Jonathan Kingsbury http://www.jon-kingsbury.com The Personal Blog of a Web Developer Wed, 05 May 2010 19:23:47 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0 Home Insulation..Is it worth the cost? http://www.jon-kingsbury.com/2010/05/05/home-insulation-is-it-worth-the-cost/ http://www.jon-kingsbury.com/2010/05/05/home-insulation-is-it-worth-the-cost/#comments Wed, 05 May 2010 19:19:17 +0000 Jonathan Kingsbury http://www.jon-kingsbury.com/?p=70 A friend of mine had his house fully insulated last year for cheap money (after rebates and tax credits) and saved quite a bit on his heating bills. At this time the state is willing to pay 75% (up to $2,500) of the costs. So today I had an energy home assessment and I must say, this was well worth it.

At first I was a little worried about having to come up with a lot of money up front, however that was not the case. Mildred was very helpful and she even replaced all of my old bulbs with high-efficiency bulbs at no cost to me. She installed new installation on all of my exterior doors at no cost. So far, she has saved me quite a lot of money on hardware and future utility bills.

After she measured and evaluated my current energy plan, she estimated that it would cost $2281.60 to insulate my entire house. Since “Mass Save” will pay 75% of the costs up to $2,500, that leaves me with a bill of 25% or $570.40.. not too bad. Not only that, when it comes time to do your taxes, you can write off your cost (after rebates) on your taxes and the Government will refund you 30%. So 30% of $570.40 is $171.12. All-in-all, this will only cost me $399.28 to insulate my entire house!

After her energy assessment, the estimated annual savings on heating/cooling bills are $451.84/year. Literally, it will take less than 1 year to make up the difference, which is well worth it.

So if you live in Massachusetts, I would highly recommend that you take advantage of the current energy tax credits and rebates. You will save yourself a lot of money in the long run!

]]> http://www.jon-kingsbury.com/2010/05/05/home-insulation-is-it-worth-the-cost/feed/ 2 Resolve IE7 and IE8 Hang Issues http://www.jon-kingsbury.com/2010/03/05/resolve-ie7-and-ie8-hang-issues/ http://www.jon-kingsbury.com/2010/03/05/resolve-ie7-and-ie8-hang-issues/#comments Fri, 05 Mar 2010 16:29:34 +0000 Jonathan Kingsbury http://www.jon-kingsbury.com/2010/03/05/resolve-ie7-and-ie8-hang-issues/ I took some time to research why the IE7 or IE8 browser would hang over some time.. After rebooting my PC, everything worked great until a few hours later, IE8 would hang after trying to load any web page. This usually occurs if I try opening up a new tab in the browser window. I would then close IE8, reopen the browser, and web-pages would load fine (just for now). Then maybe an hour or so later, the browser has difficulty loading web-pages. Constantly I have to close and reopen the browser to resolve the issue.

Things I’ve tried:

  • I cleared the browser histroy/cache
  • disabled all add-ons
  • reset browser settings
  • reinstalled IE8

..nothing worked.

I then turned to AVG and disabled the “Link Scanner”. After doing so, this resolved the issue and pages would no longer have issues loading. So if any of you experience the same problem (which I know there are many), simply disable the link scanner in your anti-virus program. Hopefully this will help.

Please note..Do be careful when you browse the web without link scanner enabled!

]]> http://www.jon-kingsbury.com/2010/03/05/resolve-ie7-and-ie8-hang-issues/feed/ 0 Conversion failed when converting the nvarchar value ‘X,X’ to data type int. http://www.jon-kingsbury.com/2009/12/10/conversion-failed-when-converting-the-nvarchar-value-xx-to-data-type-int/ http://www.jon-kingsbury.com/2009/12/10/conversion-failed-when-converting-the-nvarchar-value-xx-to-data-type-int/#comments Thu, 10 Dec 2009 18:17:52 +0000 Jonathan Kingsbury http://www.jon-kingsbury.com/2009/12/10/conversion-failed-when-converting-the-nvarchar-value-xx-to-data-type-int/ I decided to share this information on the web as I’ve visited many sources where the workaround for the conversation failed sql error is not entirely accurate.

If you receive this ASP error, it’s probably due to the fact that you are trying to return a list of results where the declared variable in your if statement = a certain interger value. Depending on who designed the table structure and relations in a SQL database, you cannot declare this statement if your data contains symbol(s) such as a comma (which was used to relate your record with other records).

To resolve this issue, simply use the SQL LIKE clause as well as including percentages %variablename% around the variable in cases where the identifier is greater than 2 digits in length (i.e. id=1,3,12,15,233). Now when you execute the sql statement, whatever value is in your variablename (example 15), only records will display that contain the number 15 (exactly 2 digits long). The commas used to seperate your related ID’s will be ignored in this case..

Good luck!

]]> http://www.jon-kingsbury.com/2009/12/10/conversion-failed-when-converting-the-nvarchar-value-xx-to-data-type-int/feed/ 0 MyWebFace..Are you sure you want to install this?? http://www.jon-kingsbury.com/2009/12/04/mywebfaceare-you-sure-you-want-to-install-this/ http://www.jon-kingsbury.com/2009/12/04/mywebfaceare-you-sure-you-want-to-install-this/#comments Fri, 04 Dec 2009 21:59:53 +0000 Jonathan Kingsbury http://www.jon-kingsbury.com/2009/12/04/mywebfaceare-you-sure-you-want-to-install-this/ I found this funny..

So I saw an interesting Facebook advertisement that displayed a web site that will convert your pictures into cartoon images.

Facebook Carton

That does seem pretty cool, however I really do feel bad for those people who decided to actually download their toolbar. Read all of the bonus programs that come along with it! I can imagine all of the pop-ups shortly after installing this program..

MyWebFace

]]> http://www.jon-kingsbury.com/2009/12/04/mywebfaceare-you-sure-you-want-to-install-this/feed/ 0 Google Adsense Payments – Easy to understand? http://www.jon-kingsbury.com/2009/11/18/google-adsense-payments-easy-to-understand/ http://www.jon-kingsbury.com/2009/11/18/google-adsense-payments-easy-to-understand/#comments Wed, 18 Nov 2009 16:32:23 +0000 Jonathan Kingsbury http://www.jon-kingsbury.com/2009/11/18/google-adsense-payments-easy-to-understand/ I’m having difficulty trying to answer this question accurately. What do you think?

Google Adsense

]]> http://www.jon-kingsbury.com/2009/11/18/google-adsense-payments-easy-to-understand/feed/ 0 What’s up with this weather?? http://www.jon-kingsbury.com/2009/07/02/whats-up-with-this-weather/ http://www.jon-kingsbury.com/2009/07/02/whats-up-with-this-weather/#comments Thu, 02 Jul 2009 14:07:13 +0000 Jonathan Kingsbury http://www.jon-kingsbury.com/2009/07/02/whats-up-with-this-weather/ So it has been quite some time since I’ve posted a blog entry.. Sorry about that ;) Been super busy with work and life.

These days I’ve been getting pretty sick of this rain here in New England. Actually, I can’t really complain much due to the fact that my electricity bill is not as high as last year. Last year we had some really hot days and I would crank the central air to 65-68 degrees. The past couple of months I’ve had the heat and central air off, so I’ve been saving quite a bit of $$$ :) I’ll be taking a cruise at the end of the month to Bermuda (finally nice weather) where I’ll be able to spend all that saved up $$$ on liquor and entertainment.

Anyhow, I’m back and will be posting more often.

-Jonathan

]]> http://www.jon-kingsbury.com/2009/07/02/whats-up-with-this-weather/feed/ 0 A Case Where Your Computer is Smarter Than You! http://www.jon-kingsbury.com/2008/09/10/a-case-where-your-computer-is-smarter-than-you/ http://www.jon-kingsbury.com/2008/09/10/a-case-where-your-computer-is-smarter-than-you/#comments Wed, 10 Sep 2008 21:03:05 +0000 Jonathan Kingsbury http://www.jon-kingsbury.com/2008/09/10/a-case-where-your-computer-is-smarter-than-you/ Just the other day my cousin Mike called and told me to install the new iTunes 8.0. After installing the new iTunes, I played around with a new function called Genius, which is indeed genius!
iTunes Genius
Here are a few observations as to why iTunes genius is smarter than you when it comes to picking songs and arranging them so that they play in a perfectly smooth sequence. I chose a song by David Gilmour, selected Genius, and the application picked the best songs to be played with “Out of the Blue”. From the list, it chose songs from Pink Floyd, Eagles, Jeff Beck, Steely Dan, and many other classics that flow as if it was all songs by the same artist.
iTunes Genius
I then chose some hard metal music “Dimmu Borgir”, and it properly chose Rammstein, Slipknot, Rob Zombie, CKY, and many others that I would have not think to add in a playlist together. The entire playlist ran and every song appeared to be in perfect order, not jumping from track to track that seem so different from one-another..as you may typically notice in self-made playlists..
iTunes Genius
I finally tested some hip hop by choosing “Check Yo Self by Ice Cube”. I’m telling ya, this mix was absolutely perfect as it added some Dr. Dre, Jay-Z, The Game, Rick Ross, and many others which all had similar beats and a smooth transition between each track.
iTunes Genius
I wish I had this for the house-warming party! I could of had some good mixes going, but instead we were stuck in having to hear Mike’s playlist which featured tracks that seemed to be in the wrong order or playlist. ;)

This application is simply genius!

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]]> http://www.jon-kingsbury.com/2008/08/31/get-out-and-vote-now/feed/ 0 Earth Hour – Short Notice? http://www.jon-kingsbury.com/2008/03/29/earth-hour-short-notice/ http://www.jon-kingsbury.com/2008/03/29/earth-hour-short-notice/#comments Sat, 29 Mar 2008 11:56:24 +0000 Jonathan Kingsbury http://www.jon-kingsbury.com/2008/03/29/earth-hour-short-notice/ Maybe I’m out of touch with the news lately, but has anyone heard of the Earth Hour? This morning I had thought Google changed their home-page to adopt the Blackle idea, however that was not the case. Apparently there is a goal to have as many people as possible turn off their lights from 8:00PM-9:00PM in their local timezone to help raise awareness of worldwide energy conservation. I commend the idea and will do my part to support the awareness, however it may have been a better idea on Google’s part to have this message+countdown on their homepage earlier this week (so more people would be aware). I could be wrong.., but I feel there will be more people who will miss this message as it’s the weekend, not everyone may visit Google on a daily basis, and so on.

Anyhow, I support the idea and I do hope others will take part. When and if most people turn off the lights for 1 hour, I just hope it doesn’t have a significant impact (stress) on the powerplant when suddenly everything comes back on ;)

]]> http://www.jon-kingsbury.com/2008/03/29/earth-hour-short-notice/feed/ 1 Eric Giardina – New Website http://www.jon-kingsbury.com/2008/02/29/eric-giardina/ http://www.jon-kingsbury.com/2008/02/29/eric-giardina/#comments Fri, 29 Feb 2008 06:31:33 +0000 Jonathan Kingsbury http://www.jon-kingsbury.com/2008/02/29/eric-giardina/ Link: http://www.ericgiardina.com
Title: Eric Giardina
Description: This is a personal blog web site for my cousin Eric Giardina, who is currently serving in Iraq. I would like to encourage visitors to please read and post audio/text comments on his web site. Be sure to check out Eric’s music, videos, and pictures!
Established: February 29, 2008

Check out this video – (Eric Giardina – One Last Shot)

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