Disqus - Latest Comments for DavidEsrati

Re: Minority New York agency sues DDB over Army account

David Esrati — Sat, 30 Jan 2021 21:55:05 -0000

The Feds have a requirement for 3% to go to Service Disabled Veteran Owned businesses. I own one. I'm an Army veteran. Trust me- they don't meet the requirement- nor do they try. Omnicom shop GSD&M runs the Air Force account- they don't try either. The government creates this mess- and they don't have to comply.
Joe Anthony is a real life Hero. Read the filing. I hope heads roll at both DDB and the Army.

Re: BMW: “It is difficult to say if the i3 will have a straight successor”

David Esrati — Sat, 13 Jul 2019 21:20:45 -0000

I have a 2014 i3. 27000 miles- and the AC compressor went out. The dealer wants $2200 for the part and $600 for diagnosis and labor. With prices like that- there's no reason to keep making BMW anything....
Sorry. Really loved the car.... for the 3 weeks I owned it-
they should just stick to motorcycles....

Re: Our View: No sunshine behind closed doors

David Esrati — Mon, 29 Apr 2019 09:38:42 -0000

The argument against "information sessions" validity is coming to a head in my case against the City of Dayton and the School Board that are claiming a task force was meeting in an "information session"- after the fact, in deciding the closing of schools.
There is no way to police these "information sessions" and if allowed, they effectively invalidate the Ohio Sunshine laws that are already weak.
There is no mention of "information session" anywhere in the Ohio Revised Codes- except pertaining to the placement of solid waste facilities.
This behavior must not be allowed to stand.

Re: Keyboard layout change in iOS annoys users

David Esrati — Sat, 22 Sep 2018 19:22:08 -0000

There is a way to switch keyboards- but- the Apple brain trust decided we should relearn how to type. Idiots.

Re: New Olympus E-M10 Mark III: High-Quality Still Photos, 4K Video, Easy Operation

David Esrati — Wed, 06 Sep 2017 21:03:51 -0000

Audio input?

Re: Janet Yellen says not to expect another big financial recession soon. Is she right? | Marketplace.org

David Esrati — Sun, 02 Jul 2017 11:21:34 -0000

Kai, I think it's time to ask "What is Janet Yellen smoking" instead of thinking. Either that, or she's hiding an illness where she won't be around too much longer. It is always a mistake to think that the same issues will trigger a financial crisis - the next one is coming soon- due to the inequity gap in this country.
Sooner or later, there will be a Rosa Parks moment- when some sheriff evicts a family from a home that the bank really doesn't care about- and it will trigger widespread unrest. Riots. Not the peaceful protests of occupy.
Or it could be the health care system, or when the masses realize that we can't lock everyone up-
The fundamental financial system relies on trust. Look at a dollar bill "In God we trust." When the people stop trusting the government, the stock market, the insurance industry, etc- it all stops working.
And you have a crisis.

Re: The beginner’s guide to UX prototyping

David Esrati — Tue, 05 Apr 2016 10:08:34 -0000

Another nice prototyping tool is Balsamiq Mockups. Thanks for the helpful article.

Re: WordPress Heading Tags: What They Are And How To Use Them

David Esrati — Thu, 20 Aug 2015 11:43:41 -0000

This was an early hack - an "easter egg" of sorts around version 1.7- the "kitchen sink" name was given by the original developer to it- it was sort of before plugins.
When it got adopted into core- the name stuck.

Re: Automattic Wins Cybersquatting Battle For Thesis.com

David Esrati — Tue, 14 Jul 2015 17:47:50 -0000

I remember when this fight first took place, it wasn't that Chris was necessarily wrong in his ideas for the WordPress ecosystem- he was a bit ahead of his time- it was that he pissed Matt off.
The reality is- there have been other fights- where Matt played dictator. There used to be an awesome, really intelligent spam filter- called Spam Karma II- but, in a fight with Automattic- they lost out to Akismet- which still gives more false positives than SKII ever did.
WordPress wouldn't be where it is without Matt's guidance, and he gets it right more than he gets it wrong- but, this is plain vindictive against Chris.
Let him have his URL- and be the better of the two. Thesis has an awful lot of competition-
Matt and Automattic don't.

Re: Elegant Themes is Evolving: What This Means for the Premium WordPress Marketplace

David Esrati — Mon, 29 Jun 2015 18:45:41 -0000

We've used Elegant Themes on quite a few sites- and our clients have been happy.
We've used early versions of Divi- and were a bit frustrated with some of the limitations- but, the new version seems to address those issues.
Switching themes is something people have to do because their site sucks.
If you start with a good theme- and know how it works, you can modify and update to your hearts content- and no one will know the difference.
The new options for Divi seem to solve all of these problems.

And in case "No Tolerance" want's to question my cred- I've been teaching www.websitetology.com for almost 10 years- about the ease of using WordPress. We've built, hosted and maintained hundreds of sites for our clients. www.thenextwave.biz

Re: How to Whistle With Your Fingers | The Art of Manliness

David Esrati — Tue, 07 Apr 2015 10:16:33 -0000

52 years.That's how long it took me to figure this out. Thank you. Still don't have it down- but- I'm at work. Will practice later. Thank you.

Re: The Gutting of Dayton: Why My City Is Gone

David Esrati — Wed, 28 Jan 2015 11:39:16 -0000

Ted, nice try. But, it's a whole lot of things- mostly decided long ago by some rich guys in a back room who used to run the city. They had the All Dayton Committee- later the Dayton Business Committee who decided who was in office- and what party would have the majority. Soon, they realized parties didn't matter- just money. They bought the "Development" they wanted- at the cost of everything else. When they all lost interest because there was little money left to steal- they all ran. NCR is in GA, Mead a shadow of itself, Reynolds & Reynolds in Kettering getting tax abatement after abatement to shuffle the deck chairs- and Standard Register- hiring wall street weasels to figure out how to get cash out of their carcass.
Danis - gone. Banks- aren't local anymore. GM decided to stop dealing with the rogue IUE once and for all- and said screw this popcorn stand.
You have charlatans galore in "economic development" that say it's good for me, to subsidize other businesses in the name of "job creation" which is just making temporary investments to buy tax dollars.
We can't plow the streets, we can barely cut the grass in our parks, and sure, demolition contractors who bought politicians get a lot of work- as the city falls apart.
It's all there in about 2,300 posts since 2005 on www.esrati.com
But thanks for the cartoon version.
BTW- the bank, isn't getting torn down. The "Student Suites" development has to be rejiggered because there was a HUD lien in place. The arcade is toast. The schools are about to be taken over by the state- but the "weak mayor" just spent half a million to "win" a job that pays a whopping $45K part time.
It all makes sense once you follow the money.
We're now run by Premier Health, Kettering Health, CareSource and UD.
It was never the people we elected- they were just puppets... then and now.

Re: 10 Steps to Fix a City — Strong Towns

David Esrati — Sat, 06 Dec 2014 23:28:14 -0000

Parking will become less important as self driving cars, uber and bike share systems become the norm.
Number 9 is the most important part.
Government is supposed to be about leveling the playing field- not tilting it.

Re: Where to Eat Well in Dayton, Ohio: Top 10 Local Restaurants

David Esrati — Mon, 24 Nov 2014 10:53:54 -0000

Leaving off the Pine Club, Lihn's Bistro and CJ Chan's is criminal.

Re: Oregon Express: Loving their Reuben pizza

David Esrati — Wed, 05 Nov 2014 21:56:12 -0000

Pizza Factory has the best Reuben pizza- and on Mondays- if you pick it up- it's buy one get one. You can also get the same pizza with a beer at South Park Tavern.

Re: #Fontacular is Back! « Fonts.com Blog

David Esrati — Sat, 01 Nov 2014 12:14:51 -0000

How about a 20% off deal on FontExplorer X Pro server for #fontacular?

Re: The Galactic CRM

David Esrati — Thu, 12 Jun 2014 10:57:52 -0000

This is really brilliant. Missing in most CRM systems. One of the things we encounter many times is clients- who also work with non-profits. We do projects for both- and keeping track of the two can be difficult- but this helps. Thanks

Re: Zurmo Step By Step Installation on Centos 6.x

David Esrati — Wed, 12 Feb 2014 15:53:08 -0000

I've gotten it to run on Cpanel - via a softaculous install.
Note- I installed it into a folder /crm instead of /zurmo
I've figured out the path for cron jobs- via cpanel cron widget-
cd /home2/USERNAME/public_html/crm/app/protected/commands/
&& php -q zurmoc JobManager super JobLogCleanup &>
/dev/null

Re: Zurmo Step By Step Installation on Centos 6.x

David Esrati — Mon, 10 Feb 2014 22:03:24 -0000

I have it running from a softaculous install- but, can't configure cron jobs via cpanel:

Warning: require_once(//protected/config/debugDIST.php): failed to open stream: No such file or directory in /home2/USERNAME/public_html/crm/app/protected/commands/bootstrap.php on line 58
Anyone else?

Re: Installing Zurmo

David Esrati — Mon, 10 Feb 2014 22:00:52 -0000

Did an install from softaculous. Seem to have a problem with setting up cron jobs:

Re: Police: Man arrested after threatening neighbor

David Esrati — Thu, 12 Dec 2013 19:59:58 -0000

This report is so far from the truth that Channel 2 should be ashamed. Get your facts straight. He was arrested after threatening to kill his baby momma. I've been a "big brother" to him for 26 years. I tried to get him out of his home- and away from the situation, but when you have metal health issues- compounded by alcohol, we don't have any place but jail to put you.

Re: Is Ron Burgundy Chrysler's Best Car Salesman?

David Esrati — Fri, 01 Nov 2013 17:11:35 -0000

Yeah, that new Ford "Exhibition" is kicking butt.

Re: Taglines Disrupted Voice

David Esrati — Thu, 12 Sep 2013 15:03:13 -0000

Great taglines require great skill. The fact that the ones that we know best are 20+ years old- is testament to the fact that they work. It's not great until it's time tested.
BMW may have abandoned "the ultimate driving machine" but their fans never will. Customers now own your brand, and if you are lucky- they bought your tagline folks.

Re: Broken Feeds – CiviCRM and WordPress

David Esrati — Mon, 02 Sep 2013 19:59:54 -0000

Thanks for this tip- but, why does this have to be so complicated? Both the Drupal and Joomla versions of CiviCRM make this a piece of cake.

Re: Seeing the Beauty in Crumbling Basketball Hoops

David Esrati — Wed, 21 Aug 2013 10:15:23 -0000

You don't have to go to the tropics- right here in Dayton Ohio- on city courts, we have mangled rims, rusted backboards, the works.
I've been putting up basketball nets instead of buying yard signs in my run for city commission- I've hung over 200 nets so far. Watch the video and look at the posters about the nets that I've gotten barbers in town to sponsor: www.hoopsdayton.org