Monthly Archive for January, 2010

They have television over the air now?, Part 3

Published
by
Sam
on January 6, 2010
in 930posts
. 1 Comment

In my two previous posts about antennas, I explained what I did to research and install an over-the-air TV antenna. Now that I’ve gotten everything installed, I’ll share with you my results.

The Channels

These are all the stations (including subchannels) that I pull in with my new installation.

If you take all the major stations and add their subchannels, that’s 30 channels!  Granted, there are three 24 hour weather channels, two children’s channels, a bible channel, and ten foreign news channels, but the ratio of channels I watch to channels I don’t watch is about the same as it would be on cable TV.

Quality and Reception

All the of the major channels (NBC, FOX, ABC, CBS, MyTV, PBS, CW, ION) are in HD. There is a mix of 720p and 1080i, but it all looks the same on my 32-inch 720p TV, and I have to say it looks pretty amazing.

The MHz channels and all other subchannels are broadcast in 480p, which while not as good as HD, does not look terrible.

Since this is all digital, it’s pretty much all or nothing. There is no graceful signal degradation like there was with analog signals. That does present a problem with a few channels.

WDCW is the worst offender, since the tower is located about two miles farther away and two degrees off from all the others. Occasionally I can’t get a signal from that station at all.

The other two that have issues are WJLA and WUSA, and problems usually happen when there is a heavy overcast. These stations are the only ones that broadcast on VHF, so my guess is that my antenna is less effective at pulling in that band.

Future Improvements

The first thing I plan on trying is a pre-amplifier, which should eliminate the problems we’re having with the stations I mentioned. Also, we sometimes get little tears or warps in the picture, which I assume is the result of interference. Hopefully a pre-amp will also take care of this problem.

As an alternative, I could always go with a bigger antenna. The longer the boom, the farther away I should be able to pull in signals. While I am totally in favor of this idea, I think my wife would rather stick with something smaller.

Conclusion

So far, my broadcast TV experiment has been going great. We are able to watch most of our favorite shows as they air. (Interestingly enough, sometimes we prefer to just watch them on Hulu). I get to watch some of the sports I’d been missing out on. Most of what we miss gets filled in with Hulu and Netflix streaming.

Most important of all, Wheel of Fortune and Jeopardy! keep my wife busy long enough for me to get other things done.

My next project in the home theater department will probably be putting together a PC with XBMC or Boxee, mainly to be able to watch Hulu. Sounds like another blog post!

Signing off…

Update: I almost forgot about this but I wanted to thank Joe for helping me install my antenna. He took an entire Sunday out of his time to help me out. Thanks Joe. You’re a true pal.

Google DNS

Published
by
Edwin
on January 4, 2010
in 930posts, The more you know... and Tips and Tutorials
. 0 Comments

A few weeks ago, Google announced that they are making available public DNS servers. They claim that it “provides many benefits, including improved security, fast performance, and more valid results.” And for some people, that might be true. They also claim that they are adhering to DNS standards, unlike many ISP and OpenDNS implementations, by not redirecting you to some crappy ad-filled search page when you fat-finger a URL. And as for privacy concerns:

With Google Public DNS, we collect IP address (only temporarily) and ISP and location information (in permanent logs) for the purpose of making our service faster, better and more secure. Specifically, we use this data to conduct debugging, to analyze abuse phenomena and to improve our prefetching feature. After 24 hours, we erase any IP information.

Google goes on to say that they are not tying any information to your Google account, or sharing it with anyone else. They don’t say they aren’t going to use it, though, but any data they retain won’t be personally identifiable. That eases most of my concerns. And it’s far better than most other DNS providers offer. I would not trust my ISP not to sell my information, and OpenDNS openly admits they are selling that information, but claim that it cannot be traced back to individuals.

So far, Google is coming out on top in privacy concerns and adherence to standards. But what about performance? Enter NAMEBENCH.

Namebench is a recently released tool that benchmarks the response time of hundreds of public DNS servers and shows you the best on for your situation. Just open the file and click “Start Benchmark” and after a short wait, it spits out a handy webpage with the results and recommendations. Very easy.

Results may vary.

As for the results…..I ran the test 5 times, and got 4 different results. After another 10 attempts, a clear winner had emerged.

Most people probably aren’t going to notice a difference in speed or stability, but then again, this blog isn’t for “most people.”

How-To: Delicious, Easy Pancakes on the Cheap!

Published
by
Charlie
on January 3, 2010
in 930posts
. 0 Comments

With the crappy economy taking its toll on many aspects of every day life these days, there’s one thing that it doesn’t have to affect: your ability to make delicious, fluffy pancakes on the cheap!

Here’s how:

  1. Go to your local market and procure a box of “JIFFY” buttermilk biscuit mix. The average price for a box of this versatile goodness is typically $0.50-$0.65 — an incredible deal!
  2. Follow the instructions for making pancake/waffle batter on the back of your box of “JIFFY,” except:
  3. Instead of using 1 cup of water or milk as the directions suggest, use 1 cup of half-and-half.
  4. Mix everything together in a bowl with a whisk, but don’t over-mix. As soon as everything is blended together, STOP mixing! (Credit goes to Alton Brown for this tip).
  5. Cook in a pan on medium-low heat with a little olive oil.

That’s it! For the price of one egg, 2 tbsp. butter, a $0.65 box of batter mix, and a cup of half-and-half, you can make pancakes that actually taste substantially better than your run-of-the-mill Bisquick hotcakes. One box of “JIFFY” will yield enough pancakes for two people, on average.

Yours for the low-low price of $0.65!

Recipe: Charlie’s Black-Eyed Peas

Published
by
Charlie
on January 2, 2010
in Recipes and The more you know...
. 0 Comments

While it won’t do you readers any good at this point, some of you may know that eating black-eyed peas on New Year’s Day is said to give you good luck for the remainder of the year. Here’s my freshly-developed and delicious recipe for a New Year’s delicacy:

Charlie’s Black-Eyed Peas

Ingredients:

  • 1 Can black eyed peas
  • 4 Strips bacon
  • 1 Clove garlic
  • 1 Stalk celery
  • 1/2 Green bell pepper
  • 100% pure maple syrup
  • Crushed red pepper (dried)
  • Black pepper

Directions:

  1. Cook bacon strips in cast iron (preferred) pan using low heat until moderately crispy. While keeping an eye on the bacon, continue to Step 2. Set bacon and resulting grease aside. Do not discard grease!
  2. Gather garlic clove, celery stalk, and bell pepper. Finely chop all three ingredients.
  3. Empty black eyed peas into a medium saucepan. Add chopped garlic, celery, and bell pepper. Break each strip of bacon into 3-4 pieces. Add bacon to saucepan.
  4. Add a few teaspoons of bacon grease from the frying pan to the saucepan with the black eyed peas.
  5. Add maple syrup to saucepan to taste. I would recommend a few tablespoons — but don’t over do it.
  6. Add a few shakes of black pepper and crushed red pepper to taste.
  7. Stir well and simmer on low heat for about 30 minutes, stirring every 5-10 minutes.
  8. Enjoy!