Category: Philadelphia

2009 Philadelphia Car Show

Posted on by Sol Young with 2 Comments

Some ramblings from the Philly Auto Show…

Chevy Click

We visit the Philadelphia Auto Show every year. This year was a little bit different since I walk past the convention center every day and have been peeking in the windows to see everyone setting up.

My favorite car for the last three years has been the Audi R8. The Philadelphia High School / UPenn Engineering team is a very close second with their Attack supercar).

There was disappointment around not seeing a plug-in electric at the show. Lots, and lots, of hybrids, but no plug-ins. The meaty exhaust note from 600 raw horsepower is freakin’ exhilarating, but a car that outperforms those 600 horses, while whisper quiet, and plugs in to the outlet in my garage… That’s what I want to own.

The show is on until February 8th. If you’re in Philadelphia you should drop in and see it… It’s not often you get to walk through a hall full of Bentleys, Lamborghinis, Ferraris, Austin-Martins, etc.

You can also see the Ford booth using OS X and VLC Media Player to demonstrate their Microsoft Sync integration :)

Ford and Microsoft Sync

Ford uses OS X at its Microsoft Sync booth

Visit the Flickr set here.

Posted in Driving, Philadelphia, Photography

Steven Wells on the Geekdom in Philadelphia – Quoted

Posted on by Sol Young with Leave a comment

Steven Wells gets the cover of Philadelphia Weekly with Scene But Not Nerd. For anyone curious about the tech sector and a city with a thriving and rapidly growing geek community, it’s a must read. I’m honored to be quoted, especially amongst some of the most innovative and sharp geeks in Philly.

The article covers a wide swath of the Philadelphia Geekdom as Steven describes how and why the Philadelphia geek scene is emerging as a mecca for the tech elite (and every area of geekiness). He conducted many interviews and clearly has come to understand the community, both in a historical context and how the present day networks of geeks are interacting and building a movement.

“If you know your Philly geek history, the city’s reemergence as a major geek hub isn’t that surprising. Benjamin Franklin, the city’s favorite son and top tourist-dollar whore, was the prototype tech-geek.”  -Steven Wells

Check it out and look forward to what the drive and attitude of this city bring. It’s about time for another Geek Dinner, too… Details coming.

Posted in Geek Dinner, Philadelphia

Being a Good Landlord – Gave Movies

Posted on by Sol Young with 2 Comments

Be Thankful

I rent out a few apartments in Philadelphia. Each year around the holidays I try and do something to show appreciation to the tenants. They could have selected other properties, but they chose mine. They have treated the apartments with respect and have made them good homes. I am grateful.

This year I went to the movie theater and picked up tickets. It’s a simple gesture. A way to say thanks. Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.

Posted in Economics, Landlord, Movies, Philadelphia, Real Estate, Tenant

The Senior Struggle – PCA – volunteer this season

Posted on by Sol Young with 4 Comments

The Philadelphia Corporation for Aging has an ad in Philly’s subway worth passing on…

The Senior Struggle
A little bit of you can pull them through the winter.
Pay a visit, run an errand, lend a hand. Your support means everything.

Call 215-765-9040 or visit pcaCARES.org for ideas and resources. You can do a lot of good.

Posted in Economics, Education, Philadelphia

The Apple Philadelphia Weather Widget Bug

Posted on by Sol Young with 2 Comments

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Found a funny little bug with Apple’s dashboard weather widget this week. It comes installed and running by default when you set up a new OS X installation or buy a new Mac. I just got a new MacBook Pro a month ago and have been using the weather widget religiously. As John Gruber of Daring Fireball described, it’s one of the favorite widgets (and he has a good old how-to on how to make it better).

But rather than validating by zip code, the weather widget validates by city name only. It grabs the first city name, alphabetically, and plugs that in as your local weather default.

There are five cities in the USA with the name Philadelphia. In alphabetical order, they are Philadelphia MO (Missouri), Philadelphia MS (Mississippi), Philadelphia NY (New York), Philadelphia PA (Pennsylvania), and Philadelphia TN (Tennessee).

Apple’s widget grabs Philadelphia, MO for Philadelphia, PA (and MS, NY, TN). Until this week the weather patterns for MO vs. PA were the same for precipitation and within a few degrees on temperature. It took a month before the cities were different enough to notice the discrepancy.

For all you’z Philadelphians buying Macs, remember to plug in your 191xx zip codes :) To see this in action if you’re in another city, add a weather widget to the dashboard and search for “Philadelphia”. The same occurs This does not occur on an iPhone’s weather app.

Population data on the Philadelphias:

Posted in Apple, Geolocation, iPhone, iPhone 3G, MacBook Pro, Philadelphia