Tony Cai › Blog » New York City

NYC {Pillow Fight 2008} Awesome!

Tony Cai — Sun, 23 Mar 2008 04:34:59 +0000

I just got back home from an unforgettable day in the city. Union Square was filled with thousands of people just whacking each other with light feathered pillows. It was great because it’s truly a stress reliever from everyday life, and it was a great way to meet new people! My spring break couldn’t have ended better. I’ll have to return to school tomorrow or today if you want to get technical, it’s after 12.

However I was surprised to see some people bitch about doing this in a public place. They were saying that the mess left behind was wasting our tax dollars for cleanup. Lighten up and have fun, those people probably are stuck in their dead end jobs anyway.

Anyway, I’m can’t wait for Pillow Fight 2009. Will anyone care to join!? Oh and I had world famous Junior’s Cheesecake for the first time, it was delicious but not after the first slice. I got full FAST!

What I’ve Been Doing Lately

Tony Cai — Sat, 08 Mar 2008 01:30:36 +0000

Long time since I last made my entry. I’ve been buying a lot of things on eBay, making podcasts for school, designing several websites. Introduced myself to a couple of new web 2.0 services I’ve grown to love. A lot of volunteering, and just plain hanging out.

Started playing roller hockey with friends, got myself some Missions skates, hockey stick and gloves. Can’t wait till it gets warmer so we can get everyone to play.

The web 2.0 stuff I mentioned before are NetVibes, a cool customizable widget homepage. Pandora, a web based internet radio that works charms without any ads.

Just got back from seeing “The Daily Show” live with Jon Stewart. Till next time, later.

Calling All NYC Subway Riders With Blogs

Tony Cai — Sun, 20 Jan 2008 23:07:12 +0000

For a while now, I have been in search of local blogs, blogs about people and their lives. I was tired of seeing blogs that are active just for the purpose of making ad revenue and those who blog about how to make $$ online. Those are great, I read those when I want new tips for AdSense but sometimes I just want to read some old fashion blogs about New York. The one I currently read, Gothamist, is great but I wanted something more local and more personal.

Call me nosy but I want to know what people in my community is doing. NYCBloggers does the trick! NYCBloggers is a blog directory that focuses on quality blogs from New Yorkers in the five boroughs. The way they organize it is genius! They classify blogs by the bloggers’ subway stop! I live on Saratoga Ave on the 3 line and there are currently 2 other bloggers who are registered at that subway station. I’m about to be the 3rd once I’m approved!

I just think this is a innovative way to connect bloggers in NYC, I mean, lets face it, everyone in the city takes the subway and I’m sure they are interested in bloggers that live near them. NYCBloggers does a great job at connecting the local NYC blogosphere!

Annual No Pants Subway Ride! 2K8 NYC

Tony Cai — Sun, 13 Jan 2008 22:52:38 +0000

Yesterday I was on the 6 train at around 3 going to see a friend. All of a sudden, this guy walks in at the Brooklyn Bridge station and starts taking off his pants. I look at him weird, like what is this guy doing? I figured that he was a jogger and that he just finished his route. Note: Below is NOT the guy I saw.

Nope, Check out these sexy legs! I was wrong, it was the annual No Pants Subway Ride Day. Check out the pictures here! I’m defiantly participating next year!

Hacking ViaTalk VoIP To Get City’s 311 Service

Tony Cai — Sun, 19 Aug 2007 22:48:34 +0000

As you may know, I live in the big city of New York and our proud mayor has instituted the 311 service for the greater New York’s 5 boroughs. 311 is a number for city residents to dial to contact local government agency’s to report problems or to see non-emergency help. Bloomberg thought that it would be an easy number to remember and it consolidates all the city’s resources together in one number, not a bad idea!

But recently switching to ViaTalk VoIP, the 311 service was not activated by default, or I should say that ViaTalk didn’t have that feature. I then searched hoping to find a quick solution. I noticed that Vontage, the current leader in VoIP had the 311 feature so at that point I knew it was possible to somehow hack ViaTalk’s Linksys PAP2 VoIP device to get 311 working.

I have not gotten done yet simply because I need my Linksys PAP2 password from ViaTalk, they are currently receiving heavy call volumes due to SunRocket’s customer contract buyouts. I called this Sunday afternoon and I was 22nd in line for their phone support. So if anyone wants to hack the PAP2, I have the directions and you must have the password for your PAP2, if you don’t you will have to submit a support ticket or call to get your password. I have started a ticket about 2 weeks ago, still no response, so good luck with that. But if you already have your password, then read on.

The 3-1-1 number is just a short cut for this number (212) NEW YORK or (212) 639-9675.

Login to your Linksys PAP2 via the IP address (http://192.168.0.xxx/admin/).
Go to the dial plan section. Becareful not to edit what is already on there.
Add the following line to the existing dial plan.
|<311:12126399675>|
Apply, Save and Exit

As a temporary fix until you get the PAP2 password from ViaTalk, you can setup speed dial to 2126399675. This tutorial will essentially work for all 311 services from any city, you will just have to figure our their local number and then replace NY’s number with your city’s number.

I will post screenshots of the process once I get my password from ViaTalk.

To read more about the Linksys PAP2 Dial Plan, see here.

What’s Going On Recently In My Life?

Tony Cai — Sat, 18 Aug 2007 23:16:07 +0000

I’m sorry that this post couldn’t be about anything that I have designed my blog to do but I have to some things straight. Last week was a stressful week for me and for I think most people who works with NYPIRG. It was the last week for canvassing for many people because most are off to college. Slowly but surely the NYC Canvas of 2007 is whining down. People are emotional that others are leaving and there are a couple of people that I will miss dearly. I have spent a lot of time with certain people within the last week.

I would like to give shout outs to a couple of people! Prospero [canvassin' from the beginning to the end and the new king of pop], Cynthia [my favorite Asian girl, don't cry, I feel bad enough already], , Q [vous le vous couche avec moi haha], Loftin [always chilled and relaxed, the puking was funny!], Emily [my ears are always open to you, just not about Dimitri or Misha] and my Asian brothers, Billy and Kenny, I’ll see you guys at school! If I missed y’all, then it simply means I just don’t care!! Just Kidding! I love NYPIRG and I’ll miss everyone! I might come back to canvass for 2008 too!

So if I’m leaving my job, that only means one thing, that I have to go back to school. During the last two weeks, I’ve been wanting to go back just because I miss the people at college and have a couple of things to do while being there that I’m excited about! For one, I got the position as official Admissions Blogger for Stony Brook University! I will be blogging for the interest of attracting new students for the next academic year. Two, I’m also official Mozilla Campus Representative. My goal is to setup events and promote the spread of my favorite browser, Firefox, I think I will be working closely with the Linux Users Group in Stony Brook because I remember a Firefox event that they had last semester.

Overall a very emotional work week for me and great anticipations about next semester, It is a strange mix of emotions I have to say. Wish me luck everyone during this transition. Peace out, my next post will be about something more important than my life!

Brings Back Memories
[audio:http://tonycai.com/journey.mp3]

Disney Pixar’s Ratatouille Is A Hot Movie

Tony Cai — Sun, 08 Jul 2007 19:30:37 +0000

I would have never thought that I would like another Pixar movie ever again after Toys Story. I mean I’m sure they’re good but none of them appealed to me. I guess I grew out of the stage of watching CG animated films or cartoons in general but I was wrong. A bunch of friends from work and I decided to go to the movies on Friday. Movie of choice was “Ratatouille“. I was like WTF is that? Since I started working, I haven’t had much time to watch TV, so therefore I didn’t see the commercial for it and had no idea what it was.

Ratatouille was awesome, Remy the mouse is so adorable. It takes place in France and the story plot goes like this. Remy becomes a chef at a famous restaurant in France.. well watch it for yourself. Trust me, it’s a movie to watch on big screen.

Camille – Le Festin
[audio:http://tonycai.com/LeFestin.mp3]

Google Map’s New Awesome Street View – WOW

Tony Cai — Wed, 30 May 2007 05:59:15 +0000

Wow, so I was just on Digg today after coming home from work and I found out that Google Maps now has Street View technology. This is awesome technology! You can click anywhere on Google maps at certain big cities like NYC or LA and they would have a 360 degree view of the street at the exact location where you clicked! You really do have to check it out for yourself to understand how great this is.

This is probably in Beta stages now even though it wasn’t mentioned because the images generate kind of slow and I’m sure Google is working on that to fix that issue. But anyhow, WOW, this is so great! It also looks like these images were pretty recent which is defiantly cool for digital mapping technology.

Haha, I wonder how long they took to canvass the areas! Check it out here!

First Day On The Job With NYPIRG

Tony Cai — Tue, 22 May 2007 05:02:09 +0000

Today was my first working day for NYPIRG, a environmental advocacy job I applied for. NYPIRG stands for New York Public Interest Research Group. It advocates for New York consumers and have been doing so for over 34 years. This years goals is to push legislation to pass the 15% reduced emissions in New York State by 2015. The plan proposed by Spitzer, our new governor. My job is to inform the public about these issues and gather membership support. My observation day was wonderful and I like it a lot. I will STAY!

We go to a new location everyday and today’s was New Roshelle, New York. Met some wonderful new people, by the end of the day. I really look forward to doing this!

UPDATE!:: (7/3/2007)
Heavy flooding in Britain, Pakistan, Afghanistan and India in the past week. Temperatures in Greece reached 46C (114.80F) this week, as part of a heatwave in southern Europe. China has also had a heatwave in recent days. Torrential rains have battered parts of Texas, where Austin is set for its wettest year on record.

Global Warming is REAL and HERE! Become a member of NYPIRG today!

Happy St. Paddy’s Day, Well Yesterday..

Tony Cai — Sun, 18 Mar 2007 19:38:53 +0000

Sorry for the lack of blogging, I’ve just been really busy and have somethings in mind. Well, yesterday, my friend and I took a trip to NYC, again I was the tour guide but we had mad fun. Seeing those drunk HOT Irish girls were worth it! Got back to SB at 2 in the morning. Someone was playing the Ouija Board at 5, that freaked me out, I have yet to find out and uncover the mysteries behind that game. Anyway, fun and weird day for me..