Free Wifi at McDonalds on the iPhone

I was in McDonalds waiting to order my coffee when I pulled out my iPhone to check the internets. A wifi hotspot popped up and this is what I saw:


It seems that AT&T bought Waypoint, the wifi provider, eariler this month and we are seeing the fruit of that acquisition. Free wifi for the iPhone? I’ll give it a try.

I entered my mobile phone number and got a message to wait for a text message.

Sure enough, the message arrived almost instantly.

Clickety-click…

And boom, I’m on the interwebs. In about 10-20 seconds…
No login.
No registration.
No ads.
No headache.
Just some sweet, sweet wifi provided in a way you can actually use it easily.
Props to AT&T, Waypoint, and McDonalds for quick work on creating a great service. I’m going to check at the local Starbucks today if it works the same. If only I could register my phone with T-mobile Hotspot to work the same way, I’d be in heaven.

The View of Los Angeles from Runyon Canyon

Two weekends ago I went up to Runyon Canyon with family to see Los Angeles. It was the weekend of the fires in Sylmar and the Triangle Complex fire near Chino.
From the top of the canyon you can see the entire LA basin from the Ocean to Downtown to Hollywood to the San Fernando Valley to the Westside.
I took photos and made them into a Quicktime VR so you can pan around and zoom in and out.


Thanks to Sean & Tara, the Twitluvahs for showing me the spot.

Soda Roundup

Over the last few weeks, I’ve picked up a few random sodas. Finally I gave them all a test.
First up was the pair of sodas based on ice cream floats.


The Root Beer Float is a traditional dessert and A&W is well known root beer. The Orange Soda Float? Not so traditional, but hey they are trying something new.
The root beer float tasted like a melted root beer float. The ingredients include things like pectin and propylene glycol alginate to make it taste creamy. Not so much. While the root beer flavor is good, I would rather simply have a root beer rather than try to recreate a float.
The orange soda float was a bit strange. Not quite a melted 50/50 bar, the thickening stuff made the orange soda simply strange. I’m not a big fan of orange soda, to begin with, so I wasn’t impressed at all.

Every year, Jones soda puts out a few flavors for Halloween. This year I picked up Dread Apple and Monster Mojito.
Amazingly, the Dread Apple tasted like carbonated apple juice and the Monster Mojito tasted like a non-alcoholic mojito, a little bitter with a hint of mint. Surprising, I know. Michele enjoys mojitos and gave it a test. She said it tastes “exactly” like a mojito. I’ll take here word for it. Personally I don’t like the whole muddling trend at bars these days.
I guess I was hopping for something strange or extraordinary here, but alas, it’s just soda pop.

Movember – raising awareness and money

Most of the time, Cruftbox doesn’t ask much from you, the Loyal Cruftbox Readers, but today I am.
This month is Movember, a month where I am growing a mustache to help raise money for Prostate Cancer research. Just last month, I had the opportunity to have my prostate tested during my yearly physical.
In Movember, men grow mustaches to help raise money and awareness about Prostate Cancer, a major problem for men. All donations during Movember go to the Prostate Cancer Foundation, a non-profit (meaning tax deductible!) organization.
You can visit my MoSpace here.
I know these aren’t the easiest financial times for anyone, but I am asking you to donate a little money to help. Every little bit helps. I’ve have been writing Cruftbox since January 2000, that’s almost 9 years of Cruft for your to peruse. Donating $9 if you enjoy Cruftbox and my fine new mustache would be fantastic. Of course, feel free to donate more if you want!
The donation page is here. Please consider making a small donation now.
Here are some photos of the progress of the facial hair.


Clean shaven in October


Movember 4th


Movember 9th


Movember 10th


Movember 16th

Halloween 2008 with Timelapse Movie

Halloween is today. We gave out full size candy again this year much to the delight of all the trick or treaters.


Once again, I set up my timelapse photography gear and made video of the door from 6:15PM to 9:15PM as I sat there handing out candy. We had some friends stop by during the evening I had help with logging costumes and handing out candy.

Halloween 2008 Timelapse from Michael Pusateri on Vimeo.

As I have in 2005, 2006,and 2007 I asked every person what they were dressed as and wrote down the answers.
Here are the top ten costumes for the last four years compared.

Batman makes a triumphant return to the list and the scream mask disappears.
Here is this year’s costume list, with a total of 150 people.
6 Batman
5 Cat
5 Pirate
5 Skeleton
5 Vampire
4 Snow White
4 Witch
3 Bee
3 Devil
3 Fairy
2 50s Girl
2 Angel
2 Ariel, the Little Mermaid
2 Banana
2 Basketball Player, Lakers
2 Buzz Lightyear
2 Cinderella
2 Darth Vader
2 Jason Vorhees
2 Minnie Mouse
2 Sleeping Beauty
2 Spiderman
2 Tinkerbell
2 Werewolf
1 70s Girl
1 80s Girl
1 Alice in Wonderland
1 Baby
1 Bart Simpson
1 Basketball Player
1 BMX Rider
1 Boxer
1 Bunny
1 Captain
1 Chip & Dales
1 Clown
1 Dark Angel
1 Dead Guy
1 Death
1 Death Joker
1 Dinosaur
1 Dragon Warrior
1 Elephant
1 Elphaba, Wicked Witch of the West
1 Eyore
1 Fireman on Vacation
1 Frankenstein
1 Ghost Lady
1 Glam Witch
1 Hannah Montana
1 Harry Potter
1 High School Musical Cheerleader
1 Hot Rod
1 Incredible Hulk
1 Injured Skater
1 Insane-o Man
1 Invader Zim
1 IT the Clown
1 John McCain
1 Karate Man
1 Kim Possible
1 Knight
1 Leatherface
1 Little Bo Peep
1 Little Dutch Girl
1 Little Red Riding Hood
1 Luchadore
1 Maid
1 Monk
1 Monster
1 Nerd
1 Ninja
1 Olive Oyl
1 Optimus Prime
1 Pink Poodle
1 Pipi Longstocking
1 Policeman
1 Popeye
1 Power Ranger
1 Power Ranger, Blue
1 Power Ranger, Green
1 Power Ranger, Red
1 Princess
1 Ringo Starr
1 Sailor
1 Sanjaya
1 School Girl
1 Scream Mask
1 Secret Jedi
1 Sharpei from High School Musical
1 Skeleton Punk
1 Skunk
1 Supergirl
1 The Hamburglar
1 The Riddler
1 Tofu
1 Ultraman
1 Vampire Priest
1 Wicked Witch
1 Winnie The Pooh
1 Wonder Bread
1 Zombie
1 Zombie Skate Punk

Lame Halloween Candy

On a recent trip to 7-Eleven this weekend I spotted some Halloween themed candy.


Obviously, I was intrigued. Did these candies have something new to them? Could it be peanut butter & pumpkin, together at last?

First I tried the Snickers Creme Pumpkin. New mold in a nice jack-o-lantern shape. But the candy itself tasted just like a regular Snickers. Nothing special at all.

Surely the Reese’s Peanut Butter Pumpkin would be something special. Alas, the mold was lame and the taste no different than a regular Peanut Butter Cup.
We need something more than a new mold folks. Color me unimpressed.