusing… ]

Dig(19:48:47): Is there anything else I may assist you today?

F J SCONZO(19:49:22): no

Dig(19:49:37): Thank you for choosing Verizon and have a nice day.

F J SCONZO(19:49:57): you too

Dig(19:50:22): It was pleasure assisting you .

F J SCONZO(19:50:37): thank you

Dig(19:50:57): Take care Mr Sconzo .

F J SCONZO(19:51:57): you too. you helped us a lot. now we can watch American idol

Dig(19:52:02): Great!

F J SCONZO(19:52:12): bye

Dig(19:52:22): You and your family have a great day .

F J SCONZO(19:55:12): i hope you have a nice day too

Dig(19:56:07): Thank you for your complement .

Dig(19:56:37): You made my day .

Dig(19:56:53): You are the most patience and polite person I ever worked with !

I recently started using Eclipse on my Mac instead of my old WinXP Machine. I moved my workspace to a shared drive (smb://), but could not open my existing workspace. I received the error: “Workspace in use or cannot be created, choose a different one”.

There was no instance of eclipse accessing that workspace, but I found a .lock file workspace/.metadata/.lock. After manually removing the .lock file, I would restart Eclipse but it would still complain and re-write the .lock file back to the folder.

A local workspace worked just fine, so the problem is exclusive to using a workspace from a mounted filesystem. A quick search for NFS eclipse workspace turned up a way to alter the way file locking is done.

I edited the eclipse.ini file in Eclipse.app/Contents/MacOS, and added the following:

-Dosgi.locking=java.io

Once I added that startup option, eclipse was able to use the mounted workspace.

(edit recommended I.H. in comment below — thanks!):
On a Mac OS X system, you can find eclipse.ini by right-clicking (or Ctrl+click) on the Eclipse executable in Finder, choose Show Package Contents, and then locate eclipse.ini in the MacOS folder under Contents.

Olive oil helps lower cholesterol, and boosts the immune system with mono-unsaturated fat and vitamin E.

It helps fight against obesity, cancer, heart disease, and high blood pressure. Some sidekicks include canola oil, peanut oil, and sesame oil. But avoid other vegetable and hydrogenated oils, trans-fatty acids and margarine.

Basically, olive oil helps control food cravings, will help burn fat and keep cholesterol levels in check.

All-natural, sugar-free peanut butter helps boost testosterone, build muscle and burn fat. It contains protein, mono-unsaturated fat, vitamin E, niacin and magnesium.

It fights against obesity, cardiovascular disease, muscle loss, and wrinkles. Some close relatives include cashew and almond butters. But avoid mass-produced sugary and trans-fatty peanut butters.

Unfortunately, peanut butter has lots of calories and is not on the menu at most restaurants, but it contains mono-unsaturated fats that help increase the body’s production of testosterone.

In one 18-month experiment, people who included peanut butter into their diet maintained weight loss better than those on low-fat plans. Also, a recent study from the University of Illinois showed that those who had mono-unsaturated fats (olive oil) before a meal ate 25 percent fewer calories than those who didn’t.

Peanut butter is also great because it is a quick snack and tastes great. It doesn’t leave you feeling deprived. Spread it on apple slices or add to otherwise boring, bland-tasting smoothies.

Just remember two things: you shouldn’t overeat it because it has a high fat content (limit to 3 tablespoons a day), and use all-natural peanut butter instead of the mass-produced brands that have added sugar.