Smatterday

[altivo]

Did not go to the IRM, but did do everything else that was on today's agenda, plus stops at the bank (to deposit paycheck,) the gas station (to pay ripoff prices for fuel,) and the local grocery (to buy necessities and reject everything else due to continually rising prices.)

Rain stopped by about noon, though it stayed cloudy until 4 pm or so. Tess got to go out, and the grass in the pasture wasn't even wet by then. Humidity was generally high, though, and mosquitoes were hungry.

Thinking seriously about getting Gary a laptop. His birthday is next week, and our 27th anniversary two weeks later. Found that by going through Dell's small business department I can still get XP Professional instead of Vista. (He doesn't want Vista, neither do I.) Prices for what he should need seem pretty reasonable, actually not more than I paid for my own desktop machine. I can afford a gift in that range, just have to convince him to accept it. A laptop with both wireless and wired network interfaces will let him make use of broadband connections at local libraries, Starbucks, and even sitting on a parkbench in the Woodstock square (I doubt he'll do that last.) I still need to find out more about EVDO service, which may give him access to some semblance of broadband here at home. It's not as expensive as it once was, apparently, and might just work.

I guess old style analog television went away and we didn't notice. In fact, I wouldn't have known except for others talking about it. Mentioned it to Gary and he said oh yes, the government in its infinite wisdom sent us replacement "coupons" to help buy a converter box since we didn't use the first ones we were sent. Somehow I don't think we'll use these either.

Comments

[merik.livejournal.com]

Don't know if it might help in your choice of laptop, or in convincing Gary to accept a laptop as a gift, but the IT folks in my department swear by Tiger Direct (www.tigerdirect.com) for their XP computer needs (and they have a lot of XP needs, because Vista has been declared Officially Evil). Most of Tiger Direct's XP inventory is composed of refurbished machines, but they're in good shape. There have been six refurbished desktops from them that have passed through my office for various uses over the past 6+ years, and there hasn't been one technical glitch amongst them.

[altivo.livejournal.com]

Well, I'm glad to hear that someone is satisfied with Tiger Direct. After a particularly obnoxious scam they pulled on me some time ago, they were permanently removed from the list of places with which I will do business.

Fortunately, in this case, XP is not that hard to obtain. Microsoft tried for a while to render it extinct, but resistance to Vista has grown very large. The Vista license allows the user to run XP instead. Dell offers it "pre-downgraded" to XP. Apparently they charge a fee for this on consumer configurations (who knows why) but they are offering it at no charge on many of the business models.

Since I only buy business configurations, that works. I don't care for having to scrub all the commercial crap like "free" AOL software and "free" trials of junky products off the machine before it can be used. ;p

[merik.livejournal.com]

Well, I'm glad to hear that someone is satisfied with Tiger Direct. After a particularly obnoxious scam they pulled on me some time ago, they were permanently removed from the list of places with which I will do business.

That's good to know, because I was thinking about going through them to get an inexpensive XP laptop for myself. Maybe the IT folks I work with haven't had any scams pulled on them because they were making business purchases which, of course, have the full threat of the University's swarm of lawyers behind them ;-P

[altivo.livejournal.com]

Yes, personally I would not recommend Tiger Direct. As usual, YMMV. And my bad experience was years ago now, I just hold a particularly virulent grudge against them.

You can order a laptop through Dell's small business programs and get it with XP SP3 installed. Pricing starts around $500. Since the XP is installed under a Vista license, you should still be eligible for the free upgrade to Windows 7 when that comes out, should you be so inclined.

I don't run Windows at all any more, so I look to buy stuff for myself with no OS license at all. Then I install what I want and configure it my way. ;p

[deffox]

Tigerdirect has retail locations up here. We walked around one yesterday to windowshop. I was hoping to find a parallel port bracket, but had to settle for looking at all the overpriced eye candy.

I only used the US mail order version once for a small item. Never got the mail in rebate. They sent a lot of junk mail too.

[altivo.livejournal.com]

Sounds about right. They advertised an item, I ordered it, they were out of stock, but they charged my credit card anyway. A month later they were advertising the same item for half the price. I called and complained. They sent the item, but charged me the old price rather than the advertised price. I called and complained again. They refused to make an adjustment.

So I told them I would return the thing and wanted full credit. "Oh, no, don't do that," they said. Then they agreed to refund the difference. Which of course they never did. When I called to complain again, they had "No record of the order."

[songdogmi.livejournal.com]

This may not be enough to sway you, but PBS stations in Detroit and Louisville have been using their full digital allotments pretty thoroughly. Detroit Public TV became three stations, one showing what the over-the-air used to show (the normal schedule), one showing some of the usual shows (at different times, though) and some additional programs, and a third showing how-to programs under the brand Create!. Not many of the commercial stations here have exploited all their digital subchannels, though they could.

Of course, sometimes that means twice as much pledge drive, too. (Just on two channels... Create! doesn't seem to carry pledge.) That probably just talked you back out of it.

[altivo.livejournal.com]

The problem with digital television, aside from the fact that I just don't have time to watch it, is that it doesn't work well at any significant distance from the transmitter. We are in a fringe zone where even with a roof mounted gain antenna and rotator we received only snowy signals from broadcast stations most of the time. I don't expect to receive digital television here well enough to bother with it. I would never have bothered to put up that antenna, but it came with the house. Consequently, I'm not going to go out of my way to get broadcast television by other means either. It just eats time for too small a payback.

[songdogmi.livejournal.com]

Yeah, there is that. I have heard that they're broadcasting the digital signals with something like 1/10th of the power of the analog signals. Sure, it takes less power to send out a digital signal, but are they ever going to boost it so that people in the fringe areas can get what they used to get? Or do they think somehow it'll become affordable to put TV stations in places like Harvard?

After all the issues with digital TV, whenever I hear anyone mention converting to digital radio, I start shuddering uncontrollably.

[altivo.livejournal.com]

In essence, as with most things related to media, broadcast, telephones or internet, the FCC during the Bush administration was strictly concerned with profitability for the giant corporations that control the marketplaces.

Rural and remote residents received little or no consideration. It was strictly a "Who cares?" attitude, with the idea that there wasn't enough profit to be made out here so it didn't matter.

The digital television conversion was driven by the opportunities to create a captive forced market for sellers of new equipment (both to consumers and to broadcasters) and the chance to cut the total signal bandwidth down, thus allowing the administration to "sell" the frequencies that were freed up to other commercial interests (mainly cellular telephone companies.) I'm still having trouble with the idea of "selling" radio spectrum to anyone, but the US government has determined this to be feasible and valid.

It seems that acceptance of digital television has been mixed. Large numbers of people are still resisting it, many more than expected. Broadcasters are losing market count both because their coverage areas are reduced and the number of viewers fell off because people just refused to buy new equipment. The final conversion date was postponed twice because the public wasn't accepting the change. I expect this will turn out to be a major fiasco.

The digital AM radio thing is even worse. The technology being pushed turns out to very impractical in actual use. It just doesn't work well. But with profit for a few large campaign donors in mind, the last administration was marching forward with it come hell or high water. I suspect its ship is about to crash into major shoals now, between the economic collapse and the change in administration.

[cozycabbage.livejournal.com]

Windows 7 has an official release date, which means anyone who DOES end up with a Vista computer will get an upgrade in October.

I doubt you need Windows 7, though. XP will be faster on a cheaper machine, which makes more sense for a budget laptop.

[altivo.livejournal.com]

Windows 7 is just a bunch of hype as far as I'm concerned. Like Vista, it will be released too early and incomplete, with enough bugs to fill an African termite nest. As for Vista, the entire philosophy behind that release was so utterly offensive that I wouldn't put up with it even for a few months.

XP is finally mature enough to at least run with some reliability. The continuing need for massive security fixes is more than a little disturbing and I don't use it at all myself, but Gary isn't about to change. He doesn't want Vista any more than I do, though, even on a temporary basis. Microsoft can take that pig and bury it, and I hope they continue to be embarrassed by it for years to come.

[thedeere.livejournal.com]

I'm on EVDO right now, I'm pretty happy with it. Not the best latency, but MMO games are playable. Plus it's wireless. I use mine as a wifi hotspot for my other PCs by sharing this one's connection via 802.11 ad-hoc.

I agree about not going to Vista. :)

[altivo.livejournal.com]

I need someone with EVDO equipment to come here and try it at our place just to make sure it really works. So many things that use RF energy do not work here...

[silver-kiden.livejournal.com]

27 years?! holy mother of shit! :p

[altivo.livejournal.com]

Yep. We've been together considerably longer than the average for straight marriages in the US now. But of course we're not allowed to be "married" because that would somehow be "damaging" to straight marriages. As if they weren't already broken. ;p

[silver-kiden.livejournal.com]

and yet, brittany spears can have a 90 minute marriage, and that's alright. also, you two have been together longer than i've been alive.

[altivo.livejournal.com]

You're just a hatchling still. ;D

Yes, we've become old and boring. We never even have fights. I have a suspicion, though, that children are one of the big reasons that het marriages tend to collapse.

[silver-kiden.livejournal.com]

you may be old, but you are still snuggly! and i find you fascinating! also, that is quite possible.

[altivo.livejournal.com]

Fascinating? You mean like some sort of weird bug? ;p

Some people say I am an "enigma" but I really don't know why.

[silver-kiden.livejournal.com]

more like a pre-cambrien fossil. also, i prefer conundrum. :p

[altivo.livejournal.com]

Conan drums? You mean like those drums at the beginning of the film Conan the Barbarian? ;p

Pre-Cambrian fossils are considerably smaller than I am, though.

[silver-kiden.livejournal.com]

i dunno....we might be able to crush you small enough and pack you into the burgess shale.... :p also, i thought that this might amuse you. http://notalwaysright.com/an-offering-to-the-literary-gods/2093

[altivo.livejournal.com]

LOL! Believe it or not, that is an entirely conceivable situation.

My favorite, though, is the guy who called on a day when the library was closed. I was here working on cataloging. He wanted me to unlock the front doors so he could come in and use the copying machine. Mind, the sign on the door said "closed" and the hours on the door indicated that as well. There were no lights or equipment turned on in the public area that he could see through the doors.

When I told him that I couldn't do that, and that all the equipment was shut down in any case, he snapped at me, "How much education does it take to put books on the shelf anyway?"

More, I suspect, than he has, but I didn't pursue the matter. He demanded to talk to my boss. Since the library director was standing right here, I told him to hold on and passed the phone to her. He hung up when she answered.

[gabrielhorse.livejournal.com]

I guess old style analog television went away and we didn't notice. In fact, I wouldn't have known except for others talking about it. Mentioned it to Gary and he said oh yes, the government in its infinite wisdom sent us replacement "coupons" to help buy a converter box since we didn't use the first ones we were sent. Somehow I don't think we'll use these either.

The government in it's financial wisdom, you mean :P I can't imagine anyone bothering to buy a converter box to keep watching the garbage on nowadays. I've been house-sitting for a friend the past two weeks, and seriously television is now like a teenager with a videocam. Half the stuff on television is either reality shows or people mocking someone on video tape. The rest either pseudo-serious murder/detective stuff or the news, which is practically done by the audience now, too. CNN may as well be strictly online, considering how much they rely on their viewers input. The only decent show I've run across is Burn Notice, a rather offbeat spy show with a hint of dark comedy. I caught it once while in a shelter in pennsacola, but had a chance to catch up on it with a marathon they ran recently. In my opinion, television's days are numbered... and in the double digits, too.

[altivo.livejournal.com]

Television is a huge market, actually, but not broadcast over the airwaves (except by satellite, that is.) It's just that most of that market seems to be concentrated in areas where cable is readily available and fairly inexpensive. In essence, you have the people who can't live without a television running and the people who couldn't care less. ;p

The addicts, however, seem to be a lucrative market still.

I was amused by all the news stories over the weekend screaming that "2.8 Million Homes Now Without Television" because they didn't buy a new digital set or a converter box. That number came from Nielsen, and is probably nowhere near accurate since they only check with people who watch a lot of television to begin with. I'd like to know the real number, counting people like us who don't watch and don't care.

[cabcat.livejournal.com]

I didn't think I'd tire of programmed telly at 27, but I did, even though it's now digital and in HD but that didn't improve the channels. Still in the rare occasion that something good is on, it is nice to see it picture perfect.

[altivo.livejournal.com]

Television is junk food for the mind. Pretty poor quality stuff.