Did Houston Police Throw Away Donation

There is an image being shared by a lady on Facebook. It shows a garbage truck and a couple police cruisers under an overpass in Houston.
The image description says that the police showed up to a spot where someone was giving out food and “other gifts” with a garbage truck to throw away these items.
Here’s the exact quoted text (minus the hash-tags)

I was just informed that a group of people came to pass out free food and other gifts to the homeless in downtown Houston. Not only were the police called, but they brought a large waste management truck and are forcing the homeless to throw away their food, pillows and other items.

What this suggest is that the police have a guy in the garbage industry that can man up and fuel up a garbage truck quickly and without hesitation, and get to that location before the items scatter into different directions. As if there is a garbageman police sting set up at every intersection just waiting to pounce. Or, if the garbage truck and police cruisers are following this person around the city taking things from everyone they donate to.

I don’t know about every single spot in Houston, but most overpasses have a maximum of about 4 people under them and, when they see police, they just kind of scatter. Because, if they don’t, the police will break them up. If there is an overpass that has so many homeless and hungry people under it that it would require a garbage truck to show up, then the police have a huge issue and someone has been slacking.

Nowhere in the picture do you see any homeless people.

Nowhere in the image do you see a vehicle large enough to carry the amount of food that would require a garbage truck to be able to dispose of  it.

The police would not take the items. They would fine the donor; unless, the food was in such poor quality it had to be destroyed.

Where are the videos? Where are the photos of this? There is just this one and it looks like it is coming from someone driving past the location and later making up a story.
Where is the union complaining about the Houston Police forcing people to work after hours? Waste management unions will not put up with such things.

So, is this picture and story for real?
There are too many logical holes in this story. It has nothing to support it other than this one picture that shows less than the story says.

False until proven otherwise

Houston Craigslist Clearly Not Moderated

Too many times I have searched Craigslst in Houston area for a car. and foolishly didn’t set my min max price search at exactly one dollar apart. I say this because you do any price difference greater than $10, you get a page full of rims and tires and seats in the car section. All the while there is a separate section specifically for parts, tires etc.
I report these parts when I see them in the section for complete cars. but to no avail.

If someone moderates that place. Please wake them up and make sure they get back to work.because the site is unusable like this. Please send warnings and notices to the repeat offenders. Use i.p. and account bans for the persistent offenders.

If it keeps up, I will start posting couches and dog clothes in the auto section.

Just because they say “F150 tires and rims” does not qualify it to be in the F150 searches. Seriously… anyone searching for an F150 most likely will not own an F150, and not need rims and tires. The person selling the F150 will most likely not be willing to invest into the truck so please.

And do not allow the searches to check dealerships. because you will get 10 versions of the exact same ad for the exact same vehicle. and then move to the next vehicle and get ten of each add for that one also.
“new 2011 Toyota Carola fresh red” next ad “2011 New Toyota Carola Fresh Red” and so on. Let’s not forget the “****l00k @t Thi$****” ads…. come on people… who falls for this crap?

STOP IT !

Comcast chat

**Warning: Angry Typos Ahead**

Today, I will be taking my Cable box back to Comcast. They have taken it too far
I have been dealing with my neighbor’s dog (she’s a puppy) digging up my comcast connection, for several months now.
I have received insane bills from Comcast And a few other issues that I don’t feel like looking up so here it is in Bing.

Yesterday I decided to try the chat thing, because phoning in my issue of the neighbor’s dog resolved nothing.

TruXter: My Issue: Neighbor’s dog digs up my cable, I have had you guys out a few times re-bury the line. I requested conduit, was told over the phone it would be used. Technicians all say it can’t be done.. I just now came in the house after covering chewed

analyst Dani Mae has entered room

Dani Mae: Hello TruXter, Thank you for contacting Comcast Live Chat Support. My name is Dani Mae. Please give me one moment to review your information.

Dani Mae: Hi

Dani Mae: Welcome to comcast

TruXter: hi.

Dani Mae: Thank you for that information TruXter

Dani Mae: May I know what would you like to do?

TruXter: Is there any way I can get a manager or a foreman to come out with the technician next time to bury my cable? and can you ask them not to request to come in my house anymore? the issue is in the neighbor’s yard.

TruXter: They have replaced the splice in my attic 3 times now as if that solved the issue. I need the cable in conduit or something that a dog can not bite through.

TruXter: The cable box is in my neighbor’s yard. 6 feet of cable gets dug up with in just house of the tech’s burying it.

TruXter: hours*

Dani Mae: To answer you suggestion about a manager, I believe that is not possible since only technician process that

TruXter: Someone needs to come out and over see this. This is the very last time I will let this happen. I will change services. I am sick of this.

Dani Mae: And about your request about conduit

Dani Mae: We do not have that, but we only can drop bury your cable line

Dani Mae: For conduit, you can buy that at your local store

TruXter: I can’t watch tv while the dog chews on the line. I can barely surf the internet that I am paying crazy fees for. this is nuts.

TruXter: You mean. with all of the customers that this company has, I am the only person?

Dani Mae: I understand that, where is your cable lines now placed?

TruXter: why did it cost me $200 to get my house connected? they used wire that I already paid for to begin with.

TruXter: the cable box is in the neighbor’s yard. 6 feet from my fence.

Dani Mae: I see, please inform the owner and let them contact Comcast, so we can schedule them.

TruXter: The neighbor and I buried the cable last time while the tech watched.

TruXter: This needs to be fixed, and someone who can make these guys give me the service I am paying so much for.

TruXter: needs to make sure it’s done.

Dani Mae: Sure

Dani Mae: Have you tried calling 1-800-XFINITY (934-6489)

TruXter: can you check my records and see I have done this several times?

Dani Mae: Sure

Dani Mae: It shows here that Drop bury has been completed as requested already

TruXter: ….

TruXter: and dog dig has already happened.

Dani Mae: Would you like to request another drop bury?

Dani Mae: And have you called already for a schedule?

TruXter: yeah sure. and when he is done, can you send him back three hours later to replace the line again because the dog is just going to dig it back up. and tell to take a lunch and come right back… Or send someone with authority to look at this and see it is a slop job and someone is milking your clock at my expense.\

TruXter: Thank god I run a website and have a good camera. This is my final month. you people are leeches.
Type Here:

After this. I called Comcast to solve the issue of the lightly buried cable in the yard with a big puppy who digs a lot, and to understand why just last month I was told that on this bill, my bill would be reduced, yet it’s still at regular $88. When she told me this month my bill would show the changes I asked why she said “because you already paid this month”. Ok. Makes sense.
So I call and start asking why my bill isn’t reduced. The lady that answered, forwarded me to another person who I assume is their “quick excuses guy”. because this dude was just out to win an argument.
I asked why my bill was regular price, and the guy said that it was because I owe $160 for not paying last month’s bill. I told him he was nuts and explained that I paid $160 last month also, and 160 the month before, and keep getting told I am late on my bill. The guy said and I quote “we bill for service before you receive service”. My eyes rattled in my head. I explained to him that every month I have been going through this, and I have not have had service. Since the dog eats my cable. The man said “then you need to speak to the neighbor” and I flipped out on him. “No, you need to get your stuff straight because I am a customer and you are providing a service, you are asking me to make this an issue between the neighbor and I. You can’t tell me that will all of the customers you guys have, I am the only person with this issue. ” Considering how many houses have dogs, there is a really good chance this has been issue on many occasions.

Now understand, the last time I talked to a technician, he was watching me and the neighbor bury the cable ourselves while he just stood there telling me I should kick the neighbor’s dog and cover the spot with rat traps. The neighbor didn’t like that, and I didn’t like that. I asked the Comcast technician why they don’t just bring 8 feet of conduit and get this over with he said and I quote “Job security, we always make sure each other has work”. At my expense no doubt.

Comcast. Your service has done me no service and I will forever refuse you. I will warn everyone I know, just how you treat Customers and how your answering team and all of your help team, are the trashiest people you can have work for you. When you guys go out of business, you might want to worry about the scum you hire, and possibly the way you treat them and tell them to treat you customers. I love your bandwidth, I hate your bandwidth cap, and I hate that your basic cable is lower resolution than any other broadcast. Local resolution from antenna is 740p minimum where I live, your basic cable is less than 480i. That is pathetic and nothing justifies charging for that.

Can’t say I will miss you when you are gone.

 

**Update**

Just got off the phone with comcast. Called to cancel my service. Man asked me why I was cancelling service. I rattled on for 15 minutes . taking maybe three breaths while trying to think of everything that has gone on since I signed up.
He was like “yeah, I would leave also, Sorry this has happenned to you, you will be receiving a credit soon”.
and that was it. no telling me I am wrong, no selling me a bigger bundle.

Doin it right. for once.

 

**Update 2**

 

Logged in to see my Comcast bill information and to make sure that all of the statements were true, that I would recieve a credit to my account and got a notice to provide a valid email address.  but in back I could see my bill. Lots of junk going on back there. Of course I tried three different ways of handling that page so I could see the bill. They all signed me out instantly.

My Comcast Bill

My Comcast Bill

 

I have no idea what is going on below that point. Could be a pot of gold, could be a bag of chewed up rubberbands.  The reason I am trying to log in is to see if  I got the credit I was told I would get, since they ripped me off of last credit, and to see if I upset someone enough they decided to change my bill up and really stick it to me. You can’t doubt people anymore in either direction. Good or bad.
Needless to say. I have not been able to scroll all the way down. That stupid pop up asking me to show another email address blocks my view.

 

**update 3**

 

All devices were taken back the day I posted this. No arguments, no denying anything. In fact i think the little lady behind teh counter kind of wanted me.

here is their big technical wall of tv screens updated from earlier this year.

ghettovision

ghettovision

Now here is what comcast says I was supposed to pay last month.

comcast bill

Comcast bill

Now… If that was in fact what I was “supposed to pay”. Then why in the blue hell would I pay this ?

comcast payment

Comcast payment

It’s as if the kid I was trying to get help from but only wanted to argue with me, decided to make it look like I am a moron and don’t know how to internet. Now, understand, my bill is usually $79 before “additional charges”. So um. $200 minus 141, but this month’s bill is only $88.06 ? What? Which idiot in that establishment is going to show me how this works, and which idiot in that company is going to translate what that guy said, to non bull %^&*  and make it make sense?

But I have to thank him for showing me I needed to open my mind. I love direct tv and uncapped 4G Internet.

 

 

Security Camera Amazement

Sitting at a Houston Fire Alarm company who also does security systems, I was participating in a webinar from VideoIQ I was surprised at the bag of gadgets they had to show. Due to the agreement of watching the video I can’t tell you much about the innovative ground breaking networking device about to come. Just be certain it will cut short all of the issues you face in many large facilities. So keep watching their site for an update.
I can however tell you about the cameras they have on their site with between 160 gb of storage up to 500 gb storage. They call it “Zero-bandwidth recording” Some cameras are capable of up to 1080p 30fps true HD recording.

This will be a great future for HiTech Fire using VideoIQ products. This is the type of thing that customer want, but do not want to pay for. It is the stuff they wish they had when their  $10 camera takes a fuzzy video and the suspects can not be  identified.

What is Comcast up to ?

Comcast will set a total available bandwidth usage. They will be charging for people going over their monthly limit.
For an unlimited internet. they sure do dance around the word “limit” a whole lot.

They claim 43% bandwidth usage increase. Well if you buy every internet company that has many users on it, expect an increase. This is how media dumbs us down and tells us that we should pay more an accept the fact that we are bad.

Give us a choice? “throttle or cap” ? are you kidding me?
I am for neither one. I live between 2 dsl hubs!
I didn’t go over my limit. I am unlimited.
my usage did not increase, they increased the number of users.
Time to Dsl it.
Sell out’s explain it to us
Net neutrality or bandwidth capping. WTF is actually happening here?
Does the “Comunismcast” hat fit yet ?
They bought out all companies in Texas that could be an alternative to their internet supply, then they tell us we will pay for anything over a limit.. again, unlimited bandwidth….?
I say leave comcast and cripple them before all the other companies join suite. Make an example of them.

Didn’t Microsoft get sued for this exact same thing?

Fire Alarm Technology In Houston

I had some time to sit and listen to the people from HiTech Integrated Solutions, a fire alarm, security and sprinkler company in Houston Texas, about a new product that amazed me. See I was looking for close to home technology that I could locate and not have to quote someone’s website and basically repeat someone who has sales pitched their news article. Soooo I called around and asked if I could ask a few places some questions. Of course I am a bit simple minded when using a telephone book (if it does not have a screen, my imagination is quite limited). So I headed straight to looking for anything with the word tech in it’s name that was located here in Houston. I stumbled upon ” HiTech Integrated solutions” . I called and spoke to a little lady ( I forget her name) and she sent me right through to the owner of the company, Mr Dan Cooley.
I asked Dan If he could give me ideas as to what makes his company High Tech . You could hear the smile in his voice and tiny chuckle when he said ” Well, simply we have nothing in beta, but we do have Focal Point“.
Yeah Right away I hit google. Came across the only documentation on it, pdf .
Seems like no one actually has it yet.
Wait you will see why this is High Tech! ..
This is some sort of Monitoring software for fire alarms and what seems to be security also. I had to call back later and ask a few questions after the conversation with Dan, i got in touch with “Eric” the CEO of HiTech. Eric Told me that The owner of companies that purchase the plan, get this little tablet pc thing , so they themselves can see and monitor alarm activity on their location. This thing is amazing.
It allows the owner see specifically what room and what device is causing the alarm. I am not talking text notification. i mean an actual detailed blueprint of the building with devices properly located in simulation to the real alarm installation. if there is a smoke detector in the far east hall of the building two feet passed the last door on the left, you see that device on the blue print. If that specific device is detecting an alarm, it will notify the Fire Alarm Control Panel, The panel will then activate the “gateway card”, the gateway card (it’s in a pci slot looking thingy, on the control panel) will then notify the Focal Point Tablet Pc ViA Internet connection.
This Tablet Pc has Microsoft Windows Xp on it. Kinda cool. Has a start button and everything.
ok so far this fire alarm company is turning out pretty HiTech.
The signal is sent to the Tablet Pc In data Form and Translated back for the user to activate the images on the screen, showing the owner of the location exactly what device in what location is going into alarm.
So yeah, I had to drive up there, I wanted to see this thing in action.
Looks
Other than the glass being on the face of the machine, it looks really tough.big Rubber bumper pads on the corners and a leather casing that wraps around it. Some big pen stylus with a button on the side of it. I would prefer that large of a stylus anyway, would hate losing the little tiny stylus’ that comes with pdas.
Just had to test the protective casing (evil grin). for starts , I laid it face down to see how much clearance there was, to see if the screen is easy to scratch up. Exactly 1/2 an inch. That’s pretty good. You could lose a pen under there and not scratch the screen..
Weight and feel
I give this about 4-6 pounds of solid durable hard plastic, encasing steel.This thing is not a little mini laptop, this thing is not some little kid’s video game machine . This is made for the working people who are in the dirt (minus the exterior screen). Just keep it in it’s case while you are not using it.

While I was there, I spoke more with Dan Cooley and he showed me how the thing works. Dan walked me to this little tiny demo room they had near the Accounting Manager’s office. In this room they had smoke detectors, Horn/Strobes and plain strobes and multiple pull stations mounted on the wall. Mr Cooley then booted up the tablet pc and showed the scoop. He had this imaginary building drawn up looking like a futuristic castle. Dan then pulled down on the pull station and instantly we got notification that the pull station in the butler’s chamber had been triggered. That was cool. Right then, Dan’s phone rang and I could hear the guy on the end of the line laughing saying “our castle is burning up!” . It was HiTech’s IT guy, 400 miles away in Corpus Christi. He had notification at the exact same time as we did. Very impressive. They seemed like a happy bunch.
So basically the owner of the property will have notice to his tablet, before the monitoring company has a chance to call him, but not faster than the emergency teams can be contacted. i learned that the monitoring company is automated to make all contacts the instant a warning is made. This sounds like it saves lives and property a whole lot faster than just some dude named bubbah saying ‘hey you alright?” .
I have made requests for further interviews. The guys at HiTech said they would be happy to entertain, and may point me straight to Fci, so I can see more HiTech exclusive products before it can be advertised.
Focal Point was an amazing set up, but man, i swear that sounds like it used to be a M$ product.

Houston Courthouses Down For the three Count

Virus Takes Hold of Houston Courthouses. No Report  if any personal information was acquired or compromised.

Link Here

Read the responses. They will leave you laughing.

I wonder if the person who opened the door to the virus still won that free iPhone.

My question is ‘ did that fake virus scanner work yet? did they pay full price?”  ok that was mean..

Job Expands

New locations coming to our fire alarm company, pretty good stuff.

Our Main office will stay the same same in Houston

We have purchased the property for our new locations and have construction on the way.

Our austin Facility is up and running. This is a great year.

I may even transfer to our San Antonio location as soon as it has ac .. lol Texas is fricken hot. anything to get out of Comcast’s capitolism.

I like to think we are better than all Texas fire alarm companies . I am sure we are the better fire alarm and detection company in Houston .

We are upgrading hundreds of fire alarm control panels (facp) from the 7100. it seems people want the new stuff. Really i am just the bew guy and all so I have no idea why they want the new one that sounds an alarm just the same as the current one that sounds the same alarm. I am sure it’s the ease of use in the new ones that allow the ‘actual owner’ a chance to understand what to do and how to do things, in certain situations. The E3 Facp is the “broad band” panel, The new. Maybe I’m old fashioned and like the old everything, Vintage means ” all bugs have been noted” and you can actually get help from past users< but this planet seems to be full of wealthier people than who are out for the E3 type things in life. Maybe it’s the security of knowing that you have the latest when your establishment is built and it should be good for a while that sales them to go that route. I myself will buy it used and and hack what I can into it’s firmware and make stuff better for me. But that is me. I guess that is me and why i am in the office doing cad instead of out in the field programming the panels. lol.

I mean it’s not like everyone in the world wants to have cool specialized interface that comes at the price of having to reboot every time you do something or what ever expense that modded software usually causes you to have to endure.

it sure would upset a fire marshal if every time he inspects my panel he sees his name on the display. lol

New job!

Probably not the most techy news I have done here but I got a new job working for a company called “HiTech” Fire detection.

A fire alarm and sprinkler company from out in Houston area. The guys here are great and very relaxed. Kinda strange to me because I have never been this comfortable in a work environment.

Well forget all the intros let’s get to the bone. I seem to have been assigned a task of building a website. See this guy Eein that I am working with built a site straight from css and tables and stuff which of course i think is fine and runs circles around the current site . But the owner saw me messing around with some flash ap and just jacking around with my desktop and a web template . Now see, I didn’t really want the task of building the site, simply because if it looks lame to me I will rebuild it , and rebuild it and it will never be finished. I have scrapped it like five times now already.

Well if a site is what they want then a site is what they get. You see though, I like the site that Eein built. It just looks better and is more sound and can be easily updated when needed, and it can be crawled at any time by any search bot. The owners of the site want a flash intro and a flash ap on the page , a flash ap that I really do not want to get buried in. They want a room to navigate in with a fire extinguisher and a sprinkler and a horn strobe and a lighted exit sign above the door in the back. I am sure I can do it, but man I would hate to have to edit it. I can edit it but dang .

You guys tell me what looks better. I really like Eein’s site I have said that from the start and am really against a bloated flash site. The current site is done in mostly Iframes and I really cannot see a bot crawling that which really is not a helpfull thing, ya know? See I know that they are going to be expanding to Austin Dallas and San Antonio real soon, like before the end of 2008. They surely will be wanting an update to the site telling people in those areas that it would not take long for us to get our guys on the site. Now that is becoming bigger work. I am still learning the ropes of the job and if I spend all my time on the clock building a site, when my evaluation period ends and I don’t know anything……. dude I will be screwed.

Looking at hours of photoshop and adobe flash cs3 man,!!!!

The dell machine and adobe flash cs3 and if you could zoom way in, you would see photoshop somewhere in the taskbar. This sad little machine is a trooper though, it is doing all that with only 512 mb ram, minimum for flash install. The 3.2g pentium is the life saver there though.

looks like houston.com has them in the forefront