Kilo Seven

The esteemed Senator Feinstein of California has been hornswoggled into cramming an incredible burden to ISPs into the latest economic recovery package . Click on the link to read about this incredible waste of resources, and for a connection to call key senators to tell them, No Way.

Looks like the high-efficiency solar cells which forecasters have planned on require rare metals we'll run out of in about ten years . And, the best substitute expected, carbon nanofiber, is shown by two independent studies to pose a health risk similar to asbestos , as per a linked Seattle P-I story. Eek. This only emphasizes the need for more basic research, not less, in energy generation of all kinds, such as these nuke-sized solar power fields ( Link 1 , Link2 ) which California's PG&E is studying. These sunpower fields use an array of tracking solar dishes powering Stirling engines which work with any concentrated heat source . Gee, doesn't Oregon get a lot of constant sunshine east of the Cascades? Hmm... the 'golden triangle' of lower Malheur and Harney counties (see map, above, with marker at Baker City), including the hamlet of Fields , with its apex near Alvold Lake , gets at least 4.5 kilowatt-hours per square meter per hour, even in January, which...

The local rep for the LCCR for DTV issues passed on the news today that all Portland stations are postponing their transition from full-power analog to full-power digital until June. That's the good news, sort of, and is a full one-eighty-degree reversal from last week's news , confirming what an O-blogger said earlier today . Less good news? Well, This will cost some TV stations more, for those TV stations who leased a temporary DTV transmitter, as they have to lease the temporary gear longer. TV stations are already hurtin' because advertising's down; this will hurt more. All stations will be paying more for power in the four months until the delayed cutover date, as DTV is more power-efficient. The companies who bought rights to the spectrum which cutover would release will probably demand a rebate from the feds, and the feds will probably give it to them; Their new services, which would deliver more digital services to sell, won't be generating revenue while Po...

Comment number two is worth a chuckle. Enjoy.

the Star Trek Communicator VOIP/Skype handset.

TVFool.Com provides you with a way to aim your UHF antenna, an estimate of how much antenna you probably will need to get good reception (see this example) based on your address and height, and how many stations you will be able to receive with that new antenna with DTV. News you can use, right?

There will be no ABC, CBS, Fox, NBC, or PBS transmitted in analog signal in Portland/Vancouver, as of noon on Tuesday, 17 February. None. The Washington Post reports the Congress is still divided on postponing television's conversion to digital; but that is not important to Portlanders, for all major network stations are going ahead with the digital conversion in 15 days.  All those stations already have digital transmitters up on the air. See these earlier blog posts for the frequencies: tinyURL.com/dtv-pdx List of old vs. new Portland area channels and flowchart showing what to do. tinyURL.com/dtv-qanda Q&A on DTV conversion. tinyURL.com/dtv-ready How to tell if your TV set is digital-ready. A TV station engineer and volunteer radio operator (the two often go side by side) in Eugene has written this technical discourse of why a better antenna's needed. Our gracious thanks to Carl Sundberg of KMTR who has allowed the reuse of his wisdom and experience to provide a lear...

Comcast is ever-vigilant in its search for ways to ensure, once you sign up, you never leave... this 'Hotel California' strategy now gives free WiFi for rail commuters in the NY/NJ/CT area , where a two-hour commute is not unheard-of.  Every dot on the map at left shows their coverage. They start at stations, and then expand along that route. 

This list shows more than six dozen free Open Source games ; PC, Linux, Mac OS.  Free, now. 

June 12th looks like the new deadline for DTV conversion, says the NASDAQ newswire. Senate Commerce Committee Chairman John Rockefeller, D-W.V., and committee ranking Republican Kay Bailey Hutchison of Texas said their staffs are drafting a few changes to Rockefeller's proposal to postpone the digital switch until June 12. {snip} In the House, Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Henry Waxman, D-Calif., has introduced his own bill that would put off the digital TV transition until June 12. Waxman's bill also would extend the expiration date for all outstanding or not-yet-issued converter box coupons to Sept. 15. People who previously ordered coupons and didn't redeem them would be allowed to reapply.{snip}

Having worked with the FCC during the FIRST conversion to DTV (Hawaii), here are a few background things you SHOULD KNOW since they'll help you answer questions from the other 49 states. 1.  The conversion was mandated by CONGRESS to free up the present analog TV spectrum for OTHER USERS.  (follow the money). 2. The conversion was DIRECTED by CONGRESS. 3. The $40 coupon program was run by the former Bureau of Standards now NIST. 4. The FCC was ordered to deal with the public and broadcasters during the conversion. 5. For those who can receive it THE DIGITAL PICTURE IS BETTER. 6. The transmitting antennas are moved OUT OF CONGESTED (populated) areas where they never belonged!  From the tops of buildings to outlying less populated areas. Ed. note: That applies to Hawaii only. 7. Many antennas are in WORSE COVERAGE locations because (for example) protected birds ran into them in the old locations.  (reason for moving the tower and antenna from 10,000 ft on Maui to 4,000 ft) Ed. note: ...

Clearwire AKA ' Clear ' opened up Metro Portland as its second city where individuals and businesses can get high speed wireless internet via WiMAX at reasonable cost, and after a cost analysis, we took the plunge. The home service pricing below includes $5/mo to rent a Motorola 2.5GHz WiMAX transceiver. You can buy instead of rent, but since hardware gets cheaper, we figured we'd rent at first... besides, if there's a failure, they're responsible for the transceiver if they own it. $25/mo provides up to 768 kbps down, 128 kbps up. $35/mo provides up to 3,000 kbps down, 384 kbps up. $35/mo provides up to 6,000 kbps down, 512 kbps up. There's no $35 sign-up fee if you obligate for 2 years of service instead of month-to-month, and there's a seven day 'remorse' period for cancellation. There's also mobile service and business service, both spendier than home service. The hookup took 5 minutes; plug in power, let it find the signal (two tower...

I reported earlier on the ability on anyone who dislikes you to shut down your Series 60 Nokia phone . If they have your cellular number and adequate dislike, they can turn your cellphone into an expensive, silent brick. The Register, with their customary evenhanded (i.e., snarky to everyone) has revealed more details including how to resent your phone after an attack. Since that requires erasing everything in your phone memory, backing up daily is recommended. You can back up to a memory card in your phone, or to a PC, but please, BACK UP YOUR DATA.

Update: Easy-to-remember Tiny URLs have been created to make it easy to remember web addresses for this series. tinyURL.com/dtv-pdx Flowchart of what to do and list of old vs. new Portland area channels. tinyURL.com/dtv-qanda Questions and Answers about DTV and the conversion. tinyURL.com/dtv-ready This post. This National Association of Broadcasters web page allows you to enter the make and model of your TV set to find if it's digital-ready. And, OBTW, it's official; the Feds have run out of converter coupons, says the NY Times . Yesterday's blog post reviewing the less-spendy converter boxes seems to have been a good idea. Don't overlook post Number One on the Tele-Apocalypse which gives you a very simple flowchart to show what to do.

Update: Easy-to-remember Tiny URLs have been created for articles in this series. tinyURL.com/dtv-pdx Flowchart of what to do (if anything) and list of old vs. new Portland area channels. tinyURL.com/dtv-qanda This post. tinyURL.com/dtv-ready How to tell if your TV set is digital-ready. Update #2: Added link to detailed converter reviews  at  http://dtvconverterboxes.blogspot.com/ Q: I need an explanation in another language. Where can I find that? A: https://www.dtv2009.gov/ Q: When does conversion happen? A: It happens Tuesday, February 17th, by Federal law. A town in North Carolina has already converted; Hawaii converts on January 15th. Q: Why? A: Digital channels can fit closer together without interfering, so the Federal government can sell the old frequencies to use for police, fire, public service, and new cellular data services. Sometimes, reception quality improves even on older analog-only sets using converters. There are other advantages to television stations; they can ...

Executive summary? Significant threat. Back up your phone daily. If the DOS attack is successful, recovery requires a total reset which means you lose everything in phone memory. If strange messages start appearing with the @ symbol in them, shut off your phone or go into airline mode (no cellular reception). Backup to memory card, delete the strange messages and then backup to memory card again. Stay tuned for news of a patch from Symbian. The gory details are here at FierceMobileIT .

Update: This Reuters news story confirms a likely shortage of analog TV converter discount coupons. Update #2: They're out of coupons. Update #3: Posts in this series now have easy-to-remember TinyURLs: tinyURL.com/dtv-pdx This post. tinyURL.com/dtv-qanda Q&A on DTV conversion. tinyURL.com/dtv-ready How to tell if your TV set is digital-ready. WHAT TO DO ABOUT THE DIGITAL TV CONVERSION Thanks to The Consumerist blog for this diagram. If your set is NOT digital-ready, AND you don't have cable or satellite, you'll need a converter. Call 888-DTV-2009 or go to www.DTV.gov and provide your name and address to get $40-off coupons. Move fast, as coupons could run out . A future blog post will list available converters. Many Portland stations will change their channel assignments. Click on this chart of Portland-area stations, sorted by their network, to see it in a new window or tab with greater clarity. Since the list above shows every VHF station in Metro Portland wi...

A blog entry at the Wall Street Journal Online reveals a giant vaccine and pharmaceutical company, Glaxo, has not fully prepared its staff for a pandemic . If a flu vaccine contractor does not already have 100% of its workforce vaccinated against H5N1, I have to ask, why?

This New Scientist article points to multiple looming shortages in strategic metals and minerals needed for devices now commonplace and important. Similar tensions over supplies of other rare metals are not hard to imagine. The Chinese government is supplementing its natural deposits of rare metals by investing in mineral mines in Africa and buying up high-tech scrap to extract metals that are key to its developing industries. The US now imports over 90 per cent of its so-called "rare earth" metals from China, according to the US Geological Survey. If China decided to cut off the supply, that would create a big risk of conflict, says Reller.

A list of 20 great free programs for Windows all IT folk, and some home users, should consider.

Look at one e-mail send by Bill Gates. After you put your coffee down.

This Scientific American interview confirms what I have known for decades; software is no science.

Got to wonder how long this embarassment to cyber journalism will last. For, there is no University of Northern Oregon, and therefore I do doubt there are any chimps posting on Facebook... Here's the story , and the debunk , for your ROFL du jour.

Here's this year's hockey-stick nullification , more bad science undone by facts. Freeman Dyson 's also actually done some science in dissecting two books on global 'warming' . Both recommended.

After reading a NY Times article on easy smart card ID theft , I decided to go looking for a new wallet to hold my new WaMu-issued credit card with the Fast-Pass/Quick-Pay/Easy-Steal RFID 'feature'. I found a five-pack of RFID sleeves for $25, a $23 wallet (in red, pink, tan, black leather and black vinyl), an any-color-you-want-so-long-as-it's-black wallet for $20, more wallets , and a $10 shield for one card (all prices FOB No Name City, Oregon). If I worked for Halliburton, I suppose I could afford the $95 stainless steel wallet found here . Then, I found a DIY design ... and will test it once I find myself the copper foil I got at the good ol' hardware store for slug protection, and some metal window screening. The more crafty among you will enjoy this source for metal cloth .

5GB of off-line storage is available for free from Microsoft's Windows Live SkyDrive and 4Shared for off-site backup of your important data, if you need to make files available to other folks, or if you need access away from home and don't want to set up a remote acccess program . It's easy to back up your Documents and Settings folder with the Open Source freeware program, 7-Zip . Uploading the data the first time may take a while, but if you do a differential (everything that's changed since the last complete backup), subsequent backups are much quicker to make, much quicker to upload.

tinyurl.com/5s6x8l

Despite their red robes and shaved heads and the fact they were spending their days in a giant monastery at the top of a windy hill where they were meant to be in dialogue with God, some of the 15 monk disciples had cellphones — Nokia cellphones — and most were fancier models than the one Chipchase was carrying. One of the disciples asked to look at Chipchase’s phone. “So he’s got my phone and his phone,” Chipchase told me. “And as we’re talking, he’s switching on the Bluetooth. And he then data-mines my phone for all its content, all my photographs and so on, which is absolutely fine, but it’s kind of a scene where you think, I’m here, I’m so away from everything and yet they’re so technically literate. . . . ” From an NY Times story on how Nokia studies who's buying cellphones for the first time, and why.

Interesting list of services to help your cellphone do more in the   NY Times technology pages .

Mrs. KiloSeven has advised the 15 y.o. Samsung guest room TV Has To Go , due to the high-pitched audible from the flyback transformer. So, I am starting to mull over the updated list of what Sears has (as they owe us a kilobuck for reasons too esoteric to mention here) and starting to read HDTV Buying Guides . What buying guides have you found useful? Any thoughts on choices?

Canada's Financial Post has an excellent article with links to 27 (yes, twenty-seven) other articles on the same subject. This artcle zeros in on mud-core samples off the lower mainland of British Columbia, and with that evidence in hand, then correlates known solar variance with their findings. It goes on to recap the theory that low solar output allows more cosmic rays more cosmic rays become cloud-chamber-like nuclei for cloud formation the kinds of clouds formed reflect heat and the earth cools. So, even though the amount of energy sent our way from the Sun decreases a little, there's a greater influence on Earth's climate as a result of that solar variance. The author finds his skepticism to the very political science trumpeted by Algore and the Kyoto gang is not alone in the scientific community: In a 2003 poll conducted by German environmental researchers Dennis Bray and Hans von Storch, two-thirds of more than 530 climate scientists from 27 countries surveyed did ...

TechRepublic 's adopted me as a digi-pundit, complete with ugly masthead pic. ROFL away. OMG IF U CN RD THS U R BSTD Milan make me buy more, me like Microsoft’s Milan? Does Palm see the Vision Thing? Let’s see with the Foleo. $100 laptop debuts in Uruguay. Can you hear me now (from 5.5 miles high)? AdSense ad-heavy sites swept away in Google late spring cleaning. Anti-spyware bill sent to Senate, passes House. Diamonds: Girl’s best friend / Evidence of global cooling? Information wants to be free, including air ticket prices. Motorola mobiles send Linux handsets stateside Quicker Quicken profits. Another strike against DRM: Amazon weighs in for better digital downloads.

For the cost of the long distance call (a portion of which, by agreement, custom and law goes to the terminating phone company), this itty bitty Iowa telco gives you free conference calling . Calls can be arranged either ad hoc , or pre-booked over the web , at no charge to you. This turns cellular companies and long distance carriers, upset at losing their slide of a very lucrative market (profit margins of 29,000% are not unheard of among phone comanies for specific services) into psychopathically rapid wolverines, and the attack lawyers are circling, only their fins showing above water . Of course, you know what to do if you calls are blocked; change long distance companies. This website gives you the information you need to make an informed choice about long distance resellers .

The virtual economy is growing apace. Now, there's a VISA card for World of Warcraft : Priceless.

Here the Register interviews two smart lads who are ready to take over every Windows Vista machine their software touches . Hmm.

Bake coal w/ waste heat from a nuke plant, get Carbon Monoxide AKA ' coal gas '. Sequester the radon, other radioactive nasties and heavy metals found in coal (which is why people die of cancer downwind of coal plants, and why coal kills many times more folks than nuclear power). Add more Hydrogen, electrolized from water with nuclear power (the oxygen gets liquidized, and goes to hospitals or industrial processes). Voila! Low sulfur diesel fuel, and jet fuel , using a plant designed by a Vancouver WA company . Can you say, "Energy Independence?" With a two hundred year worldwide coal reserve , we have some time to think about the next step in energy , which is what Japan is now planning to test .

It's over at Operation Dice Drop now.

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Operation Dice Drop was just Slashdotted .

Z iggurat Con, where R.P.G. isn't just a Rocket Propelled Grenade , needs your help. UPDATED 4/21 & 4/22: A message from SPC Amberson, ZC's chair, suggests a deadline for shipment to Ziggurat Con by Military Mail (and the general restrictions on what can be sent ): Saturday 26 May for Express Mail Monday 21 May for Priority Mail - (much cheaper than Express Mail) 9 May for Media Mail - Parcel Post takes about 2 months, so if you ship via Parcel Post, there's little-to-no chance of arrival before the con. Here's a postal rate calculator ; use 09331 as the destination zip code. He added: We have been so long without books, dice and such that whatever you can send will be appreciated. I think it would be best to let you know what games are actually scheduled for the event. This way you can decide for yourself what you wish to send. The best way is to send by US Postal Service (we don't get any other deliveries here). Sunday - 1200-1600 1. GURPS 2. Shadowrun 3. ...