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This map shows median income by census tract in Baltimore City, using 2010 census data. Each tract is both color coded and extruded (elevated) above the surface of the map based on its Median Income score. I chose not to add too much text so you can clearly see the spatial pattern jumping out at you.  The Downtown communities of Locust Point, Federal Hill, Fells Point, Mount Vernon and Canton stick out in the central part of the city, and the wealthy suburban areas of Roland Park and Mount Washington form the summit of a “wealth tower” to the north.  West Baltimore and East Baltimore (Hopkins) can also clearly be […]

It can be tough to keep track of the dozens of emails we receive each day, and important messages can easily be lost in the more routine emails the inundate our inboxes.  In Gmail or Google Apps, you can create an email filter to automatically “Label” or categorize messages, and have them bypass your inbox.   For this TechBlog Post, I am going to focus on two categories of email I receive a lot of each day:  First, Groupon, Living Social, and Google Offers.  I don’t want to disable these notifications, but I do want them to bypass my inbox where I can review them later.  Second, my school’s listserve, […]

We’ve recently tried our hand at devleopment using Zoho Creator, a cloud-based custom database platform. Creator is an example of Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS), providing all of the nuts and bolts to create a customized series of forms, views, and reports that fit your internal business workflow. For us, that workflow was tracking tickets in our Baltimore Computer Repair Shop at 1414 Key Highway. Since day 1 we’ve experimented with numerous systems, including OSticket, WordPress Ticket plugins, MerchantOS’ (cloud based Point of Sale) built-in workorder system. As with most “off the shelf” products, each is great at a particular workflow model, but falls short in at least one area. For example, MerchantOS […]

I’ve recently been testing a few products that allow you to see your household energy usage in real-time.  There are numerous possibilities for remote monitoring of household energy data, as well as home automation (think being able to control lights and your thermostat from an iPhone app!). The latest test-drive was a product called the Power Cost Monitor by Blue Line Innovations.  It is an outdoor reading unit that you attach to your power meter with a hose clamp.  It can read live energy usage on almost any meter, and in my case it is reading invisible infrared signal blips.  BGE (Baltimore Gas & Electric)  installed a fancy new meter […]

Gone are the days of super-vulnerable Windows XP computers requiring constant babysitting, maintenance and cleanup. (well, mostly gone, we still see a few here and there). While there was definitely a lull of malware and virus removal after people started moving to Windows 7, we have started to see the trickle of infected Windows 7 Machines slowly increase. This image shows a piece of Malware called “System Fix”, which prevents the user from doing much of anything on the computer, and constantly warns them through pop-ups and taskbar notifications that there is something very wrong with their computer. Next they will try to get you to purchase software to address […]

We receive a lot of calls in the shop for broken power jacks on laptops.  While many jacks can stand up to a lot of abuse, when you trip over your power cord, drop your laptop from the bed or sofa, or otherwise subject it to forces or angles it wasn’t designed for, you could end up breaking the power jack.  In most cases, this can be a death sentence for your computer, as replacing the power jack will involve an intricate and risky procedure that involves dismantling the entire computer, desoldering the broken jack, and re-soldering a new jack. These repairs fall under our “advanced” flat-rate bench fee of […]

  The video feed you see above is streaming live from a Network Camera installed on a construction site in Baltimore, Maryland. Network Cameras offer powerful remote monitoring capabilities, and can be easily viewed in a web browser from anywhere in the world (yes, even on mobile devices!). Note: This model of Network Camera streams in MPEG-4 format, and is best viewed in Mozilla Firefox or Google Chrome. We’ve been installing network cameras for surveillance of construction sites for years, giving General Contractors a great way to keep “eyes-on” at sites that may be located across town or across the country. Requirements: To install a network camera on your location, […]