Hassle-Free Comcast Cancellation

I’ve been over my head with packing/purging/moving to our new house, but here’s a quick tip:

You may recall last summer a recording of a Comcast customer’s frustrating attempt to get their service cancelled went viral. With that in mind I volunteered to try cancelling our old house’s service since I’m better at dealing with BS than my partner. I just did so, and not only had no hassles but found we didn’t need to stand in line at a service center to return the set top box and remote either! Here’s the trick:

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Semi-Boston-centric Money-Saving Tips

Tip #1: More Ice Cream For Less $

I get ice cream several times a month at local chain JP Licks. This week I accidentally discovered how to get a lot more ice cream for less: order a Chipwich, which is a serving of ice cream between two chocolate chip (or other type) cookies.

While exact quantity probably depends on the server, I discovered:

– The single Chipwich is prepared when you order, so you may request any ice cream flavor (not just vanilla).

– The amount of ice cream is at least equal to their “small scoop” which in a cup or cone costs $3.99, and is much more than their “kiddie scoop” costing $3.09

– A Chipwich = a “small scoop” + 2 three-inch-diameter cookies, all for $3.29!

Bonus JP Licks tip: Join their Cow Card loyalty program and get points for every purchase (either by swiping the keytag or using the iPhone or Android app code). 50 points gets you a $5 credit for free food!

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Aereo – Local Broadcast TV Over The Internet Coming To Eastern MA

After free over-the-air broadcast television stations changed to digital several years ago you could buy an inexpensive converter for your old TV or just get a newer set with it built in. If your viewing location has decent reception your results are much better than old analog broadcasts – but if you are in a zone with mediocre reception (as is our house, since we are on the wrong side of a hill from the broadcast towers) it’s much worse. So you must go with some paid cable or satellite service to see stations that would otherwise be free.

Aereo wants to be your personal TV antenna with great reception.

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Review – Video House Concerts Beta Site

Last weekend I got to check out VideoHouseConcerts.com, which is a new business designed to allow performers to host a web-streamed concert from their home, studio, or any place with a good internet connection. Why is this any better than using one of the other available streaming services, such as Ustream or Google+ Hangouts? Video House Concerts provides some features not currently available to non-commercial users of those services:

• VHC sells tickets at several different access levels so that you can generate income

• The VHC concert experience allows for in-concert interaction with the performer, via text interaction or actual video & audio interaction for VIP ticket holders.

Sounds good  – so how was the actual experience? Read on…

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