Comment Re:Yes. (Score 1) 367
WD TV Live Plus and Netflix.ca do work as of two firmware revisions ago.
Just had Dora streaming for the little one an hour ago!
Comment Re:Who cares (Score 1) 560
Yeah, I'm going to have to call complete utter bullshit on that one. There isn't a UGLE recognized jurisdiction in this world that does any sacrificing of animals or humans, dead or alive. And I doubt any of the clandestine lodges (not real Freemasonry lodges, but ones that purport themselves to be) do either.
Comment Re:They've taken a leaf out of the UK's book (Score 1) 584
Actually. CB Radio is outlawed as well. I know, I have one and I feel like a rebel using it HAH!
In seriousness, the ONLY exemption to CB radio is (and I am paraphrasing here): Truckers and delivery vehicles *performing* their duties while on the clock, other highway maintenance agencies *performing* their duties while on the clock, and HAMS. As a normal person, unless I have an *valid* Amatuer Radio License, I cannot use my CB. (I don't have a valid HAM license).
In seriousness, the ONLY exemption to CB radio is (and I am paraphrasing here): Truckers and delivery vehicles *performing* their duties while on the clock, other highway maintenance agencies *performing* their duties while on the clock, and HAMS. As a normal person, unless I have an *valid* Amatuer Radio License, I cannot use my CB. (I don't have a valid HAM license).
Comment Re:There's no way they'll abuse this (Score 1) 570
No way! I was on the board at Friendship's installation last month of the new WM. I'm the WT go-to guy it would seem ;) Actually, having said that, there's a Friendship up in Sudbury, ON too. Could be either one I suppose. Crazy if it's the one in Pickering/Toronto... that would be a small world.
Instead of saying "District 3" I should have said "East District" - they redrew the boundaries a few years ago. I always forget. My bad.
Instead of saying "District 3" I should have said "East District" - they redrew the boundaries a few years ago. I always forget. My bad.
Comment Re:There's no way they'll abuse this (Score 1) 570
Toronto, Ontario, Canada - District 3 here. You?
Comment Re:There's no way they'll abuse this (Score 1) 570
Good to meet you in our travels, brother.
Comment Re:Not as simple as it sounds (Score 1) 334
Ok, here's my take as a Canadian trying to pickup American stations and Canadian ones as well (who just spent the better part of last night up on the frigging ladder in -20C weather trying to get his damn preamp going)...
Bowtie is the way to go. Channel Master 4221 for suburban/urban areas and 4228 if you're out farther. The latter is more directional and doesn't pickup the side lobes as well. I'm 35Km from downtown toronto (20 miles or so), and much farther from buffalo and rochester NY. With a 4221 I can aim just west of Buffalo and pickup nbc/abc/cbs in full HD glory. My side lobes pickup downtown toronto and rochester.
The poster who pointed out a silver sensor... no good for anyone outside say 15 miles or so. I got one as a freebie when I picked up my samsung hd converter (I only have an hd ready crt projection tv)... he gets... nothing on his brand new 6th generation atsc chipset tv. Well, not nothing, but very little. He gets some of the toronto stations and can barely pull in NBC from buffalo. I ended up gifting him my old 4221 clone for the superbowl, and now he gets most of the stations I get, but is still missing out on some toronto stations.
So, I can say from experience, that the bowtie is the way to go. Which one depends on how far you're trying to "reach" out into the ether.
I can pull in Fox, CBC and CTV with a frigging paper clip attached to my antenna port. The rest, need a better antenna and sometimes even a preamp like in my case. I even tried building a gray-hoverman, and while it was OK, it was far too rickety to put outside. I tried those RCA loop/rabbit ear antennas amped and not... no good whatsoever unless you live right near the transmitter.
Up here we don't need to worry about VHF HI, so the bowtie works fine. But those old huge antennas still work... as long as they are rated for UHF and not VHF (or also VHF if you need VHF HI).
A yagi is great, but is far too directional for most applications... even on a rotor... most of the new boxes and tv's need to be rescanned every time you move it... annoying and takes 2 minutes or so. Good luck using that as a selling feature ;)
My other neighbour has one of those big antennas on a rotor, and his reception is piss poor and it's rated for UHF. The problem is... UHF goes less distance, but is better at getting around objects blocking your path. In his case, we;ve upgraded all the cabling, but it's proably his 4th gen converter box... the newer 5th and 6th gen chipsets have much better mutipath interference rejection which is essential for uhf, and can also work with weaker signals.
Long story short - people WILL need new antennas depending on where they live, and yes, going up a pole requires some scary freezing cold cojones in the winter. I've been doing it for the past few days tweaking my setup and let me tell you... it's not fun. As much as I am not affected by the american switch (aside from reception hopefully getting better once the analog stuff stops interfering - I hope) - this switch will let those in colder climates hopefully NOT have to get up on the roof in this weather.
And, I don't have cable nor satellite. Been free of those expenses for a year or so now.
Bowtie is the way to go. Channel Master 4221 for suburban/urban areas and 4228 if you're out farther. The latter is more directional and doesn't pickup the side lobes as well. I'm 35Km from downtown toronto (20 miles or so), and much farther from buffalo and rochester NY. With a 4221 I can aim just west of Buffalo and pickup nbc/abc/cbs in full HD glory. My side lobes pickup downtown toronto and rochester.
The poster who pointed out a silver sensor... no good for anyone outside say 15 miles or so. I got one as a freebie when I picked up my samsung hd converter (I only have an hd ready crt projection tv)... he gets... nothing on his brand new 6th generation atsc chipset tv. Well, not nothing, but very little. He gets some of the toronto stations and can barely pull in NBC from buffalo. I ended up gifting him my old 4221 clone for the superbowl, and now he gets most of the stations I get, but is still missing out on some toronto stations.
So, I can say from experience, that the bowtie is the way to go. Which one depends on how far you're trying to "reach" out into the ether.
I can pull in Fox, CBC and CTV with a frigging paper clip attached to my antenna port. The rest, need a better antenna and sometimes even a preamp like in my case. I even tried building a gray-hoverman, and while it was OK, it was far too rickety to put outside. I tried those RCA loop/rabbit ear antennas amped and not... no good whatsoever unless you live right near the transmitter.
Up here we don't need to worry about VHF HI, so the bowtie works fine. But those old huge antennas still work... as long as they are rated for UHF and not VHF (or also VHF if you need VHF HI).
A yagi is great, but is far too directional for most applications... even on a rotor... most of the new boxes and tv's need to be rescanned every time you move it... annoying and takes 2 minutes or so. Good luck using that as a selling feature
My other neighbour has one of those big antennas on a rotor, and his reception is piss poor and it's rated for UHF. The problem is... UHF goes less distance, but is better at getting around objects blocking your path. In his case, we;ve upgraded all the cabling, but it's proably his 4th gen converter box... the newer 5th and 6th gen chipsets have much better mutipath interference rejection which is essential for uhf, and can also work with weaker signals.
Long story short - people WILL need new antennas depending on where they live, and yes, going up a pole requires some scary freezing cold cojones in the winter. I've been doing it for the past few days tweaking my setup and let me tell you... it's not fun. As much as I am not affected by the american switch (aside from reception hopefully getting better once the analog stuff stops interfering - I hope) - this switch will let those in colder climates hopefully NOT have to get up on the roof in this weather.
And, I don't have cable nor satellite. Been free of those expenses for a year or so now.
Submission + - Apple's First Cellular Devices
Gammu writes: The long-rumored iPhone is not the first instance of a phone running on an Apple operating system. That distinction belongs to the Motorola Marco, an early licenser of the Newton platform. Another, less ambitious product to merge wireless and an Apple-OS was the PowerBop network in France. Read about both devices at the iPod Observer.
A 3D Printer On Every Desktop? 426
holy_calamity writes "Two Cornell researchers have designed an open source 3D printer that costs just $2,400. The self-assembly kit is part of what they call the Fab@Home project — they hope it will spark development of rapid prototyping for the consumer market in the same way the Altair 8800 did for personal computing in seventies." Here is a video showing a completed machine constructing a silicone bulb (16-MB WMV).
Update: 01/10 04:02 GMT by KD : The developers of this kit are at Cornell, not Carnegie Mellon University as the original post erroneously stated.
Update: 01/10 04:02 GMT by KD : The developers of this kit are at Cornell, not Carnegie Mellon University as the original post erroneously stated.
Journal Journal: 2006 warmest year on record in the U.S 2
The National Climatic Data Center (NCDC) reports that 2006 was the warmes year on record in the US. "No cause for alarm. Enjoy it while you have it," said Mike Halpert, head of forecast operations at the National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration's Climate Prediction Center. Jeff Masters disagrees and
Submission + - Supernova Devastates Eagle Nebula
AbsoluteXyro writes: "Space.com reports that, thanks to advanced instruments aboard Spitzer, we have now seen that a supernova has wreaked havoc on the Eagle Nebula, and destroyed the famous Pillars of Creation. Interestingly, this all happened before the Eagle Nebula was discovered by Jean-Philippe de Cheseaux in 1746...and we won't actually see it happen here on Earth for another thousand years or so. From the article: "Humans living 1,000 to 2,000 years ago might have noticed the supernova event that destroyed the pillars as an unusually bright star in the sky. We have checked with historical records, and there might be some candidates.""
A Fully Programmable Mobile Robot 86
paxmaniac writes "iRobot has announced Create: a new fully programmable mobile robot based on the Roomba robotic vacuum cleaner. People have been hacking the Roomba since the day it came out. Well, hacking just got a whole lot easier. A command module for the Create provides a programmable 8-bit Atmel micro controller, four DB-9 ports for your own sensors, and a number of sample programs that can be compiled and uploaded to the command module via USB. Botmag has more details and some cool applications. This looks like the perfect robotics platform for hobbyists, schools, and universities alike."
New Nanoparticle Cancer Therapy 81
quixote9 tips us to a BBC story on a promising new cancer therapy using targeted nanoparticles. From the article: "The researchers used the nanoparticles to zero in on the network of blood vessels that supply the tumors in mice with nutrients and oxygen... [They] developed a technique for amplifying [the nanoparticles'] homing ability by designing a multifunctional nanoparticle that binds to a protein structure found only in tumors and associated blood vessels... The tests showed that within hours of the injection, the artificial platelets began blocking the supply without harming normal tissues. The scientists believe the nanoparticles could also be used to carry drugs to the tumor."
Submission + - Google Page Rank Update
rugjeff writes: "Are you ready for another update from Google...I know I am. My blog is only a few short months old and is still sitting on a page rank of zero. From the news I am hearing Google is set for another update on January 28, 2007. You can find out some more information from a site that predicts Google page rank updates.
If you are curious on how your page rank will be effected by the new update, check out this page rank prediction tool by iwebtool. If the tool is accurate, and I believe it is, my page rank will raise to 4. Not great but much better than zero.
Most of the information on page rank and page rank updates can be found here. I have to give thumbs up to the post and the blog. If you have the time check it out for tons of great tips and useful information.
Keep blogging, getting [tag]backlinks[/tag] and building relationships... You still have time to raise your page rank a little higher before the update."
If you are curious on how your page rank will be effected by the new update, check out this page rank prediction tool by iwebtool. If the tool is accurate, and I believe it is, my page rank will raise to 4. Not great but much better than zero.
Most of the information on page rank and page rank updates can be found here. I have to give thumbs up to the post and the blog. If you have the time check it out for tons of great tips and useful information.
Keep blogging, getting [tag]backlinks[/tag] and building relationships... You still have time to raise your page rank a little higher before the update."
Submission + - YouTube ban reversed in Brazil
xirusmom writes: "From reuters:
A Brazilian judge reversed his order to ban the YouTube site in Brazil.
MTV Brasil, where the model in the center of the controversy, Daniela
Cicarelli, hosts a show, has received thousands of emails of protest. A
website urging people to boycott
the modelwas set up, and a blogger had an online petition
signed by around 7500 people. The ban on the sex video itself is still
valid."
