Digital Choke Daynotes

 Monday, January 24, 2005       mail    link   the story

Hmm...some catching up to do.

Let's start with the DVR thing. As you may recall, I'm contemplating getting a DVR (DirectTV TiVo) at home. Just about any DVR has two inputs to connect to the satellite disk. So, in order to allow for recording one show while watching another (or to record two shows), you need to have two physical cables from the satellite dish. My house, although pre-wired for TV's in most rooms, only has one cable connector at each location. So I would need to run another wire from the dish to the TV in the family room. Since my house is two-story without basement (built on a concrete slab), the only option would be to run a cable on the outside of the house, poke a hole in the wall, etc. I'm not really exited about doing that to my exterior stucco, not to mention the 'look' of a cable wandering down the exterior of the house.

So, I figured that there should be some sort of 'splitter' that would split the satellite signal. Stands to reason, eh? But, as usual, things are not that simple.

One of my "loyal readers" ("Jerry M"), was kind enough to take the time to educate me a bit on how satellite signals work.

A disk has a transponder that points to a satellite. DirecTV has two sats in the sky, one for even-numbered channels, and one for odd-numbered channels. So, most dishes have two transponders. The receiver has circuitry that selects the appropriate transponder depending on the channel you are tuning. So channel 400 is on the "even" transponder, and switching to channel 401 switches the incoming signal to the "odd" transponder.

Now if you want to have sat TV in more than one room, you have a problem. If you hook each receiver to just one of the transponders, then one receiver will get the 'even' channels, and one will get the 'odd' channels. Not good.

So a device called a 'multi-switch' is installed between the dish and the receivers, usually in that box on the outside of your house labeled "cable/TV". That's where the individual cables from each room are terminated.

The multi-switch's job is to let more than one device (receiver) connect to either transponder, and can allow both receivers to tune to channel 400 at the same time. Each receiver still only gets one cable signal, but can access either transponder.

Since I have two receivers, there is a multi-switch installed. But still only one physical cable going to each receiver location.

My theory (now that I understand what's going on -- and assuming that I actually know what is going on), is that I should be able to 'cascade' a multi-switch, putting it at the cable connection in the family room. In fact, one of the TiVo discussion forums I found over the weekend said that one installer actually got that to work, much to the surprise of the customer (who was a bit geeky).

So, my current plan is to go ahead with the DVR order. In fact, Saturday I did just that. For current customers, the charge for a DVR is $99. For new customers, you can get it for $49. Since I am basically cheap, I wanted it for $49. The customer service rep (CSR) initially quoted me the $99 price. When I asked about the $49 price, he said that was available for new customers only. I responded that $99 was too much, when I could change service to DISH Network and get the better price. The CSR consulted with his boss, and got the $49 price approved. (It would seem that they want to reduce the 'churn', or loss of existing customers. In fact, DirecTV, like many, has a 'retention' group whose job it is to convince customers to stay, rather than leave. In this case, it was profitable to threaten to leave.)

So the DVR guy is coming on Wednesday. And we will see if he/she is smart enough to figure out a way to get both of the DVR inputs to work with one physical cable.

Or if I'm completely wrong about the whole thing.

Another project we're thinking about is replacing the office computer. It doesn't get used much, mostly for paying bills, doing the taxes, and some web surfing. I use the laptop a lot in the evenings and weekends, but the desktop system doesn't get much use.

That computer is many years old (at least five), and while it's been working just fine, it's probably time to replace it. So I've been doing a bit of research for the best way to do it.

One of the options is to buy a pre-configured name-brand system from one of the local computer stores (or mail order). I've bought a couple of eMachines for the kids over the past couple of years, and they are working out OK. The advantage of those systems is that everything is working when you open the box -- and if something breaks, you can get it replaced.

Then there is the home-built system. I can do that easily, in fact, the current system was mostly home-built. It was a generic 'white-box', and I stuffed some more memory in it, a big hard drive, and then installed the operating system and all the applications software. The result is a customized system without all the extra junk that you get on a pre-built/branded system.

So my other alternative is to build my own. Last time I looked at that market, it didn't cost much more for a pre-built system. Sure, it took a bit of time to uninstall all the extra stuff, and install my preferred software, but once I was done, everything worked.

This weekend we went to a few places to check out systems. The system I really want is a bit high-end; the theory is that such as system would be used to scan and catalogue all the pictures we have collected throughout the years, and then burn them to a CD (or DVD). The name-brand systems look like they will cost around $900 or more. But perhaps I can put together a system with the same capabilities but at a much cheaper cost.

In the course of checking out systems, we went to the local Circuit City. And found a DVD recorder in the 'closeout' bin that was only $73. Since the same system with a box was about $150 there, we decided to grab the closeout version. The plan for that is to hook it up to our VHS system, and transfer some family videos to DVDs. We'll see how that works out.

 Tuesday, January 25, 2005       mail    link   the story

I've learned a bit more about satellite signals the past couple of days, with some help from the Tivo forum, and some messages from Jerry M. Yesterday's post was almost correct.

But I think that I'll wait to summarize things until after the installer comes tomorrow. Then we'll try to figure out the "rest of the story".

In the meantime, I note that we can post a small win in the spam war. From MSNBC today:

"ATLANTA - Two members of an alleged spamming ring paid Earthlink an undisclosed amount to settle a lawsuit, agreeing also to stop sending unsolicited e-mail, the Internet service provider said.

"The two, Damon DeCrescenzo and David Burstyn, were sued last year by Atlanta-based EarthLink, which claimed they were part of a multi-state spamming operation that spewed more than 250 million illegal e-mails.

"DeCrescenzo had been ranked one of the world's top spammers by the SpamHaus Project, a nonprofit that monitors spam. The settlement is pending before the U.S. District Court in Atlanta."

So, one down. But spammers are like roaches; there are always more hiding and scurrying around. Spamming is quite profitable: low costs, high returns. Witness this next item from "The Register"

"A teenage boy described as "an angel" by his grandmother has been arrested and bailed amid allegations that he netted £20,000 (about
US$37,000) flogging non-existent gear from his website.

"The l4 year-old, who cannot be named for legal reasons, allegedly ran an ecommerce operation from his bedroom at his gran's house. He offered cheap plasma TVs for sale but never sent any out, according to the Mirror.

"By the time the police had tracked down the boy his operation was so successful that he had rented an office and even hired staff.

"The teenage boy, from Chiswick, London, was arrested on fraud and deception charges and bailed until April.

"His gran told the newspaper: "He is an angel and never been in trouble. I'm going to kill him when I get hold of him."

...from which we might conclude that although you can scam the public, you better not mess with your grandmother.

 Thursday, January 27, 2005       mail    link   the story

DVR's rock!

I stayed home yesterday to chaperone the guys from the alarm company and the DirecTV installer. The bill from the alarm company was larger, but one time. The bill from DirecTV will only be an additional $5/month. But both were worth it.

I've been having an intermittent problem with false alarms from the house alarm system. One happened even when the alarm wasn't activated. Each one would set off the exterior alarm, which is quite loud.

So the alarm guy came out to check out the whole system. He found a weak backup battery in the master control box. Turns out they last for about 4-5 years. Mine was only weak, not dead, but he said that a weak battery can cause intermittent problems. He also checked the resistance on all of the alarm wiring, and found one alarm switch that was defective, which he replaced. All the others checked out OK. After his 1 1/2 hour visit, and some parts, the total came out to about $230. But a worthwhile expenditure.

While he was there, the local DirecTV contractor came and installed my new Phillips DVR. It uses the TiVo service, and is basically a satellite tuner with a hard drive installed. The TiVo system runs on Linux, and there is quite a lot of TiVo hackers out there. I've got the unit that holds about 70 hours of programming, but you can purchase kits that include larger hard drives to expand that amount of time. Of course, adding the kit voids the warranty.

As you might recall, cabling was a bit of an issue at my house. The house is about five years old, with single-cable coax run to most of the rooms. The other end of the coax goes to the usual metal box on the outside of the house. Since I only have two satellite receivers, then those two coax cables are connected directly to the satellite, which has a built-in mutli-switch.

The multi-switch is used to allow the receivers to connect to the appropriate transponder on the satellite, depending on the channel you select. Without the multi-switch, one coax cable connected to one transponder would only give you access to the satellite channels on that transponder. The DirecTV channels are on different satellites, and therefore satellite transponders.

The DVR has the ability to tune to two different channels at the same time. It's like it has two receivers in the same box. Each receiver needs a different connection to the satellite. So the DVR receiver needs two coax inputs. I've only got one coax cable going to the spot where the DVR lives.

As we've learned, there is no magic box that can combine two coax signals from the satellite dish into one cable and then split the signal back into two cables needed for the back of the DVR. Well, actually there is something stacker/destacker box that will do that, but they cost about $200+. And, although some people have 'cascaded' multiple multiswitches, my installer says that that will usually burn out a multi-switch in a couple of months.

So I also though (prior to the installer's arrival) that perhaps I'd get them to run a new set of cables (actually, a 2-in-one or 4-in-one) cable along the eaves and downspout into the family room. (Recall that I have a two-story stucco house, no basement, and the family room is on the first floor.) I thought that might be useful if I get HDTV later on. But any HDTV upgrade will require new satellite boxes, and installation of those boxes usually come with free cabling, and I didn't know when that would happen.

You'll recall (if you are still awake or care after all of this) that the family room and office (downstairs bedroom) are next to each other. The office has a pre-wired coax cable on the same wall as the coax cable for the TV. The TV is in a small alcove, and there is only a very short distance through the wall to the alcove's back wall. After much consideration (most of it before the installer arrived), I figured that snitching the cable connection from the office and using it for the DVR would be best. It's not likely that I will need a TV in the office.

So the installer got out his trusty drill, and drilled through the office coax box through the wall stud and out the other side (the side wall of the TV alcove). He put the appropriate connectors on the end of the cable, and mounted it to a surface-mount coax cover plate. Then back to the 'home' box (that's where all the coax cables come from, right under where the dish is located) to connect up that cable.

The new DVR goes in, the old receiver moves upstairs, that old receiver moves out to the garage, and the new DVR is configured for the satellite. I ran a temporary phone extension cable across the floor for that programming process (the DVR needs a phone connection full-time, theoretically, although you can get away with not having one all the time, just connect it when the DVR complains that it's past time for an update).

And now I have a working DVR. It actually didn't take as long to install as it did to describe the whole process.

I spent most of the rest of the day playing around with the features of the DVR. I set up some 'favorites' to always record, and then set up to watch "West Wing" while "Alias" was recorded. I watched "West Wing" in real time, then watched "Alias" on my own personal "Rick Delay" time, skipping through the commercials so the one hour show only took about 45 minutes. And even during "West Wing", I used the "pause" button to pause the live show when the phone rang (or when Pam asked me a question).

Cool stuff. DVR is highly recommended.

This weekend I have a project to do. (It's interesting that when you move into a slightly-used house -- ours was about 2 years old, fully landscaped, etc -- there's not much to do on a Saturday. At the old place out in the 'country', I'd spend about 4 hours each Saturday just moving the lawn.) I'm going to stop by Lowe's tonight to pick up some flat phone cable, and run that from the office phone jack to the back of the TV alcove. I could use a wireless phone extension, but that costs about $75. I can run the flat phone cable on top of the baseboard. There is only a small area where it will be visible in the office, so not a big deal.

The other project is to take the big Ford F-250 truck (2003, big diesel V-8, extra cab, low miles) to the local college parking lot where they have a fully hosted car/truck/boat/RV sale each weekend. It's only $25 to get a spot, with a discount for multiple weekends (some free, I think). They watch over the lot, escort potential buyers with your keys, provide all the paperwork, etc. If you want a test drive, they will call the seller who will meet you there. They have a large number of cars each weekend, and if the weather stays mostly dry, there will be lots of people there.

On a security note: The anti-virus guys are reporting that the latest "Bagel" virus email is getting a bit widespread. McAfee rates it as a 'medium' level threat (most are classified as 'low' level). They have released a new virus file update today (Thurs) to block it. (They normally release updates on Wed, so this is an indication of prevalence). I suspect that the other AV vendors are also doing extra updates.

The usual rules apply: update, antivirus, firewall, anti-spyware. All in the "Simple Steps" report.

 Friday, January 28, 2005       mail    link   the story

Had more fun with the DVR last night. Pam watched "Dr Phil" (it's usually a good idea to let you wife use the remote occasionally) while I did some church work on the computer.

And I was thinking about "Things You Could Build to Make a Million Dollars". Here's my list ... got any ideas? I've compiled this list over the years. All ideas are free for the asking. If you build one, just send me a free one.

• A fake home alarm pad. It would connect to your doorbell circuit for power. Has a numeric pad, a 'doorbell' button, and a red and green LED. The red light would always be on. (Actually, the folks at "Cyberguys" has a similar device.) I actually bought the parts for this, but never got around to building one.
• A shareware library on floppy. This idea is quite old; I first thought of it back in 1985, I think. I actually spent some time putting together a 'best of shareware' floppy disk. I wasn't fast enough in marketing it, though. A few months later saw the steady increase of shareware vendors advertising in all the computer magazines. Now you can get all that software at places like download.com.
• A fake car alarm. This would plug into the lighter socket in your car. It would have a blinking red LED (low current, so it wouldn't drain your battery). The idea was that it would serve as a deterrent; if the potential thief saw the blinking red light, perhaps they would pass on by.
• How about a cell phone with a earphone/microphone that zips out of the phone case. Sort of like those key chain things with a retractable wire. Since it would be built into the phone, you wouldn't have to carry around a separate cord. It would help prevent shoulder aches from holding the phone up to your ear. And you could be one of those people that talk to themselves as they walk down the street. (Don't get me started on people with annoying phone ring tones and exuberant talking while on their cell phone.)

You got any ideas that you want to share?

On the email front, one of the techniques that the 'phishers' use to get their victims is the use of an "on-mouse-over" command in their message. That can display a message on the browser's status bar of an address other than the one that you'll get to when you click on the link. (The phishing report I did for Dr. Pournelle talks about that technique.)

Since it is often used by phishermen, many email filters are set to block messages with the 'on mouseover' command. It can catch a lot of phishing messages. But some businesses and email newsletters are using that technique. They probably don't realize that their messages are being blocked because of that technique. It's not really necessary in an email. If you are using that technique, perhaps you should think of the chance that your readers aren't getting your messages.

And, it's Friday, at last. Rainy here today, but the weather dweebs are guessing that it will be partly cloudy for the weekend. So the truck will get to the auto swap early tomorrow morning. And I've got to run the phone cable to the DVR.

Hope your weekend is enjoyable.

 Saturday, January 29, 2005       mail    link   the story

Hey, John Dominik -- perhaps you ought to plan ahead for this celebration in your state:

From Maine's Windjammer Days to California's Mother Lode Fair, summer celebrations across this great land recall the historic roots of the regions in which they take place. But a Minnesota town's tip o' the historical hat to its rowdy past has some current residents hot under the collar. Maybe it's the name of the festival: Gilbert Whorehouse Days. "The damage has been done. This is not a family-oriented activity," fumed one Gilbert resident, who's not pleased by the reference to the city's Prohibition-era past as a hub for prostitution and gambling. While the fest won't feature actual working girls, activities will include a car show, an antique fair and a bank robbery re-enactment. Book your flights now. (from Wired).

Got the truck over to the auto swap this morning. But it was sure cold (relatively speaking for this area) -- frost on the windows, temps in the mid-30's. Lots of cars and trucks over there. And a nice mostly sunny day (but cool), which should allow for more people to stop on by.

Back at home, I wired the phone line to the DVR. Although not required for daily use, the DVR does need to be connected to 'phone home' regularly. A small hole in the wall, a stiff wire, and wiring of the phone jack was all it took. I found some baseboard phone clips to use for the phone wire; they worked out pretty well. Tested the phone connection, and got the latest update of whatever the DVR wanted.

Still having fun with the DVR. I'm building the list of things to record, and enjoying the ability to skip through the commercials. Good toy for this 'geek potato'.