Cables Cables Cables and More

I hope this posts isn't too late. I meant to get this posted before Christmas. For those of you who have received gifts that require cables, and especially for those of you who received a new HDTV from Santa, for the love of God, please don’t buy those cables from Best Buy or Radio Shack!!

Be it HDMI, USB, firewire, component, s-video, whatever, you can get really great deals from Monoprice.com. I’ve purchased 6 foot HDMI cables from Monoprice for less that 5 bucks;  I also purchased  a digital coax to optical converter for less than 10 bucks(looks like the price has gone up a buck). Just the other day I needed a car charger for my phone. I could have spent $45 bucks, but instead I got a 6 foot USB cable, and a USB car charger, with priority shipping for less than 8 bucks.

When I shop at Monoprice I know I’m getting the best deal possible coupled with quality and service I can trust. So, whenever I need any kind of cable, I always think Monoprice first. I’ve also heard that Blue Jeans Cables is also good…I can’t vouch for them, but they have to be better than Best Buy or Radio Shack, and their ridiculously priced Monster Cable.

So I hope this post reaches you in time, if not, maybe Best Buy will give you store credit? Good luck!

Ohh yea, Monoprice sells a lot more than just cables, they sell all kinds of switches, adaptors, converters, etc….seriously, check them out…

Time to turn on the Net Nanny

A couple of years ago my oldest (the seven-year-old) started using the computer to view baby web sites and stuff for the simplest of children.  At that time, even though I wasn't really worried about needing content filtering; I knew that someday I would be interested, so I started trying to find a comprehensive web filtering solution that was: easy to set up, difficult to bypass, and cheep.  I found all three in K9 Web Protection. It is very easy to set up, I still cant figure out how to turn it off with out the password, and it's free....and it works! 

I locked that knowledge away, recommending it to friends when they complained of needing it, but mostly I was watching my children and waiting for when I'd need to install it on my own computers.  Well, the time has come.  A few days I go I caught the seven-year-old using Google to find a website she learned about at school, something called fun brain.  She was searching "funbrain" and clicking on the first result without reading what it was!!!! AHHHHHH!  Fortunately this was exactly what she wanted.  The first hit was Funbrain, an approved web site; but it could have just as easily been something much worse.

All I could think was, "When did she learn how to use Google?"  Until now she had only known how to use the shortcuts I had set up so she could use the pre-approved websites I had chosen.  (she is my daughter, I guess what I should have been thinking before now is,  "Why cant she figure out how to use Google?") Regardless, it was time to install K9 web protection and so I did.


I'll point out that we do not have a computer in the kid's room.  The family computer is out in the open so we can see what they are doing.  This is how I knew I needed to take action....If you let your children have their own computer it's something to think about.

Cutting the Cable

One of the things I’ve been doing instead of blogging is learning how to live without cable television. It occurred to me that every show I watch can be found online on Netflix, Hulu, or on the website of a major network. I decided that the 80 or so bucks a month I spent on cable Television was an unnecessary expense so about 4 weeks ago, I canceled it.


I went to the store and purchased an expensive indoor/outdoor amplified antenna, plugged it in and turned on my TV. Unfortunately I only got 6-7 channels.  No matter what I did or under what configuration I placed the antenna (indoor or outdoors), I still only received just a handful of the available channel.

One of the things I’ve learned in my years of working with computers is that sometimes it’s easier to find a problem by eliminating the suspected causes one-by-one. I grabbed my daughter’s $9 antenna and automatically got over 20 channels. The reception wasn’t great on some of the channels, but it certainly performed better than the fancy antenna I purchased. So I took it back and bought another. I found that it performed about as well as the $9 antenna I already had. I could receive almost every channel that is available in the Tulsa area but the reception wasn’t that great.

What I figured I needed was more antenna surface area, but I really did not want a larger antenna. It occurred to me that I had two cheap antennas and a cable splitter, so I connected the two antennas to the “output” side of the splitter, and the TV to the “input” side. In a sense I used the splitter and a combiner. And voilà, perfect, crystal-clear, free HD reception! Apparently this is not an original idea, what I had stumbled upon is something called antenna diversity.

I’ve discovered a few things after ditching cable.
1. There are a lot of great channels that are available over the air. (24 hour children’s programming, weather, movies, religious, educational, documentaries, network programming, etc)
2. I have not missed a single show that I want to watch. (see Hulu, Netflix, etc)
3. I spend a lot less time watching TV surfing several hundred channels trying to find something on. As a result I spend a lot less time watching TV. (it doesn’t take long to surf 20-30 channels)

I must say I do not regret cutting the cable, if you think you can live without it, I recommend giving it a try.

Inappropriate and Obscene Content on KJRH

Mr. Vrabac,

Parks and Recreation, Season 2 ep. 11, which aired on the third of December and was rated TV-PG, contained a scene that I thought was completely inappropriate for the standards of Tulsa Oklahoma, especially with the rating of TV-PG and at 7:30 pm.

There was a scene where the characters were in a strip club, there were actual topless women in the background whose breasts were blurred out. My kids were not yet in bed and the parental control, which I do have setup, would not have blocked this show. I’m deeply offended and very upset. I have filed a complaint with the FCC.

Steven H Roemerman Sr.

[UPDATE]
Mr. Vrabac's response.

Mr. Roemerman, appreciate your response. I will pass it along to NBC affiliate relations.

Mike Vrabac

My response to Mr. Vrabac.

Mr Vrabac,

With respect, in exchange for obtaining a valuable license to operate a broadcast station using the public airwaves, KJRH is required by law to operate in the “public interest, convenience and necessity.” This means that KJRH, not NBC, must air programming that is responsive to the needs and problems of its local community of license.

I expect that NBC will, more often than not, violate the contemporary community standards of Tulsa Oklahoma. I look to you to ensure that those standards are not violated.

While I certainly appreciate your forwarding this matter onto NBC, I expect more from KJRH. I expect the slogan "Channel 2 works for you" to mean more than hard hitting local journalism. I expect that it also means that Channel 2 will strive to meet its responsibility to the community by protecting the standards that make Tulsa such a great place to raise a family.

Regards,

Steven H Roemerman Sr.

It's the Tag Number Dummy!

An update to yesterday's post about the plan to scan bar codes on OK license plates in an effort to catch uninsured motorists

Public Safety Commissioner Kevin Ward said, "I don’t know of technology that can actually read a bar code from that far away, I am aware of technology that can actually read the car (tag’s) characters. It would be able to decipher those and make a check through the system.”

Duhh!

Ok, now, now that everyone agrees that scanning bar codes is stupid I can be indignant over the Orwellian nature of this plan to put cameras all over the state.

I HATE this idea. Here are some questions I'd like answered:

• Who controls the images collected?
• How long will these images be stored?
• Who has access to these images?
  
• For what other purposes will these images be used?
• Who will have access to the data stored in the insurance database?
• What information is in this database?
• How much money will the vendor who runs the cameras rake in (because you know it will be administered privately)?
• What metric will be used to gauge the success of this project? Amount of money received, or some indicator of a reduction in uninsured motorists?
• If there is a drastic reduction in uninsured motorists, how will the project be funded?
• Is the company that is likely to get the contract to run these cameras an out of state company?
• Who is handing out the tickets?
• Under what jurisdiction will the tickets be handed out?
• Will the people that get these tickets be able to go to court?
• Will the people that get these tickets be required to go to court?

This morning, on the KRMG Morning News with Joe Kelley, Rep. Mike Reynolds talked about this issue.  He said that the problem of un-insured drivers could be solved if enforcement were to be stepped up by law enforcement officials.  Reynolds suggested that in several cases, uninsured motorists  are allowed  to drive away after an accident. He wants the police to run the plates of motorists who have been puled over or have been involved in an accident against that database.  If you are shown to not have insurance and can't prove otherwise, Reynolds said your car should be towed, no exceptions.  Reynolds suggests that if there were to be a concerted effort to "crack down" on uninsured motorists, there would be no need for these cameras, and I would tend to agree.