Moving Walkway

In order to distribute my TiVO signal throughout the house I have a ChannelVision modulator. To get this modulated signal to co-exist with my cable TV service, I have a ChannelVision powered amplifier (CVT-2/8PIA II).

Everything worked great for many years. About 6 months ago, the signal on the TVs (not just the “TiVO channel” but all channels) got weak. It took me a while, but after switching cables and fiddling with just about everything, I noticed that the dimmer the power light was, the weaker the signal. I put a volt meter on the power supply and it looked ok.

I eventually called ChannelVision and explained the situation. It clearly wasn’t under the two year warrantee, but I was really looking for suggestions. The best I came up with was that to replace the power supply would be a cheaper attempt than the whole unit. At this point the nice guy at ChannelVision took all of my information and sent me a replacement power supply.

It came yesterday and BINGO… perfect picture! So it was the power supply. And thanks to the nice folks at ChannelVision it cost me nothing

[tags]channelvision, splitter, modulator[/tags]

So at around 5:45 tonight my cell phone stopped working. While the phone appears to work fine, I can’t make any calls (or use data). It has been an hour, and the whole trip from the office to home (15 miles) and all I get on my phone is the “Emergency calls only” or SOS symbol.

Even tried my old RAZR. Cursed. Guess I should have stopped to get the iPhone on the ride home. It was a sign. I’m sure all the new iPhones will fire right up. Perhaps it is an evil plot… block all non-iPhones so that all iPhone people are happy and don’t say negative things about Apple or AT&T.

[tags]iphone, att[/tags]

I fear the iPhone launch will be painful.  Not because I’ll be standing in line waiting to get one in Clarendon (which is not inside) and a thunderstorm hits.  No, I fear the traffic jam.  Not the traffic jam getting to the mall, but the EDGE network jam.

AT&T’s network has been called out as the weak spot in the offering.  I’m on that network with my new Blackberry Curve.  When 1-2 million people jump on with their new iPhone, do you think they are going to be trying out the Intenet features over the air?  Yep.  And do you think they will do it a lot in the beginning, especially this weekend and holiday as they play and show their friends?  Yep.

So my already slow web browsing will be painfully slow as millions more people play with their new toy on “my” network.

Maybe I’ll turn off my phone and go outside and play some ball.

My iPhone Review:

“I love Steve. I love Apple. I’m even open to spending more on a phone than a computer, but AT&T? The slowness of its data network is only exceeded by its lack of customer service. Can I just buy an iPhone to use as a PDA to impress my friends, listen to music, watch video, and access the Internet via Wifi while not having anything to do with AT&T? Can you hear me now?”

While I think all of the phone features are neat, and I would love to have an iPhone, I REALLY want a widescreen iPod, and the WiFi w/Web browser would be icing on the cake (for example: the times I’m watching TV and want to look up something simple like an actor’s name).

(Via Bona tempora volvantur–by Guy Kawasaki.)

[tags]iphone, apple, ipod[/tags]

Macs ‘snap-crackle-pop’ after 10.4.10 update: “Apple’s update to Mac OS X 10.4.10 last week is driving some users crazy from a new popping sound.”

I’ve been bugged by this popping. In fact this morning I was just about to unplug all of my USB devices to see if it was caused by some short or electrical interference of one of the many devices connected to my Mac Mini.

Reading this article just saved me a hour of wasted time (and further frustration). Now hopefully a fix will be on its way.

(Via InfoWorld.)

[tags]apple, audio, problem[/tags]

This is the kind of article I would have expected to come out of Robert Cringely.

Scott Adams has an idea and, unless I’m missing the sarcasm, I think he is serious about and it is a good one. Ride sharing made easy (and practical) through the use of technology. It is a little mashup betwene the Zipcar idea and a taxi. It doesn’t actually demand that anyone change what they do or own, and even has an economic marketplace component. Perhaps the only challenge is getting some critical mass, but I’m sure there are some ways to jump start the idea. For example, in the DC area, you could start it at the Pentagon where the “slug line” is well established. You could probably also prime the pump around some college campuses.

On a side note, I’m a firm believer in his problem solving process of “sitting and thinking about stuff.â€? While I don’t actually practice the “sit” part. I prefer any of the following activities to allow my mind to do some background processing and solutions to pop out:

• Standing in a shower
• Mowing the lawn
• Shooting baskets (by myself)
• Playing golf (by myself, and only walking)
• Waiting in an airport for a flight (without my computer on)

Jumpbox looks interesting. It takes the “certified opensource” concept from the likes of SourceLabs to the next level. How much easier could setting something up be than to download a virtual image… a virtual appliance.

But my question is “how will the upgrade happen?” This is the single most challenging part of IT right now… versioning and upgrades. I’m going to play around with this a bit at night and see how it flies over the next month or so. Which one will I start with? SVN and TRAC. I did say versioning was important didn’t I?

ps. I know the value of the likes of SourceLabs is the support part. But I got the value from a prebuilt bundle of things

[tags]subversion, development, virtualization, opensource[/tags]

I have some backup schemes here in the house, but not enough. Instead of fixing the local options, I have decided to do the on-line thing. Looking around, I’m going to start with Mozy. We’ll see if the free 2GB works. If it does, I’ll try the unlimited. I’m stating there because it looks affordable and it has a Mac client.

The Mac client was the main reason I didn’t start with MediaMax.

JungleDisk is something I’ll look at before a final decision.

Of course, Mac.com could be an option if they ever make it a reasonable value prop. The cost for the service you get is totally out of line these days. I think Steve Jobs said they would be doing some great things in the near future. Of course, cross platform is important.

Chris Pirillo brought this back to the front burner on his recent live show.

[tags]backup, mac, on-line, pirillo[/tags]

At my graduation there was a speaker. Well, actually there were a lot of speakers since so many people got honorary degrees, but there was one “keynote” speaker. I don’t remember a lot from it, but I do remember the theme and key takeaway… Edit.

The idea was that until you have to print it or turn it in, keep editing. He was from the New York Times and this was 1990, so there was a definite “publish date” associated with his narrative, but his point was don’t stop editing. Don’t stop improving it. Keep editing.

This has stuck with me for many years. Keep editing. Obviously the web allows for a more continual editing and evolution of an idea, story, or just about anything. But it applies to everything, including your career and your life. Don’t be satisfied with what you have, it CAN be better, so make it better… Edit.

After 17 years, and recently talking about this in a training class, I finally decided to figure out the name of the person I always referred to as “some guy from the New York Times.” Turns out it was William Safire. (wikipedia entry)

I live in Alexandria, VA and the new Wilson bridge was opened in the last year. While looking for information on how pile drivers worked after seeing James Duncan Davidson post a picture of one in action, I stumbled upon a presentation and report by the makers of the hammer, Vulcan Hammer, used to drive the piles needed for the Wilson bridge. If I did the math right, over a one year period, it took on the order of 150 million blows to set the piles to support the bridge…. that is a lot of banging going on.

Thankfully I live a few miles from the bridge