chrisurban.com

I tried a couple of times late last week to sign on, even after creating a new account with Feather for the free service. A phone call to EarthLink customer service, not surprisingly, provided no new details - really no details at all - regarding when, or what would be available when.
Today, after signing on using the new free account, I can surf away. What is interesting is the obvious data that gets collected after signing on: I see in my redirection URL the following parameters:

• name
• plan=free
• zip=where I am?, from the nearest router is, presumably
• start time, in the format MM:dd:hh:mm:ss
• end time, in the same format, + 30 days
• email= address provided during signup
• lat and lon, from the nearest router,presumably.

On closer examination of the zip and the lat/lon correlate, but these are actually nowhere near where I am physically. It’s putting me at 15 blocks west, a bit over a mile away, of where I actually am.
Aside from loggin where customers physically are, this probably being used more to draw a little local map as well as determine closest items (movie theaters, etc.) on the new home page you land on:
http://philadelphia.feather.com/
Going to this page without these parameters won’t work, so try this:
http://philadelphia.feather.com/?name=Your%20Name&plan=free&zip=19141-3025
&start=06:20:13:59:43&end=12:31:13:59:43&email=email@domain.com&lat=39.952846&lng=-75.134983

This will put you on the Ben Franklin Bridge, and give you 6 months remaining on your free account.

Dear EarthLink Wi-Fi Subscriber,

This email contains important information about your EarthLink
Wi-Fi service.

On June 17, 2008, EarthLink transferred its Wi-Fi network in
Philadelphia to a new locally-based company. Beginning June 17,
2008, you will have access to the Wi-Fi network at no cost to
you. You should expect to receive information from this company
about the new Wi-Fi service in the near future.

This new company was created by some of Philadelphia’s most
experienced telecommunications and technology executives, and is
funded by several prominent private investors from both the
Philadelphia area and the West Coast.

EarthLink is pleased that this group has agreed to allow your
Wi-Fi service to continue with them after the termination of
your Wi-Fi account, and EarthLink is working with them
on a smooth transition.

Thank you for being our valued subscriber.

Sincerely,

EarthLink Support

We’re waiting with anticipation for the details to come out of Mayor Nutter’s press conference today (12PM ET) with regards to the future of WiFi Philly. According to the Philly Inquirer, a group of local investors are plotting to revive the network using an advertising-based model rather than subscription based. In this same article, we read the total subscriber count at 6,000 user (at $20 a month or less). I’m curious to see how this advertising based model pans out - will we be getting pop ups every few minutes with advertising? Will we be encourage to browse in a framed window?

Another update: we tried yesterday to log on to the network; we could join the network but it wouldn’t actually go anywhere. Today? We can join, sans password, and surf freely. Nice!

I managed to sign on Friday afternoon to the WiFi Philly network, but without the usual username and password. Something is going on, and word on the street is that a consortium on NPO’s, possible with the City’s help, will keep things running, perhaps until a more definitive plan can be determined?
It’s now Sunday, and it’s presumed that city leaders and interested parties are diligently working through the weekend to make the new Monday deadline for finalizing a plan to keep this wireless network afloat. Stay tuned!

From Ethel M in Vegas we picked up a small chocolate bar to try. For those who don’t recognize the brand, Ethel’s is to M&M’s as Lexus is to Toyota. Whenever in Vegas, we’ll try to pick up some of their truffles - they have some really wonderful alcoholic-inspired ones, like the margarita and the cabernet… mmm.
Anyway, this bar is a nice, smooth combination of two even layers of dark chocolate and white chocolate, presumably the mocha cappuccino is flavored in the white? We had a hard time figuring that out. Do we care? Not really. It’s very creamy with a nice not-too-overwhelming coffee flavor, but because of the white chocolate, this might be more suited for a milk chocolate lover.
And, here’s another manufacturer generically listing ingredients: “spices.”

Like Costco, Trader Joe’s is a supplier of all good things, in our view. So how could you go wrong with a 71% cocao dark chocolate bar from them? Especially when it’s made in Switzerland, with fairly traded cocao beans? Well, the answer is you can’t.
This a good, solid, smooth bar with a great taste. It starts a little buttery but then evens out, picking up the nuttiness of the beans and the darker roasted flavor. This was on an endcap adjacent to marshmallows and graham crackers; this would be an excellent choice for s’mores.

One look at the bright red wrapper of this bar and you would think we’ve finally found the end-all of spicy chocolate bars: two chili peppers and a piece of chocolate are pictured with “Extra Fine dark chocolate with chili.”
However, after trying it, we’re sorry to say that this isn’t it. That isn’t to say this is not a good bar, far from it; it is pretty good and it is really spicy, but probably more for the sake of being spicy. It’s just that it’s not quite there, at least in our heads. There’s chili pepper seeds interspersed in the chocolate, and the chocolate’s flavor doesn’t complement the spice as well as it could.

We really like some of these Dagoba bars we have managed to find. We hadn’t noticed this one before and were immediately intrigued by the concept: blueberries and lavender.
This has a really great aroma and mouthfeel - the lavender is a wonderful complement to the blueberries. Like other Dagoba dark chocolate, this has a relatively high cocao content - 59% - and is all organic. The lavender bouquet hits your mouth first, and riding in under this wave comes the dark chocolate and then closes out with the blueberries. A real nice three-part movement of chocolate.
Four year old: “It tastes like flowery and bread a litle bit. And a little bit of strawberry.”

Found this in the discount bin of our local Target. This is a nice, fairly spicy bar, with good texture from the cocao been nibs mixed in. I was surprised, honestly, with the balance of ingredients in this bar; it’s not what we expected. What threw us off is that the ingredients list “spices” without being specific, but the front wrapper says Ceylon cinnamon. We’re guessing cinnamon is probably the leader among these, but we can’t say for sure. The point is that these “spices” are what even out the flavor of this bar nicely. A good chocolate experience, more exotic than what we expected.
Four-year-old says this is a tiny little bit spicy. “It’s okay.”

Another Choxie from Target, this is more candy bar than chocolate. Dark chocolate coating around soft, lemon white chocolate truffle filling inside. Nice, light, airy, almost fluffy tasting. I think lemon is so-so; it could be nicer if it were less sweet and more tart. If you’re a dark chocolate fan, you can skip this bar; this would be more suited for a milk chocolate lover, because of the white creamy center filling.
Four-year-old: “It’s tastes good and I like it. It tastes like cinnamon. A tiny bit of lemon, but it tastes like fruit punch or strawberry.”

Ah, Lindt. Seeing those five letters makes my salivary glands kick in, and vague memories of immature chocolate and red wine pairings from college waft around in my brain.
On the whole, Lindt chocolate bars, especially the plainest ones, are consistently sublime. High cocao content, beautifully blended and meltingly smooth. Never a bitter aftertaste, and always an even set of mouthfeel notes firing off as the chocolate melts in your mouth.
This particular bar is a sandwich of dark chocolate (70% cocao) with a layer of dark cocao mousse inside. The end result is awesome: sweeter dark chocolate first, giving way to a cocoa, almost lighter, powdery tasting mousse, like a flourless chocolate tart, but not as sweet. A very intense chocolate, but not as dense as you would expect - just a pleasure to indulge with!

Here we are, one week away from EarthLink pulling the plug on the Wireless Philadelphia Wi-Fi network, and we have not seen or heard anything further about it since the original announcement. Will some non-profit org come to the rescue? Will Gov. Rendell broker a deal? Will the city of Philadelphia sue Earthlink to keep its equipment in place?
What I find interesting is that Earthlink claims there’s 5,000 paying customers (I’m one of them). If we’re paying $20 a month for wireless access, that’s $100,000 a month, or $1.2 million a year. What exactly are the costs of maintaining the network, or more specifically, what are the top line items in maintaining the network? Staff, backup equipment, replacement equipment, utility bills? If securing customers is the issue, why not offer a cheaper rate to get more people to sign up?
I’m waiting to hear if Greg Goldman makes any sort of last-ditch announcement, or will this whole thing quietly fade away without even a whimper? And what about the free-to-the-public areas around Center City, do those get dismantled as well? Isn’t anyone else aghast at this prospect - not having free wifi around the Convention Center will be a major hassle for conventioneers, let alone the service it provides to center city tourists and residents.
Let’s hope we see something come up in the next few days….

So Philadelphia magazine releases a list every year of Top Docs, but these are usually grouped by specialty only. In keeping with our lists for Philadelphia-area hospitals, here are the top 10 hospitals by number of Top Docs mentioned in the May 2008 issue. Keep in mind several things: this is a completely arbitrary list (i.e., the number of top docs is not necessarily indicative of quality of care), this is a total number of Top Docs, and is not measured against total employed doctors at a facility, and finally, counts maybe off by as many as a few as this was hand-counted. Corrections are welcomed.

Top 10 Hospitals by Number of ‘Top Docs’

In our continuing series where we look at the rates of infection and mortality reported by Philadelphia area hospitals, here we filter out the hospitals with the lowest mortality rates for cases reported as Congestive Heart Failure. What is interesting to note is the low actual number of cases, consider the rates are reported as per 1,000 cases.

Peer Group 1, Mortality Rates for Congestive Heart Failure

Received this nice note from Earthlink this morning:

Dear EarthLink Wi-Fi Subscriber,

This email contains important information about your EarthLink
Wi-Fi service. EarthLink will stop operating its wireless
network in Philadelphia. EarthLink is providing our Wi-Fi
subscribers with a thirty (30) day transition period through
Thursday, June 12, 2008. This means that your EarthLink Wi-Fi
account will terminate on June 12, 2008.

In addition, your EarthLink dial-up access and email account
that EarthLink provides with the Wi-Fi service will also
terminate unless you transfer your account to another EarthLink
Internet access service.

EarthLink values you as a customer and we apologize for any
inconvenience that this may cause. We would like to assist you
in transitioning to another EarthLink Internet access service.

We are making several special offers on our DSL and dial-up
Internet access services available to our EarthLink Wi-Fi
subscribers in Philadelphia to assist in this transition.
EarthLink will try to contact you by telephone shortly to answer
any questions you may have about your EarthLink Wi-Fi account
and to explain how you can transfer your account to another
EarthLink Internet access service. You may also call us at
1-877-WIFI-HELP (1-877-943-4435) with any questions.

Please Note: To avoid an interruption in your EarthLink
Internet access and termination of your EarthLink email account,
please contact us before June 12, 2008.  If you purchased or are
renting a modem from EarthLink for your EarthLink Wi-Fi service,
our service representative will provide details on how to return
the modem at no cost to you. If you purchased your modem from
EarthLink, we will give you a refund of the price you paid to us
for the modem once we’ve received your returned modem.

When your EarthLink Wi-Fi account is terminated, we will credit
to your account any remaining time that you paid for. Depending
upon your credit card company or bank, this credit may take up
to 30 days to appear on your statement.

Thank you for being our valued Wi-Fi subscriber. We look
forward to providing you with Internet service for years to come!

Sincerely,

EarthLink Support

Nice! So much for this great service.  This was such a useful feature of working in and around Philadelphia: the ability to log onto a half-decent WiFi network and gain internet access. I had previously tried the Verizon USB cell-modem with intermittent results an lots of connection dropping, for nearly four times the price of the monthly Earthlink access.

What remains to be seen: what about the ‘free’ nodes, like at the Convention Center, Love Park, Reading Terminal Market, etc.? Do those remain, or they going the way of the Market Street trolley as well?