it's blog®! (from blammo™)

whtv digital television is the champ

i've only had my whtv hdpvr for a week, now, but i thought i'd chime in and flesh-out andrew's review (WHTV Digital Television is a Contender) a bit:

the set-top-box and its software are middle-of-the-road, imho. while the search works waaay better than expressVu's ever did, the software can sometimes take forever to respond - so long (for example) that you're unsure whether you fully pressed the 'guide' button and, when you press more deliberately a second time, the guide just flashes on the screen becuase, of course, the first press was good, which opened the guide, and so was the second, which closes it again....ugh.

i'm also unimpressed with having to manually go thru each channel and, if i don't subscribe to it, add it to my 'skipped' list in order to pare down the size of the program listings. with b.e.v's listings, the 'guide' button toggles the display of the channels to which you aren't subscribed.

another annoyance is that the core channels are duplicated on their old-school-cable channel numbers, and you can't add just those numbers to your skip list. i realize it would be convenient for those upgrading to not have to re-memorize channels, but it's still annoying....for me...

and i don't know if this is par for the course with PVRs, since this is my first one, but when you're quietly sitting in the living room reading, the clicking of that hard drive - even if it's off - sure gets irritating.

oh. and a little more documentation would be nice, so i could maybe figure out what that thing is that comes up when you press 'menu'.....and why i can't customize it....or if i can, how...

although i didn't experience any jaggies with my satellite hd in high-action sequences, i do agree that cable's quality far surpasses that of satellite. high winds, rain, snow, even heavy cloud without precipitation, and (ahem!) neighbouring trees are no problem.

cable's also simpler and less expensive than satellite for start-up. the receivers are comparable in price, and installation of a dish is included in your satellite receiver purchase, but since bell doesn't have an authorized installer in the horse, you'll have to save your receipts and apply for a $99 credit on your account. if you want hd in the north, you'll also have to shell out for a second dish plus installation - good luck getting bell to reimburse you for that - as much as they tell you that you only need one dish, look around - in copper ridge especially - and you can tell who has bell hd service by the number of circular dishes on their roof-tops.

oh - and if you get satellite, don't move. if you do move, take you're dish(es) with you! even tho bell tells you to leave 'em behind for the next guy and they'll give you a new one (only one, of course), that offer is not valid here because they have no authorized installer. at least if you take your dishes with you you'll only be dinged for any installation costs over and above $99 (which, again, you have to apply for credit to your account) and not $150 per replacement dish as well.

one thing i will give expressVu credit for is their programming and their monthly charges. i love my nhl centre ice package, they have lots of channels in lots of timezones and lots of hd channels (um...all of them, i think...). and you can't beat their price - even if you were to get whtv's discount for their complete package for 110 bucks, you'd pay a few dollars less per month for bell's (almost) 'the works' and still get way more channels - time-shifted national networks, specialty and hd channels.

so what's all this blathering boil down to?

if you want access to pretty much every channel available in north america AND money (and your time) are no object with respect to setup costs or hassles when moving, AND you have an unobstructed view to the southern horizon (no trees, mountains, etc) that's also sheltered from our strong southerly winds AND you don't mind not being able to watch tv when it's pouring rain outside and there's nothing better to do, then satellite is for you!

if, on the other hand, you're a relatively normal television viewer, you really can't go wrong with whtv's digital cable service. you can't beat the easy setup, local tech guys/gals who actually know what they're talking about, and weather-resistant transmission. they may be lacking in content right now, but they're still fledglings in digital services compared to other national providers. in time, as long as the demand is there, i'm sure they'll be getting more and more channels. (psst!....glenn!.... centre ice, please!) i just wish whtv had had hd programming back when i first got my hdtv a couple years ago - i could have saved myself a lot of money and stress.

(think howard cosell:)
<ding!, ding!> WINnah....by technical knock-out...and STILL heavyweight champeen of the WOILD....

Aye, aye, oh, shake your foundations...!

with aplogies to ac/dc!

here's the details on this morning's quake.

i remember one back around the late '90s - the experience this time ranks right up at the top with that one. not sure how much it would affect one's perception of a quake, but at that time i was living in a 2nd-floor apartment while this time around i was in my basement office at home.

we just moved from a mobile home in mountainview place where a scratching dog or a decent gust of wind could make the place jiggle a bit, so that's what i thought the quake was when it started. it didn't take long, tho, to remember i don't live there anymore and realize, 'oh...ok...a earthquake.' for some strange (dumb?) reason, i just sat in my chair wondering, 'hmm...i wonder how big this one'll get.' by the time i clued in and started moving towards the door (frame), it was over. couldn't have been more than 10 seconds, but it took about 10 minutes for my heart rate to go back down.

i mentioned my lack of need of coffee to a colleague this morning. he used to live in california and says that, even so, quakes still, 'scare the crap out of him.'

What the BLEEP Do We Know!?

i got the quantum edition of bleep for christmas. i watched the director's cut of the theatrical version over the holidays and just finished my last session of the 5 hours+ quantum edition. if, like i have, you've ever looked up at the sky and wondered what's on the other side of all those stars, or wondered what life'll be like after you die, you have to see this movie. even if you haven't wondered anything like that, you still should see it. check out the synopsis of the film and the rest of the bleepin' site, for that matter - lots of neat stuff to explore.

diamond holder

ha! i was just playing the Reader's Digest Daily Crossword - the clue was, 'diamond holder, e.g.' - 4 letters ending in 'fe'. first thing that popped into my head? wife. the real answer was 'safe'.

il divo

sorry, i just couldn't help myself:

(mouse-over me!)

awesome beer commercial

christina got this great commercial [.avi, 2.48 MB] from a friend via e-mail. anyone who knows christina and me wouldn't be surprised that we like it so much:

1. it's the brand of beer i drink
2. i'm a flames fan, christina is an oiler-lover

enjoy!

secret life of anderson varejao

anderson varejao plays for the cleveland cavaliers:

and moonlights as a cartoon character?

coincidence? conspiracy? you be the judge...

toothpaste

it's too bad more things in life (especially money) aren't like a tube of toothpaste - it just keeps coming out, seemingly without end. it feels like a year, but probably only a month or so ago, i saw that my tube of toothpaste was getting low and bought another. a month later, i'm still squeezing another brush's-worth out of the tube. if only i could flatten, roll-up, and fold-over the 'spout' of my bank account and have a few more mortgage payments come out....

man, i love sport....usually

thought i'd re-publish this entry from february with an update from tsn's web site. dunno what he's going to do with 5.2 tons of maple syrup, but it's the thought that counts, right?

--- snip ---

as you probably know by now, sara renner and beckie scott won silver for canada in the women's team sprint today. sara broke a pole half-way through the race and, in a commendable display of olympic spirit and sportsmanship, a norwegian coach handed her a replacement mere strides later. what makes this event even more impressive is the fact that norway's ella gjomle and marit bjorgen finished fourth. we can all do the math - if not for the actions of that coach, the norwegian team, in all likelihood, would have medaled.

do you think this coach considered the impact to his team before acting? probably as much as he considered how much impact his actions would positively impact my (and, I'm sure, many other canadians') feelings towards norwegians. for the rest of these olympics, if I can't cheer for canada in an event, I'll be cheering for norway.

in stark contrast are the comments by u.s. women's hockey team member, angela ruggiero. these hypocritical comments really ticked me off, especially when canadian team members had already admitted that, yeah, it sucks - but what are you supposed to do? i didn't see the u.s. games against switzerland and germany, but I don't think they were playing with only 4 skaters or maybe wrong-handed sticks, just be be 'fair'. and does she expect us to believe that team usa doesn't care about getting any advantage they can, even if it is only home-ice advantage? did they only play at 50 or 75% because they didn't want to embarrass anyone? i'd like to hear her coach respond to these questions....she might not be the coach for long....

i've played lots of sports, and i'd much rather get my bum spanked by an opponent that outclasses me, than have them take pity on me and not play the game the way it's supposed to be. there's no better way to learn and improve than to face 'the best' - and if that opponent can show some sportsmanship in the process, we're all that much better for it.

good consumer karma

all of us, especially those of us who live in more remote areas and use the 'net and mail order more often than the norm, have had some bad consumer luck. my most recent episode of consumerism was so good, that i feel compelled to blog and thus cultivate some good consumer karma to offset the bad:

i mentioned it on one of andrew's posts. a while back i ordered a home theatre receiver and speaker package from futureshop. after hours of rearranging the living room and running and hiding all the speaker wires, i finally managed to fire it up. unfortunately, there was a distinctive lack of bass - my sub was d.o.a.. after much reading, phoning and gnashing of teeth, i was told that i had to ship my entire package (all the speakers - not just the defective part - and the receiver, oh...and the wires, too) back to future shop, at my own expense (which would be considerable - well over a 100 bucks), at which point they'd refund my credit card charge, and i could re-order.

well, there was no way in hell that was going to happen. between the time it would take to undo all the wiring, and hook my old system back up, plus the cold, hard cash to ship it all back, i could just go buy a new sub locally, or just keep using my old one. and so, i decided, before i totally give up on it, i'd open up the new sub and see what i could see...maybe there's an easy fix. (yeah, yeah, fat chance, right?) well, after a $10.99 investment at canadian tire for a set of hex keys, i opened 'er up and, lo and behold, the main wiring harness from the rear inputs had become detached from the pcb (primary circuit board). 5 minutes later, we were all hooked back up, and running the thx optimizer.

now, you're probably wondering what all this has to do with cultivating good consumer karma. read on for, "the rest of the story....": i was feeling pretty good about my decision to save a hundred bucks and a couple hours...for a week or so....until the sub checked out....again. i opened 'er up (again), and it didn't take long to notice the burnt out fuse on the pcb. i headed down to radio shack to find a replacement, but no dice. even looked on-line, but couldn't get one unless i wanted a few hundred of 'em. as a last resort, i decided i'd contact the manufacturer and see if they'd send me a new fuse. with much skepticism, i fired an email off to athena technologies. to my utter surprise, i promptly received a response saying that, yeah, they could do that, but if the fuse was blown, the main board's probably shot, too. so, we tried a couple fuses, and they both blew. i was starting to think my luck had run out, but no sooner had i informed my tech guy at athena that the fuses were a no-go, than there was a brand-spanking new board on the way. a few screws and some heat-transfer paste later, i'm laughing....again...

the moral of the story? there do exist some kick-ass companies out there - usually smaller ones - that, like athena (a division of audio products international corp.), value their customers and will, "make it right."

as a further example, take my most recent good consumer karma: a while back i ordered a roll-up screen door from secret screen to keep the cats & dog out of the bedroom (it gets too cold in there with the door closed in the winter). there was some minor damage during shipping, but they were more than happy to send replacement parts. a couple months later, the retraction mechanism failed and it started flying up like a blind from a loony toons cartoon (thankfully, no one ended up wrapped up in it, like on tv). after a couple troubleshooting attempts, they sent us a new one - no charge for shipping, they didn't even ask for the old one back. now that's how you do business.

so - i think it's only fair, after being treated so well by a couple first-class companies, that i return the favour:

if you're ever looking for speakers, look for the athena brand-name - they'll treat you right.

if you're ever looking for a screen door, check out secret screen - first-rate service.

there...we can only hope that what goes around, comes around.... :)