Ok, so I’ve had satellite service for about 9 years on an off. In between satellite (moving from town to town etc) I’ve used cable more than once, and have never been satisfied with the quality of service. I just tried again. I had cable connected the first week of September, and I’m already so fed up with it that I’m pretty sure I’m going back to satellite this week.

Reasons I decided to try cable again:
1. The $25 per month (16 months $400 total) “Ditch the Dish” program.
2. Comcast has no contract, so I could try it, and dump it when I want.
3. Cannot get HDTV satellite service. I bought a High Definition TV and I cannot get a clear view of the sky in the right direction to use the HDTV satellite.
4. My satellite Tivo receiver is having a problem with the modem (I bought a network card that works pretty well) so I thought that with my Tivo headed south it would be a good deal to get the cable DVR for $5 per month.
5. Comcast has taken over here in the East Point, GA area (used to be AT&T and they were horrible), and I thought I’d give them a try.
6. I missed having the local East Point government channel.
7. The video on demand feature Comcast has locally is very promising.

What I got:
1. I picked up the Motorola HD DVR receiver that Comcast is using.
2. Within the last few years they replaced every bit of cable in the area, and replaced all the equipment in their system for digital cable.
3. Brand new wiring all the way from the pole to my set-top box.

Why I’m going back:
1. Receiver will not let me watch a program while I record another one. With the DirecTV I could record two different shows at the same time, and could even watch another pre-recorded show while recording the other two.
2. The Cable DVR is essentially a VCR, I have to tell it every single program to record. Tivo service is FAR SUPERIOR when it comes to selecting shows (season pass, wishlist, etc).
3. The cable DVR doesn’t have the ease of use of the Tivo. The Tivo has excellent look and feel, along with convenient features (the only thing the cable box had that I’d like on the Tivo is a % full counter for the hard drive).
4. Tivo/DirecTV menus are far superior. DirecTV lets you see more of the program guide, instead of taking up 40% of your guide screen with advertising as Comcast does.
5. The channel changing on the Cable DVR is horribly slow.
6. DVR digitizes everything it as you are watching it. Since all the low channels are analog (noisy) the DVR makes the picture quality on them visibly worse. Even without the DVR the picture on the low channels is not nearly as clear as on the satellite.
7. The quality on the analog channels (about 70 of the channels) is poor (the DVR makes them even worse).

Notes:
1. I’ve never had to repoint my dish. I’ve had 3 different dishes at three different houses, and have never had to repoint a dish. I just thought I would mention it since the commercial I saw today claimed there were people who had to constantly repoint their dishes.
2. When satellite goes out in a storm it is usually only for a minute or two, so it’s not nearly the problem the cable company plays it up to be. Cable on the other hand has been terrible. The HDTV that I’m paying extra for goes out regularly. Even when the HDTV is working breakups in audio and video are very common. I would venture to say that I am yet to see a complete hour go by without the video or audio skipping or hanging on HDTV. I’ve had the cable less than a month, and I have already lost all the digital channels twice for more than 45 minutes (per the pre-recorded message these were wide area outages so it wasn’t just my neighborhood). With Tivo on the satellite I have over a hundred hours of captured video (I’ve greatly expanded storage on the drive) and only a couple of shows show lost satellite signal with the longest gap being about 5 minutes.
3. Cost… The cable is more expensive. Even with the $25 a month off the regular price (ditch the dish special) the cable is more expensive (however I am paying $5 a month extra for HDTV on cable, but it is still more expensive).
4. In the Atlanta area DirecTV has all the local channels the cable company has, and the quality of the local channels is better on the satellite dish. I will however miss the local Government channel (they don’t carry it on the dish).
5. When it is working the HDTV is beautiful, at least on Discovery and the INHD channel. The networks HD quality is not nearly as good.
6. In the last two weeks I’ve seen 4 football games where one or more of the the HD cameras is on the fritz, causing jittering intermittent signal whenever that specific camera angle is selected (but they still use it all game, makes me nuts, I guess they don’t see it at the switcher, or maybe the switcher is bad and they keep moving it from game to game… dunno).
7. Video quality on the satellite is not as good as it was 8 years ago, but it is still much better than the quality I received from Comcast cable (including the digital channels). Only Comcast’s HDTV channels looked better.
8. Video on demand works very well. I love the feature. Every show I saw was commercial free (except a small Chevy commercial at the beginning of the show). There aren’t very many shows to choose from, but I expect this will improve.

Ok, just a quick bit of information on Windows license details (I would prefer everyone buy Linux, but sometimes you have to feed the beast). These are as I understand them, and your mileage may vary….

If you purchase the retail version of Windows the software is yours and you can move it from machine to machine as you upgrade etc. You cannot have it on two machines at one time, but you can take it with you.

If you purchase the OEM version at your local computer store (why not it’s cheaper eh?) that software is only licensed for the first motherboard you install it on. If you replace your motherboard to get the next latest and greatest features, or maybe your motherboard just died and you had to replace it with another one, you no longer own a license for Windows. I don’t know of Microsoft enforcing this, but since Windows XP has the capability, so I wouldn’t think it’s too far down the road. This is also what happens with many of the retail computer systems. When you buy the system it has a OS disk with the system, but it will not install on that system if you replace the motherboard with another one. It will also not install on another computer if the original one dies. I’m not sure about academic licenses, but if I find any information on them I will post it here.

Here is one of my favorite online comics. I’m posting it more as a reminder to me, so I will remember to check it more often.

The language is a bit over the edge for sensitive folks.

I believe the chronology is bottom to top, right to left.

Enjoy…

Ok, this email is currently spreading like wildfire. Naturally I have a few items to point out. ;-)

1. If you watch the news, understand human nature, and have ever been in the “Third World” much less to the mid-east, the letter does seem completely plausible (I have been in countries that had much less terrorist activity where I would not be allowed to leave the hotel without armed security escort). However, if you meet all the above criteria, you had probably already assessed that the environment described in the letter would not be out of line as being called “The current state of affairs” before the letter was made public.
2. I haven’t been able to find the Wall Street Journal’s confirmation of authenticity anywhere except this site, can anyone else find it?
3. Regardless, of all other factors, this is a personal letter. Even though the letter may be true, and may be the current state of affairs in Iraq, it must still be treated as subjective opinion. Remember, an email leaked email from a Wall Street Journal reporter is measured to the same standard for accuracy, objectivity, and lack of conjecture any personal email you send to your friends. Which is none. Even fair and balanced reporters have opinion, and can have political affiliation, which is appropriate. This is very well suited in private letters, however, none of this could be associated with the reputation and creditability of the Wall Street Journal, since they would not print the information as news (maybe as editorial, or opinion). I’m only commenting on this item because, from the emails I’m receiving, many people seem to be making the mistake of accepting the opinion in the letter as truth if the factual items in the letter are truth.
4. Due to the convenient timing and mix of opinion and conjecture that almost perfectly match those at the center of the Democratic Parties campaign, this letter also sets off my political ploy alarm.
5. Links and some other reports/sources can be found here.

Presidency Outsourced

Washington DC – Congress today announced that the Office of President of the United States will be outsourced as of Sept.30th, the end of this fiscal year. The move will save $400K a year in salary, a record $521 billion in deficit expenditures and related overhead. “The cost savings will be quite significant” said Rep. Adam Smith (D – Wash) who, with the aid of the General Accounting Office has studied outsourcing of American jobs.

“We simply can no longer afford this level of outlay and remain
competitive in the world stage,” Smith said.

Mr. Bush was informed this morning that his office will be terminated. He will receive health coverage, expenses and salary until his final day of employment. After a two week waiting period, he will be eligible for $240 dollars a week unemployment insurance for 13 weeks.

Sanji Gurvinder Singh of Indus Teleservices, Mumbai, India will be assuming the Office of President of the United States as of Oct. 1.

Mr. Singh was born in the United States while his parents were here on student visas, thus making him eligible for the position. He will receive a salary of $320 a month but with no health coverage or other benefits. Due to the time difference between the US and India, Mr. Singh will be working primarily at night, when offices of the US Government will be open.

A congressional spokesperson noted that Mr. Singh has been given a ZZZscript tree to follow which will allow him to respond to most topics of concern.

“Additional savings will be realized as these scripting tools have been successfully used now and in the past and will enable Mr. Singh to provide an answer without having to fully understand the issue itself”, the spokesman said.

Since David and his friends don’t really know if he is a facist, a commie pinko, or just somewhere in the middle, I recomend one of my favorite little tests — The World’s Smallest Political Quiz

OK, so I have quite a bit of information that I’m always thinking “Man that might be useful to someone else one day, but I lack the dedication to sit down and edit my web page (or my old original web page)to archive the information for posterity. ;-)

Oh yea, I’ve been known to get on the soapbox from time to time. My liberal friends consider me a fascist. My conservative friends consider me a communist. I guess that makes me a Moderate (or since you have to affiliate yourself with a party to avoid confusing everyone) maybe a Libertarian.

I seem to have more than my share of nasty things to say about both of the major parties and their candidates, so there will probably be quite a bit of uninformed, irrational ranting on my part until the presidential election is over.

Enjoy…