What will be better to watch? ESPN baseball tonight or the new MLB channel?

What is better Blockbuster online or Netflix. The price is the same. I really can't decide.

my new eee netop

testing....

Official Hug a Jew Day is Coming

SFist: Official Hug a Jew Day is Coming

Ok I heard it all. I am posting this now in case I forget in February.

MIke

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Anheuser-Busch will cut 1,400 jobs in US http://ping.fm/Au38K

Listening to 16 Tons by Tenesse Ernie Ford. Another day older and deeper in debt. Is it really much different today?

I like it so far. Give it a try - http://ping.fm/Gsn02

People Browser

I like MSNBC news much better then CNN. They get news much faster.

In case you want to read the black friday sale now at walmart. http://ping.fm/Xiwyt and the 28-page Walmart BlackFriday Advertisement Scan http://ping.fm/WcLJe

http://ping.fm/ctAiW

Another rainy Saturday in NJ. Another soggy soccer game.

2008 WSOP Champion win 9.1 million. One day it will be me at the final table.

DHL planning to lay off 9500 employees - http://ping.fm/KNfv8

CNN's "Holograms" Aren't Holograms
http://ping.fm/EDJuj

In 2008 after 28 years the Phillies are the champions and we now have a new leader in the whitehouse. What a great way to end the year!

I have a long night ahead of me counting votes at the AP.

Wow what a novel idea. Music videos on http://ping.fm/rX7NS It is a new site.

Facebook needs a version of the Western Wall. A holy wall we can pray and write thoughts. This is dripping with sarcasm.

"I may not have gone where I intended to go, but I think I have ended up where I needed to be."
Douglas Adams

It is a great day for a Phillies Championship Parade!

What a great Phils win last night. I love hearing Harry Kalas announce.

One more win for the Phils tonight and its 1980 all over again!

It is great to be part of the elections support team at the AP. This weekend is the first rehearsal.

Random Thoughts

The Phils are in the World Series. I am so happy they are in the big dance. Most people will be upset if they lose, but I am one of the few that is just happy they got in this year. It is great to see how the Phils crushed the Mets two years in a row.

My oldest came home from school the other day and asked me did I know that Clay Aiken was gay? I asked her what does gay mean and she responded it means he is stupid. I responded I didn't know he was stupid and thanks for clearing it up for me. I almost explained it her, but 9 years old is way to young. Besides someone needs to explain it me first.

I played in a 54 player tournament at Showboat in AC last month. The buy in was $75. I managed to make a small profit and come in fourth place. It was real fun way to spend four hours. The goal for me was to get to the final table. Their was some very tough players so I was real proud. I must say it can be a long grind. The key moments for me was trying to play only when I had position. Meaning I would call or raise when no more then 1 or possibly two players were in the pot. The whole night the best had I had was JJ and AK off suited and I folded the AK. I was able to hang around so long because of these hands.

• Third hand into the tournament I hit a set on pocket 8's
• Right before the first break I went all in with K8. I wanted to steal the blinds. I was called by the big blind with A, 3 off suited. I got lucky and hit the K on the river. He didn't have many chips.
• Before the next break when all in with 6, 7 red. I wanted to again steal the blinds and a few small calls who I knew would fold. They all did and picked up a nice pot.
• Then made it to the final table and I was the smallest stack size. I was BB and when all in with 10, 2 off suit as I had really nothing left at that point. I had two calls and flopped two 2's on the river. 
• Then I folded AK and to what turned out to be pocket 10's.
• I caught a pair and picked up some more chips. I forgot the pair.
• Then hung around and watched players pick each other off.
• I took home $368. Not a bad night to spend at poker.

Amber Alert Jessica Alvarez

STATEWIDE AMBER ALERT (NJ)
Jessica Alvarez Age Now: 3 years old Sex: Female Skin Tone:Hispanic Height: 3 feet Weight: 30 lbs
Unknown Unknown AbductorAge: Late 40s-50 years old Sex: Female Weight: 135 lbs
Status: NewMissing From: 116 Broad Street, Elizabeth, NJ Last seen: 2008-10-16 11:04:00 Circumstances: The child was removed from a store at 116 Broad Street in Elizabeth, NJ. The victim's mother was shopping while the child played in the toy area. We have video fo the child being led out of the store by the described suspect. To report information on this case, please contact: NJSP Missing Person's Unit (NJ) 1-800-709-7090 To view other cases, please visit the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children: http://www.missingkids.com/

The Phis are on the way to the World Series!

Ray, Josh, and Sasha snoozing on the couch. That is the life! http://ping.fm/6KNRL

Doing science homework with my daughter. The words hypothesis, inference, and standard measure send chills down my spine.

The Phils are off to a great start beating the Dodgers in game 1!

Pay $250 and receive $500 in gas rebates. Not a gimmick.http://ping.fm/7L3eZ

The Phils are on at 1pm and the Eagles are on at 1pm. And my wife has the Sunday planned for me. This is just ugly.

The debate tonight will have many viewers. Some people will be interested in the topics and others will focus on what Palin is wearing. I do think Tina Fey does a better Palin then Palin.

The Phillies win the NL East Division. The Mets choke again. What a nice weekend!

I am thinking about what I should do with my girls on this rainy weekend ahead.

Watching the Mets lose another game never gets old! Go Phils!

Michael is in Phoenix this week on a business trip. It is just a little hot here in the Vally of the Sun.

Buy a tee shirt and join the club! http://ping.fm/jVvue

I rented 21 http://ping.fm/R4F7q on Friday. Winner winner chicken dinner!

Google Chrome is here and our lives will never be the same. Download here - http://ping.fm/t4Ew6

So you had a bad day?

Embedded Video

This is video I did with my Flip camera while driving the car. I would not recommend. It was after a long day at the beach with Rachel and Jessica. Notice the music playing in the background. I couldn't have asked for better background music.

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I am back from a fun filled weekend at Knoebels. Now back to work!

I am looking forward to going to Knoebels with the family for the weekend. http://ping.fm/CE9ZA

Live AP Video stream of the Democratic Convention found here - http://ping.fm/qnSOO

Work is crazy right now because of the Olympics!

One my favorite movies growing up

Embedded Video

G

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Is anyone using Plaxo? I have an account, but random use it.

Four years ago today a little girl named Alex lost her battle to cancer. If you don't know about Alex she is the reason for Alex's Lemonade Stand. http://ping.fm/mh7Vz

Can anyone supply feedback on crossloop.com? Can you use the co browse software with anyone?

Post a job or search for a job at http://ping.fm/Jb3Qh

10 great tools to use with Twitter
http://ping.fm/5XN7d

Josh on the rug

Josh is 24 days today. He loves laying back on the soft rug.

Josh arrives

Joshua Benjamin Wishnick arrived on July 2nd at 8:11 am. The baby and Mommy are doing great. Josh came in at 7 pounds even and 18 inches long. You can find more pics here - Josh's first day.

Big day almost here

The big day is tomorrow. We are the first C-Section in the morning. I will keep everyone posted. Wish us luck!

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Beyond Craigslist: 50 Other Sites to Buy, Rent, or Snag Goods (and Get Cool Free Stuff) | Free Geekery

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How Much Social Media Can You Handle?

Here is a great article about the Social Internet World. If you are thinking about doing some socialization on the web below are the sites to start with. If you have any questions about using them let me know.

by Jacob Morgan

I’m not going to even try to speculate on the amount of social media companies out there. Nor am I going to try to guess on the niche markets that have already been penetrated. All I am going to say is that there are a lot of social media companies out there, and the number of niche plays are slowly dwindling down. So, this begs the question, how much social media can you handle?

I’ll start off by divulging the social media platforms that I use and what I use them for:

Linkedin:

Great for networking and making business connections. I find the question and answer feature especially valuable. I put my linkedin profile link on my blog and sometimes on my business cards. This make it easy for anyone to find out a bit more about my professional and educational background.

Facebook:

Also good for networking, however I find that linkedin is a bit more professional, that is just my opinion. I do find facebook rather useful when it comes time to find out about new events that I should attend since they appear in my friend stream. I also use the post item feature to share links with my friends. Of course there is also the random play and fun.

Twitter:

Twitter has been a very valuable resource for me, I have met a lot of my twitter friends, OFFLINE, via events, conferences, etc. Twitter is almost like a world wide chat conversation. I get a lot of tech news from twitter as well as relevant event information. I also use twitter to share links with my followers and of course engage in discussion. I love the immediate response, it’s like having access to your own personal information group, very valuable indeed.

Digg:

The only thing I really use dig for is sharing links and blog posts, I wouldn’t call it a must have tool, but I have definitely gained a few readers from sharing my posts. I use it about 1-2 times a week. Whereas the others I use daily.

Plurk:

I can’t say that I have really been using plurk that much, but ever since my plurk post a few weeks ago I have been getting friend requests and have decided to try it out. I am still much more active on twitter, but I do plurk every now and then.

I would say that the above 5 are my most active social media platforms, sometimes I poke around on friendfeed, but not that often. Out of the above 5 I would only consider linkedin, facebook, and twitter, to be my most active social media platforms. Now, it’s not because I don’t like the other great platforms out there, it’s because I can’t handle anymore. How many different friend groups, friends, passwords, usernames, etc. can you possible have? Am I supposed to log into 10 different social media platforms every day to check for updates? I’d never leave the house!

So, what does this mean for the social media world? Well, simply put there are two choices. Either, something like friendfeed is going to figure out a way to aggregate all of a users social media streams into one, or, we are going to continue to see a segmentation of social media platforms and users. What social media platforms do you use and why?

We are at a crucial stage of social media evolution, the only question is, what are we going to evolve to?

Thanks for reading

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iTunes Store: 5B Songs Sold, Now Pushing 50K Movies Daily

The ascent of the iTunes Store has been consistently touted as industry-changing, and not without reason. In the past five years, the Web-based marketplace for downloadable media has gone from startup size to one which, not very long after launch, began to tally sales in the billions, and soon made its big media partners grow hesitant of its influence on music sales and associated pricing controls.

Despite the music industry’s overt promotion of competitors, however, the iTunes Store has remained the biggest selling online storefront in the digital market. And today Apple is heralding one more milestone in the growth of the iTunes Store, marking the passage of the five-billionth song sold. There’s really no mystery as to why the iTunes Store continues to be the outstanding leader in the digital download arena. The company’s iTunes-plus-iPod/iPhone infrastructure still greatly simplifies media consumption, arguably more so than any other competitor.

The retailer often recognized as the next most substantial force in digital music sales, Amazon, has made remarkable headway in its effort to encroach on Apple’s dominance, but though the majority of the iTunes song catalog has been relegated to a technologically unappealing position laden with DRM and distributed with inferior audio quality, the storefront moves forth apace.

What’s more, Apple has today also divulged that the iTunes Store, following its recent introduction of movie purchases and rental options for newly released titles from several Hollywood studios, is now regularly distributing over 50,000 movies per day. Surely, if one were to juxtapose that figure against Netflix’s own statistics one might sense iTunes to be a virtual non-competitor. But placed against the budding market of download centers, which includes, among others, Amazon Unbox, Apple claims iTunes to be “the world’s most popular online movie store.”

Apple does not explicitly state an independent market researcher for its daily movie download figure, but suffice it to say that the figure of 50,000+ will gain perhaps as much attention as that recorded for sales of audio tracks upon further scrutiny. Movie downloads are an increasingly hot topic for market analysts, given the amount of piracy conducted over the Web, as well as in physical form. And with ISPs’ concerns over network data traffic, plus the costs required for consumers to opt into the habit of downloading movies on-demand from non-cable or satellite providers, many observers will likely peg iTunes first official statistic for movie sales and rentals as either good news or bad for the fate of the premium video download movement.

The movement presently involves material from film studios, television networks, and independent, Internet-born producers. Theoretically speaking, 50,000 movie rentals and purchases per day would amount to 18.25 million if maintained for an entire year, give or take any fluctuations in demand.

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Related Articles at Mashable! - The Social Networking Blog:

Is iTunes Losing All its Music? Warner May Follow Universal’s Lead
Starz to Launch on iTunes
Apple Movie Rentals On its Way?
iTunes UK To Soon Launch Movie Sales And Rentals
AC/DC Sells Music through Verizon–Not iTunes
Universal Music May Drop iTunes Contract
Apple Lands Deal with MGM

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FLIP Camera

I received an early Father's Day gift last night. The FLIP camera. It is portable video camera that can record for 60 minutes. Read more about the camera here - http://theflip.com

Here is Ray on my new FLIP camera.

More is Less

I have been on both side of the interview fence many times. When I was in between jobs I was the interviewee and as a hiring manager the interviewer. The one thing I can tell you is that candidates don't understand the concept of listening. The individual is more focused on selling themselves to you that the sales pitch is non stop. As the title says less is more. To quote the movie Jerry McGuire in many cases during the interview the candidate has me at hello. Then the more they talk the less engaging they become.

I realize it is very competitive today. If I can pass along a small tip that will go along way is to be selective when responding to questions. Make sure the answers are clear and concise. You may just talk yourself out of a job.

starting up again

It's been a long time since I posted. I decided in 2008 to simplify my life. I slowed down the social networking and focused more on email and my favorite rss feeds. Also with my new job at the AP and life at home with the girls it has been crazy.

I have decided to start posting when I can again. I did miss it. I have good news to share with everyone. We are expecting our third child in July and the baby is not a girl. Wow I can make a boy. My time management skills are poor now they sure need to improve with a third child on the way

I would love to hear from old and new friends. Drop a comment or an email.

I need to hire

You must be able to work in Mid Town NY two blocks from Penn Station and Cranbury NJ. If you are interested email michael.wishnick@yahoo.com. I have shifts available for 9am - 5:30, 11am - 7:30pm, 3:30 - 12pm, and 7pm - 3:30am.

Tier 1-Product Support Specialist
As a Product Support Specialist you will be responsible for providing first line, Tier 1 customer support to the customer base for online products and services. You will be responsible for handling incoming service requests (telephone, email etc.) and setting up customers with products and services, all in a fast-paced, changing 24/7 support environment. You will also assist our clients in maximizing their use of our products and services. You will work with sales, operations, editorial, product management, product services, development, and other departments to help improve external customer support. Candidate needs to be able to work in both New York, NY and Cranbury, NJ.
RESPONSIBILITIES:
· Handle inbound telephone and email customer requests. Gather supporting information and reviews carefully. Evaluates and assesses situation as understood. Relay back to customer toensure focus is on solving correct problem. Obtains sufficient information to determine the possible cause of the issue. Work independently to determine the best and most efficientsolution to resolve the customer’s operational issue(s), including procedural changes as necessary.
· Handle customers who may exhibit a range of emotions such as frustration,anger, and irritation. Stays calm despite customer emotions.
· Track activities through support tools including a ticket logging system and customer relationship management system.
· Provide pre/post sales support, along with ongoing technical and product support.
· Process service requests for new installations of web /internet and satellite services.
· Work with sales and international/domestic bureaus to ensure seamless product releases, installations and service upgrades.
· Work on special projects as assigned.
· Be available for work on a rotating shift (24/7) and “on call” basis (evenings and weekends) as required.
JOB QUALIFICATIONS:
· College degree, technical degree or acceptable experience required.
· 1+ years customer support experience (telephone, email, online chat etc.) required.
· Previous technical product support experience required.
· Must possess a service-oriented attitude, and be able to communicate and coordinate well with team members and customers.
· Demonstrated ability to work in a team environment. Communicate effectively with others and express ideas.
· Must be a self-starter with the ability to multi-task, manage workload, take accountability and deliver results to meet competing priorities in a fast-paced environment.
· Ability to prioritize and work in a high pressured environment.
· Strong written and communication skills required.
· Working knowledge of HTML, XML, C+, Perl, Java Script, DHTML, CSS and Flash a plus.
· Experience with Windows, Unix, Linux and and MAC OS’s preferred. Knowledge of basic file handling command line syntax on UNIX-LINUX-FreeBSD or VMS is a plus.
· Experience with Microsoft LDAP directory services - Active Directory a plus
· Understanding of network protocols TCP/IP, HTTP, FTP, SMTP and NNTP. Must be able to trouble shoot problems related to these protocols.
· Knowledge of streaming video technology and ability to troubleshoot video players (e.g. Windows Media Player, Real Player and Quicktime).