Unthinkability

I’m a pencil and paper kind of guy.  I like scribbling and drawing arrows on dead trees.  I like doodling on napkins and drawing stick figures.  That’s just the way I roll.

As I was noodling around with a Window Phone 7 app idea, I realized that I needed a visual canvas on which to explore my genius. The Design Templates for Window 7 is an excellent start, and there are some other great resources available from the official developer site, but I needed some sheets with blank mockup screens… so I made some. Read on to view and download the files…

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Geek dad.  Must over-complicate!  They call me… Complexitor!

When I saw a video of Sterling Johnson blowing enormous bubbles, and I knew at that very moment what I wanted to do when I retire.  Since I will probably never actually retire, I decided to just get this little itch out of the way right now.  No time like the present, and all things are possible with the vast compendium of knowledge called… the interwebs.  Read on about the details!

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The cable companies would like you to believe that the only way to get moving pictures on your wall-mounted glass lamp is to connect to their media faucet.  Thankfully, the folks that sell those old wire contraptions called “antennas” have joined forces to provide tools to break free.  One such tool is AntennaWeb.  I recently used it to line up my new Hoverman antenna.  It is a marvel of “web 2.0” meets “free as in beer.”

While the tool is ridiculously-awesome, I do have an important tip for using it –

Lie about obstructions and height to see ALL stations.

If you tell the truth, the system will faithfully only show you the stations that you might get with rabbit ears.  You really want to see ALL of the stations that you could get if you bought/built an Frankentenna.  So, you should say “no” obstructions, and that your antenna height is absurdly high, like 200 feet.

Doing so will cause the website to show you vectors and distances to all stations in the area.  You can then dial the exaggerations back a bit to see more-realistic estimates of reception.

The AntennaWeb website will give you a detailed listing of stations, channel numbers, distance, compass direction, and the recommended antenna type for each station.  You can even click “View Street Level Map” to see a Google map with directional markers and a legend for each station.  It is truly a smile-making tool.

If you’re on the fringe, you will likely see that most/all of your local TV stations’ transmitters are grouped together in one area so that one directional antenna will cover them all.

Good luck with your OTA TV endeavors, and let me know how you’re doing in the comments!

The old “coat hanger Hoverman” served us well this past winter and early spring, but it just couldn’t cut through the leaves on our lush Illinois oak trees this summer.  Some of our TV stations were getting jittery with bad tiling, and they finally became unwatchable.  Upon further inspection of the antenna, I noticed that the heavy-gauge wire had also become ‘kinda’ loose at their junctions, and that probably contributed to the poor reception.  It was time for an upgrade!

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Had a great question from one of our customers:

“Should I update my tablet computers even though they seem to be running OK?” 

It sounds simple on the surface but, as usual, there are some nuances that deserve attention.

There are four kinds of updates:

1. "Windows Update" updates,
2. Software Vendor application updates,
3. hardware manufacturer updates,
4. BIOS updates

Here is the rundown and rules for each:

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And now it’s time to answer our viewer mail:

Hi Scott,

I was wondering if I could get some A/V system advice from you?  We are putting an addition on our house and will have some walls and ceilings opened up so I was looking at upgrading/adding to our system while it has easier access. 

The big question I have is what wiring to run so we are set up for a number of years in the future.  Do I want to run coax, cat5 and HDMI everywhere or is that overkill?  My ultimate goal would be to set up a distribution system to share signals through most of the house. 

Any help you can offer would be greatly appreciated.  If you need more details let me know.

Hi [name withheld],

Ask for advice, and you shall receive it until you cry for mercy.

Yes, you should do a "home run" distribution, whereby each/all of your cables run back to a common point.  Fancier configurations (i.e. trunk & branch, loop-through, etc.) are only required for large facilities and long distances, or for people in small facilities who enjoy making things ridiculously over-complicated.  "Home Run" distributions offer greater flexibility and are easy to troubleshoot. 

(MUCH more advice after the jump…)

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All systems green.  TV is in summer re-runs.  Still not missing cable TV.  Looking for our next TV series on DVD or Netflix Streaming to consume; perhaps Dollhouse.  You have been updated.  That is all.

Our bill used to be $55.63 a month.  It is now $62.52 a month.  Where does this gradual rate increase end?

If you look at our Vonage bill history over the past 16 months, you can see a gradual increase in our monthly costs.  Up $0.55, up another $2.95, (then down 30 cents), then up $0.78, and up another $0.52, and up another whopping $2.51. 

The end result is: we now pay $7 more per month than we did when we started. That works out to more than $80/year, or a 12.5% increase in just over a year.

Old Bill Feb 2009	New Bill May 2010

What’s worse: The base product that we use costs $39.99.  Vonage piles on another $22.65 in ‘taxes and fees’ making the bill $62.52 a month.  The ‘taxes and fees’ now represent 36% of the bill.  That’s worse than this blogger’s 29%.  While there are some real increases as in the “State Communications Service Tax", they also now pre-charge me for unlimited 411 Information calls (built into the “Information Services Fee”).   I didn’t want 411 services.  I don’t want to pay for it, but Vonage has denied me that choice.  Vonage also raised their fees to offset their legal costs.  I have no reason to believe that they are not also including other revenue-generating fees in their ambiguously-named line items like “Regulatory Compliance and Intellectual Property Fee.”

Look, it’s not our fault that you had legal trouble.  We signed on at a fixed rate plus whatever variable government taxes might exist now or in the future.  If you incur new costs or need more revenue, raise you rates for new customers; Don’t pass your troubles on to your existing customers in the form of ancillary line items on an invoice in hopes that no one will notice.  Some of what you are charging us in the ancillary fees is just ‘the cost of doing business’ and your company should be eating it. 

I am concerned about these seemingly-endless rate increases.  I need to get off of this burning plane.  I’m ready to jump out and I’m looking around for the ripcord, and oh-my-god this parachute is really a knapsack!  – Vonage numbers are not always “portable” to your new phone provider depending upon which local exchange the prefix belongs in, but Vonage says that they will comply with the FCC regulations. You can try this process.

If you are considering dropping Vonage, be sure to check out Tom Keating’s article on his experience cancelling his Vonage service.  I’ve been through it once before, too, and I hope it is not nearly as painful as the first time.

So far, saved $180 and the TV signal is always in high-def.  Been watching South Park directly from www.southparkstudios.com, and the kids have recently gotten hooked on MythBusters on Netflix Streaming.  I recently introduced my wife to Firefly (and have been prepping her for the disappointment of only having 14 episodes), and I’m excited to watch Serenity with fresh eyes.

Our entertainment is a la carte, with new TV shows recorded to the central DVR for free, new movies costing $1 from RedBox, and ‘all-you-can-eat’ old movies and TV series costing $9 a month.  Cable TV providers must know what is coming next, because they have been converting themselves into telecomm companies. 

We really, really do not miss cable TV one bit.  Now, if we could just get some more competition in the Internet Provider space, we’d be all set.

I channeled the spirit of comedian Bill Hicks last night and jotted this down:

The answer to world peace is to give everyone in the world iPhones and Twitter? Really? Maybe it would help, but not in the way you’d expect. Imagine- In between your posts about Qdoba, Iron Man 2, and the new KFC all-meat double-down sandwhich would be tweets like:

• OMG Im like so totally hungry right now #actuallystarving
• Sure wish crops would grow in this f***ing sand!
• ROdirtFL
• Typing this with my feet #hatelandmines