Tony asked in a comment on a previous post for photos of my new satellite dish, which I described as "even-more-ridiculous". It was cloudy and rainy over the weekend, so I didn't bother until today. The problem, which I didn't realize until I got out there and looked with a camera, is that there's no good sight line for the dish. The only really good views are probably from my neighbor's back yard. It's not really that visible from the street, and my side yard is pretty narrow which means if I shoot from there I end up shooting almost straight up and you get no scale. I took a couple of shots, but they aren't very good. Still, I said I'd post shots, so here they are: And then, just for whatever comparison you can get, here's the older 3LNB dish, now down on the ground: Really the dish looks OK on the roof, but when you're level with it, it's a beast. The LNB structures themselves are about the same size on both dishes if that helps any.

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Tags: DirecTV, SatelliteDish

Karl Schroeder released his first novel Ventus as a free e-book under Creative Commons licensing. I haven't read Ventus (yet), but I've read Sun of Suns and Queen of Candesce when they were serialized in Analog and enjoyed both of them. Anyway, if you're looking for free SF e-books, you can grab Ventus from Karl's site.

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Tags: ebook, Ventus, KarlSchroeder, CreativeCommons, ScienceFiction

(This post isn't really intended to be interesting. It's merely storing an archive copy of some information that I happen to know right now, but won't retain. If you aren't trying to actively test a new satellite dish install right now you won't care. I suspect somebody might well ask me about this in the next few months, so I'm archiving it here before I throw away the piece of paper I was jotting notes on.) The various internet fora are ablaze with misinformation and balderdash about the upcoming DTV HD signals (from the D10 satellite). Here's some boiled down information on checking your dish setup. All of this worked as of 9/21/07 on my HR20, but may change at any time. Channels 490 - 494 provide tests of the older satellites. It should simply say satellite whatever, transponders whatever on the screen. Channels 480 and 481 are testing the two B-band converter modules that should be installed on the end of your satellite in wires. They say "BBC confirmed working" Channel 498 tunes in the new D10 satellite (103(b)) directly and specifically says you are receiving programming from the new satellite. Until recently you could tune 499 and if you got a "searching for signal" message that was a good thing. As I understand it if you got that message that meant your receiver could see 103(b) but not get any signal from it (because it wasn't broadcasting). If your receiver couldn't see 103(b) then it would fall over to another satellite and get some sort of signal. This was actually what DTV suggested to do at http://directv.com/hdcheck last week, but today it references the channel 498 test. Note that my HR20 still complains about not getting a signal on 99(b) but that location is currently used for "spot beams" of HD locals - and it doesn't spot beam anything to my area. Apparently these satellites are "temporary" and due for replacement

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Tags: DirecTV, test, satellite

(Actually, this might not be just a Bay Area thing. I've only owned the one house, so maybe it's common. What do I know?) Over the past summer Karin and had quite a bit of work done on the house. (Notice I say "Had work done", not necessarily "did a lot of work ourselves".) We've had new windows put in, repainted the exterior (necessary post the window install - the interiors need work as well but we'll do that ourselves), and whole bunch of landscaping. The back yard looks really nice now, we've lost the mint green accent color the house had when we moved it, and the new windows look better and actually insulate. In general I'm really happy with the stuff we've done. The interesting part is that almost everyone assumes we're selling the house. Neighbors, dogwalkers, friends, random passers-by, they all ask the same thing. "So are you thinking about selling the house?" Well, no. We just thought, "Hey since we live here, let's make it nice." I'm looking forward to seeing the back yard next spring. We put the landscaping in for us to enjoy, not for some future owner. Sure, I thought to myself "All of this stuff will increase the property value." and if we're totally honest we need to refinance the house next year sometime so I expect to leverage the improvements that way. But I think the whole way houses here are treated as investments first and living spaces second is just weird. Maybe people would be less concerned about a real esate "bubble" if more people viewed their house as part of their life, and not some sort of weird physical savings account.

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Tags: BayArea, housing

I had some doubts about my fabulous return flight planning which went like this:

1. Wake up Friday morning in New Jersey
2. Have parents drive me from southern New Jersey to JFK airport in New York.
3. Fly from New York to Oakland, arriving at 7:20 PM local time.
4. Meet Karin and go to downtown San Francisco to see Jonathan Coulton with Paul and Storm at the Great American Music Hall. Get there around 8:30, order dinner, and watch the show starting at 9.
5. Get home around 1 AM local time (4 AM east coast time).
6. Have people over for boardgames on Saturday at 3:00 PM.
7. Sleep pretty much all day Sunday.

The obvious ridiculous step in this plan was step 4. When the plan was created I wasn't aware of the show - it turned up after I had plane tickets, travel plans and the lot. I was a little dubious about it but it was really worthwhile. It was a great show and we were about six feet from the stage, so the seats were fantastic. I didn't know anything about Paul and Storm other than they've been opening for Coulton this tour but they were quite good in their own right. I picked up their CD's (I already had the Coulton CD's from PAX) and I throughly enjoyed the show. Of course in the car ride home I pretty much just passed out but Karin was nice enough to bring my tired self home. I just finished getting a new HR-20 MPEG-4 receiver from DirecTV installed (which required an even-more-ridiculous dish). So now I have the old HR10-250 (aka the HD TiVo) and the new HR-20 in my home theater. This means I can now record MPEG-4 signals, which is supposed to matter in maybe just a couple of days when they turn on the new satellite and we could then get Food Network and Sci-Fi in HD. Huzzah!

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Tags: vacation, JonathanCoulton, PaulAndStorm, DirecTV, HR20