Blogging for a life: Blog about my life….my opinions and experiences.
The New Kid on the Block: Chestnut Hill Cafe
So, I’m sitting in the new Cafe on Chestnut St called Chestnut Hill Cafe for the second time, and I’m quite impressed. It’s situated on the corner of N. Pine and West Chestnut St. Since I work for myself and I can do my work anywhere. (one of the main reasons I started my company, btw.) I had a meeting this morning so I thought I would stop here for lunch and do some work.
The food is quite good although the menu is still quite limited. So far I have had their roast reef and mozzarella paninis both with mixed greens on the side. You have a choice of the greens or chips. Trying to eat healthy I went with the salad. The paninis were quite good. Not quite as good as my favorite ones at the Greek place in Munich, but definitely good. The mozzarella definitely reminded me of the Greek’s. The cafe itself is quaint with a variety of seating; Small area with cushy leather chairs in front of a fireplace, typical cafe two tops, a couple of small tables for if you just want to stand while you have your coffee and there is also some bar type seating in the front. There is also outside seating with umbrellas.
They use a lot of organic and fair trade ingredients including their coffee, which by the way definitely competes with any other coffee in the city. Both the food and drink menu are a bit limited since they just opened, but they say they will be adding more items quite soon.
For me it’s a great way to break up my day and a good alternative to other locations in the Lancaster, and a welcome change from the big chains. Plus they have free wireless, a must for nomadic business people like me and the best thing… in the maybe 6-8 hours that I’ve been here doing work, the wireless has never dropped out.
A Nice Pat on the Back for the Blackbird e-Solutions SEO Team
From e-Life: Discussions about Blackbird e-Solutions and the Search, Tech and Localization Industries
If you remember in the past six months I’ve posted about a Search Engine Optimization client of ours, Superior Wash of PA (See links below). There was some buzz about the deal because the Lancaster Chamber of Commerce was excited that we made our connection at the new members welcome event. It was the first event I visited for Blackbird e-Solutions. The subsequently did an article about us in their monthly newsletter.
The project was finished several months ago, which has given enough time for an evaluation of the effectiveness of the campaign. It took about a month for the sites to climb into a good position in the search engines, but then as you can see in my previous posting: SEO Project a Success for Superior Wash of PA they, reached a top ranking. Today I received the following email from Jen at Superior Wash:
Bryan,
I just wanted to tell you that we have had an increase in Superior Wash’s website traffic. I am sending out 3 quotes to companies who found us on the web and completed the “contact us” form! Very exciting! I owe that all to you and I just wanted you to know it’s working!!Hope you are having a good summer and maybe I’ll see you at a Chamber event
soon.
Jen
This is great news! I’m excited that they are seeing results from our campaign. It’s always good to have satisfied customers. 😉
Other Superior Wash of PA posts:
SEO Project a Success for Superior Wash of PA
Blackbird e-Solutions Secures SEO Deal With Accubright Systems, LLC and Superior Wash
Blackbird e-Solutions Featured in Lancaster County Chamber of Commerce and Industry Newsletter!
–
Save on Gas! Try Piggybacking!
Net Neutrality — A Letter to US Senator Arlen Specter
From e-Life: Discussions about Blackbird e-Solutions and the Search, Tech and Localization Industries
After seeing the news article “FCC rules Comcast violated Internet access policy” I was reminded of the importance of net neutrality. So since I’m located in Pennsylvania, I decided to right US Senator Arlen Specter. You can read my letter below.
Dear Mr. Specter,
After seeing the news article this morning “FCC rules Comcast violated Internet access policy” this morning I was reminded of the importance of “net neutrality”. I commend the FCC for taking a stand with Comcast. Comcast is a huge business that in most areas operates almost as a monopoly, yet they continue to cry that their infrastructure is being unfairly used. They claim that companies and people are getting a free ride on their pipeline. I always get a kick out of how they try to justify the policy of slowing down different types of traffic just because that type is popular. One example is Google. They talked about implementing a way to slow traffic to companies such as Google and then charging them a higher fee so that the traffic will run at normal speeds. That sounds like a form of racketeering, which is not unlike what the mob does when they force people to pay for protection. “Protection from what?”, you ask. In actuality the money being paid is to protect the victims from the mob itself.
The idea of slowing different types of traffic could also be equated to Microsoft saying you can install any program on a Windows computer, but you will have to pay MS more money so the software will run correctly.
Companies like Comcast feel that they can’t support their networks with the fees they are charging, but their fees continue to go up and they continue to see profits and growth. Comcast Reports First Quarter 2008 Results Furthermore do they really think that Google and friends are not paying for their connection the internet? I would be interested in seeing the numbers on how much they pay to keep all their data centers connected… It’s not like they are running a billion dollar business on a dial up connection that costs them only a few dollars a month. Plus, all those people using Google, are they not paying for their connection as well?
As a business owner myself I support finding creative ways for new revenue, but it has to be done in an ethical manner. If the telcos are allowed to decide at what speed traffic travels over their networks it will stifle the economy. There are number of reasons this is true. For instance, the US has become a service economy and many of those services are performed via the internet. Many companies live or die by their ability to reach customers online. There is also a big conflict of interest for the telcos. For example a company such as the VOIP breakthrough Vonage could be squashed out of existence if Comcast decided they wanted to hinder Vonage’s VOIP traffic. Since Comcast also has a VOIP service this would give them an unfair advantage. Then where does it stop? The telcos could start picking off different markets by eliminating their competition in this manner.
Then fundamental idea of the internet is based on neutrality. This has creating a new economies, new markets and new jobs. Allowing the telcos to hold companies and individuals hostage would be disservice to the country and its people.
For further information about net neutrality please visit: savetheinternet.com
Best regards,
Bryan Coe
–