Sunday, February 22, 2009

DTV and the poor preformance

I'm real disappointed that DTV conversion. Not that it was hard to hook up but the poor signal. In my area of Northern California the power of the DTV transmitters has gone up by 3 but the range has gone down by 3 to 4. Why a million watt transmission can't make it forty miles amazes me. I used to get with analog TV signal San Francisco which is 120 plus miles away at 300,000 Watts. Now with a million watts in my backyard that DTV signal doesn't reach me on a good night. I'd rather see a signal that maybe a bit ghosty but has the sound then a signal that drops out when it looses a few bits.

One thing that's wrong is the high compression ratio. MPEG compression only sees after the first key frame the changes in those frames. So when a minor bit drop happens the whole signal falls apart and takes time to recover getting the key frame which seems to be at least one second.

The audio was suppose to be better like CD quality that is if you can receive the signal. I've noticed that the audio signal comes out about 10 DB's down or 1/2 the signal then analog. I haven't looked into the bit rate of the audio yet to see if it's the same as DVD or CD quality. I do know that it skips like a DVD or CD and drops out like the pictures does.

Cell phones use a bunch of transmitters and receives to make it's system work. I think for DTV to work it's going to have to do the same thing, dozens of low powered transmitter towers spread all over to cover an area. The idea of one big transmitter just doesn't seem to work since weather, static in the air, rain, snow, wind, heat inversion layer all seem to affect the signal. Setting up a bunch of smaller transmitters with over lapping signals might be the way to go.

My video of what DTV looks like if you don't live under the transmitter.
DTV Quality Video

Monday, December 15, 2008

Let me get this right....

Let me get this right....

If you rob a bank and get a couple thousand dollars you go to jail for the same time a broker does for robbing people of 60 billion dollars. Where's my white shirt because there's a good incentive not to rob banks but Wall Street. Seems the people that were rating stocks 8 years ago where brokers paid there rating companies for a favorable rating. The rating companies made out in fees. The brokers got a nice piece of paper saying these stocks were great. They sold the stocks making fees for the transactions. The people that bought the stocks were left holding the bag, a bag of toxic waste. Sound familiar? These same ratings companies rated housing loans that were bundled together. They made favorable ratings and collected there fees. The brokers sold off the toxic laced loan packages. Now the government is bailing them out sort of. Hank Paulson who said we need to buy up those toxic loans but gave the money to his favorite banks where they now sit on the money. His idea was that they were going to loan money and get the economy going except he forgot to have some strings attached saying they have to loan this money they were given, given with no strings, not a loan, just given. Then there's the mortgage backs securities, a insurance company that has nothing to back it's policies up with. Since they were not called a insurance company they weren't regulated. Well if it smells like insurance and works like insurance then it should be regulated like insurance. You don't go to a casino that can't pay you when you win but this was a hedge fund where they only take when things are good, good for them and leave the people holding the toxic waste bag when things are bad. Hank Paulson favoring these Wall Street buddies gave AIG over one hundred billion dollars with no strings, not a loan, just gave them the money.

Lets go back to eight years ago when brokers were selling over rated stocks and walked away with over one hundred billion dollars. The brokers were fined one billion two hundred million dollars and told not to do it again. These were also brokers that contributed highly to the republican campaign which got Bush elected. So I guess they used a favor from someone high up in the Whitehouse because no one went to jail.

Back to today, so far no one has gone to jail for running the country into the ground but were rewarded by money, not a loan, just piles of money. Sounds like what happened in Iraq where piles of money were handed out with no accounting.

The TARP program was suppose to keep people in their houses but Hank Paulson a appointment by Bush favors Wall Street people giving them tons of money while the people paying for this, the tax payer are asking where is this money going? Paulson just saying, "Trust me." Meanwhile the economy is going from bad to worse.

So far there has been over "Two Trillion Dollars" given out, mostly to the presidents friends. A reward as Bush gets ready to leave office. Everyone talked about a October surprise and there was one, seems Bush had to break it and sell it to the public, congress and senate just like the war was sold to the American people. The war made some people rich with no bid contracts. Cheney still gets paid from Halliburton.

Lets see what has Bush done in the last eight years besides running the country into the ground. He's dismantled the EPA to where it's back to or before the EPA was created. His friends manipulated oil prices and made billions of dollars. His friends drove the price of corn up to where renewable fuels were buying corn at eight dollars a bushel and now are selling the alcohol for less then it took to make driving them out of business protecting the oil companies. He's got off shore drilling on the table. Left two wars going and never found his family friend Bin Laden, who I think is in the guest house on Bush's ranch. Lets not forget Katrina and Brownie who was "doing a heck of a job." Government jobs were privatized and those jobs, contracts were given to Bush's friends costing the tax payers more money then if the government was doing the same job.

Just love the guy that through the shoes at Bush in Iraq, what balls and what irony.

Sunday, November 02, 2008

I change my political views like you change underwear

McCain says he's going to protect Social Security but a few years ago he was saying he wanted to privatize it to get a higher return from the stock market. Could you imagine the impact it would be having right now if the republicans would have privitised social security when Bush was on his privitizing rampage as what was done with social security part "D" a big give away to the drug manufacturing compnies where the government pays top dollar for drugs above market price. Another great republican give away. Republicans like make making a failing government and privetizing that same office like outsourcing the military which is coasting billions a week wheather it's money going to Chaney's buddies where Chaney gets a yearly kickback or the private army that is hired to supliment the military in Iraq inplace of using real military at a higher price. The surge where the millitary was increased to the point of the generals prediction of what would it take to control the masses there to install peace in the contry had to have private solders because they ran out of real solders. Still the count was in the 300,000 range. That's why the cost per day is so high, private solders cost a lot more. If we were just using real military and no private compnaies the war cost would be 1/10 the price it is right now but republican investerest need to make money on all situations like war, bailouts or even no child left behind and private schools.

Then again, every day has a new theme to McCain's run. He can't come up with anything on his own and now is copying, "Obama's Change mantra." The "Maverick" thing didn't pan out when people watched the movie "Top Gun" and saw what Tom Cruse's character was as a maverick, a loose canon, someone you couldn't count on. Then going back in history a maverick is a unbranded young cow or stear.

Friday, October 31, 2008

Thou shall not lie, except when you can win a election

Thou shall not lie. Love your neighbor as yourself. Things that so called Totalitarian Christian seem to over look to get their way as they interpret the bible in their own way, making it up as they go. These are the people that if they offer you cool aid you really need to run. When a religion that's based on love is teaching hate it's time to get off the bus.

McCain and Palin, "Miss Chokesondix, Alaska" stopped talking about getting elected to "lets vote against THEM." After all it was Phil Gramm and McCain that supported deregulation of the markets saying they will govern themselves. Who also is afraid of redistributing the wealth downward instead of to the extreme rich. We say that the "Trickle down Economic" really mean pee on the poor and middle class. Hearing Palin's Christian way of thinking it's time to get off the bus. She can still give me a hummer though. How do you think she got to where she is today, it wasn't on her looks.

Why can't Christians tell the truth? It's because they need to dominate over others. Adolf did that too and he was a Christian, a Protestant, a off branch of the Catholic Church which also broke off to the Baptist and a 160 plus other groups. The Nazi's were all Christian. So were the Fascist's in Italy. So religion and government really don't mix

"Born again" could do it right the first time? Needed another religion that suited you, something that was easier to do?

Friday, October 17, 2008

Out of touch from the real worlds needs

After watching the debates and getting bombarded by tons of political commercials I really have to question McCain. He questioned the DNA study of grizzly bears saying it was a waste of time. That's something an old uneducated person would say. Dealing with climate change and global warming, plant migration along with animal migration this would be an important study as I can see it. When you hear the grim outlook for the worlds wild life and extinction on a daily basis. McCain saying why study bears DNA is like saying to Kennedy why go to the moon. Cutting down Obama's earmark for a planetarium projector saying million was too much like he actually knew what he was talking about. Unfortunately he didn't know what he was talking about, not at all. If anyone has ever gone to a planetarium and saw the big menacing machine in the middle of the dome, that's the projector. It projects the planets and stars onto the ceiling of the planetarium dome. The full cost of the planetarium projector is $10 million dollars replacing the 50 or 60 year old projector that has stopped working and the parts for that projector are not made anymore, sort of like the mold for McCain a solder whose days have gone by. McCain's campaign is like watching a monkey in his cage flinging his own feces at the people walking by.

Hearing McCain say, "Obama wants to spread your wealth around." What Obama is saying the wealth is going to the top and the middle and lower class people are being left out of any way of getting wealth. I see McCain protecting the wealthy like all republicans do. What gets me is that the low end of the spectrum republican voters shoot themselves in the foot voting against what would be good for them.

Hearing a woman on the radio today saying she's going to vote for republicans because they have good moral and values. Lady, they would throw you out on the street as much as look at you. They don't care about you. Republicans are about big business and look what unregulated Wall Street has done. Look at what the Credit Card Companies have done they are worst then loan sharks. Mortgages are all messed up and they even have a name for the loans that they made, "Teaser loans." It's not a real loan but a fake loan. They told the people we will sell you this loan package and you can refinance your house in a couple years when the rates change. They even forged documents so people could get the loans with no credit history.

Then there's McCain's buddy Phil Gramm who pushed through the shadiest deregulation laws that hurt the country but helped the rich to get richer. Oil companies that could set the price of oil, again like they would regulate themselves. What did the oil companies do, jack the price up taking there lead from Enron.

I was watching the news a few months ago where a tornado came through a town. The sheriff said, The weather is changing and I don't know why." He was from a red state on that doesn't believe in global warming and the effects of weather pattern change.

When you fight just for the sake of fighting because your republican and then there's those others. I'm totally ready for change and put the republicans on the endangered species list.

Wednesday, October 08, 2008

Why is oil price so high and how Phil Gramm made it that way.

Tired of listening that the market was controlling the oil market? Well come to find out the Phil Gramm earmark caused the problem, The "Enron Loophole" A need to remove the Enron loophole is needed and over sight is needed like it used to be. "Caution: listening to this will make you mad." More drilling will now solve the problem because oil companies are international but they sell the oil not here that's drilled here but overseas so there's no security into more drilling offshore or in Alaska.
Fresh Air podcast on why oil and gas prices went so high so fast.
MP3 download version
For other great podcast shows from Fresh Air

Saturday, September 06, 2008

Little Darwin the runt explorer

Little Darwin the Explorer. Small shy but takes on the larger full grown skunks and doesn't let them push her around. I'm so amazed at these little guys they are so interesting. It's amazes me that they will come to me when I call them by name. Interesting for a wild animal.
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Tuesday, September 02, 2008

Chaney goes to "Stans"

What will happen as Cheney goes to the Stans to check out the flow of oil. If you have been following Cheney's political and work history he's very interested in money and oil and not much else. People still want know if he was drunk when he shot his lawyer friend who he never visited in the hospital. Guess you wouldn't want someone like that stopping by to say get well.

So will Chaney piss off the Russians? What is his devious plan? Is he going to keep pushing Bush to drill off the coasts? Huricare didn't drive the price of gas up but down. It's interesting that when Katrina happened the oil companies stopped pumping oil in the gulf except for the robot wells, which is 500,000 barrels a day one half the amount of oil going through the BP pipeline going through Georgia. There are several other oil and natural gas pipelines running across the country.

It's ironic that the price of oil goes up as McCain's ratings go down. Think it's a wedge issue? Red states are for coastal drilling since they only eat corn and no sea food. Or if you listen to the religious people, "they can destroy the earth any way they want to God said so."

Tuesday, July 29, 2008

McCain sells his soul...

The Devil, big oil and Bush and Chaney pull strings knowing they are going to loose, jack up the price of gas by cutting production to help McCain use this as a wedge issue. If you listen to the oil companies ads they are your friends at least that's what they present as long as you sell the future of the country to them. They will drill and ship United States oil over seas because Americans are saving gas by cutting down driving. Big Oil doesn't care about car makers as you can see the car producers are in the dumps cutting jobs and benefits that were promised to them.

What would McCain be saying if there was enough oil? Nothing.

He flip-flopped on torture. Wire taps without warrants. Wonder if that means anyone in the United States including congress and senators can be listened in on.

McCain used to have morals at one time but facing old age and the last time to run for president he's sold his soul to the dark side.

Even as he gives his speeches he has to use cue card because his poor old mind isn't as sharp as it once was. The adult diaper is a real give away along with skin cancer. He's not to long for this world. His VP should be a good young one to replace him when he kicks off. The stress of the first weeks isn't going to be good for his health.

Give up now and retire with your millions tax dollars per year. Unlike normal Americans that can vote them self raises or get a guaranteed retirement which has been stolen by big business and the republicans, destroying the unions and the standard of life we once knew.

Who wants four more years of the Bush plan. No other country supports McCain. In fact they hate the idea if a republican president.

Friday, July 25, 2008

Can't teach an old dog new tricks


McCain after pooping his diaper complains that Obama doesn't know what's going on although Obama's world tour was treated like a rock star by the people and leaders of other countries. McCain is now leaning "The Google" and trying to send email technology and science along with economics isn't his big suit as he said. Talk about some one flip flopping on ideas to win the support of the repubilcans. He sounds like a broken record calling Obama all sorts of names over and over since he can't come up with any new talking points. His idea to or Bush and Chaney's idea to drill off the coasts and in Alaska's wild life refuge so that oil companies can sell oil over seas if Americans concerve gas and oil. What a deal oil companies get, they get the oil dirt cheap and sell it for a extreme high price. Maybe it's time the Americans take charge of their resources, do what Iraq is doing. Let the oil companies drill and pump out the oil for America. Where America gets the oil and the profits. The idea that oil companies are our friends is redickulous. They don't care about you but only in profits. One of the largest gold mines in the country is being run by a Canadian company. Sortly a Brazilian company is going to start drilling for oil in Utah. Sure the oil companies pay royalties a couple buck on each barrel but not on a sliding price of the market. Seems if companies and countries are going to get out resources out of our lands they sound be used here. All this deregulation that's gone one sure isn't helping me or you or America. If oil comanies do get a okay to start drilling it won't make a difference in the quantity for years to come and if we don't use it, it's going to be sold over seas. That just means to me that McCain is behind big bussiness and big businees doesn't care about you but only cares about profits.

So if you want big business to run your life vote republican. Why people can't see that republicans care about you just gets me. They will say something like, "I'm voting for a party with morals." What kind of morals does a party have if it doesn't value life and starts wars for profits mainly oil profits.

Flickr and it's uploader program

After downloading the Flickr uploader program and installing it I was able to upload one picture in several days. This was better then working off the browser which I didn't upload any. It keeps telling me I have a bad connection and I should wiggle my wires and try again. Maybe they should try wiggling there wires because the problems not on this side. Maybe too many people are using the service and they don't have enough servers.

I did notice that you can now sell pictures and also find picture doing a search which is fine. If you can't upload any pictures then what good is the uploading program.

Wednesday, June 25, 2008

Smoke gets in my eyes


So many fires are burning that there's not enough people and equipment to fight all the fires. A fire near me which was small has been burning for two days when it should have been put out in a few hours two days ago. Fire departments are just protecting houses and letting the fires burn hoping that will burn out.

Crime really pays

A hedge fund manager riped off his costumers to the tune of $450 million dollars. The courts fined him $300 million dollars and sentenced him to a few years in jail. He faked his death and is on the run with $150 million dollars.

Exxon big spill and the law suits by the people of Alaska has been dismissed in the Supreme Court saying the price was too high. So after fighting this case the people and lands of Alaska are the losers. Big Business wins again and gets away with the biggest oil spill in the history of the world and doesn't have to pay for the harm it caused. It also helps when you have radical republican judges who are in favor in the destruction of the planet and all life on it, at any cost. Profit is the motive and I wonder how much the judges were paid by Exxon to make this judgment.

Friday, June 20, 2008

Beihner appears drunk on PBS

Johnny Beihner with his glassy eyes on the PBS News Hour and blames democrats for what is wrong in the world including high gas prices, high health care prices and against a single payer system. I guess it's hard to keep telling lies in public without using your vises to aid you. You can only get behind big business knowing it's wrong when your bought off. It does take it's toll over the years when you can't believe your own words and have to stick to talking point set up by think tanks to stay in power.

Republican manipulate gas prices to win in 2008

Republicans manipulate gas and oil and blame democrats for the problems. When in 2000 Senator Phil Gramm of Texas got a law past for Enron to change the way America's market prices oil. It's also the time of energy deregulation which hasn't worked out too well either. At the time of the republican controlled senate and congress when it was sneaked in and not know by the general public along with the secret energy program developed by Dick Chaney.

If you have been listening to the republicans and president, "Bush" saying it's the democrats fault that they are obstructing oil development when they could have done something while they were in total control. They are now using this to influence voters with a oil scare.

The Enron Loophole lets the market set the price of oil by investors. This loophole can be closed and oil prices can drop within one month, that is if the president is really concerned about the price of oil. But Bush and the republicans are going to use this as a "Wedge Issue" this election cycle. It's just like they used "Gay Marriage" in the 2000 and 2004 elections along with national security.

Everything if you haven't noticed that comes out of the mouth of Bush is a lie and he always does the opposite. He said he wasn't going to be in "Nation Building" but when Diane Feinstein went to the Whitehouse in 2000 she found a map of Iraq posted on the wall and Bush was creaming his pants talking about all the untapped wealth and oil in the Iraqi oil fields. You can download the podcast of her talk about this from the "Commonwealth Club of California." http://www.commonwealthclub.org/

The republicans knowing they can't win this election cycle have pulled this dirty plan out to get people to vote republican.

Like Katrina when the country was flooded Bush was on vacation and this year again Bush was on a European Vacation while the Midwest was being flooded. Again only going to the disaster areas when it was safe and the flood waters have retreated, that is if you remember his big speech at St. Charles Square where he promised to help everyone in the affected areas. Still those areas are being rebuild after the two hurricanes. Texas had no problem of getting aid from the government and was speedily rebuilt without court battles from insurance companies and republican judges voted with the insurance companies that they didn't have to cover people in the affected areas of the South outside of Texas.

Since Bush said he plans now to talk to Iran about the nuclear issue and that everything's on the table. If McCain isn't elected in November I believe that Bush will start bombing Iran before the years end. Whether it's a proxy war don't by another state or is America does it, it's again going to be about oil for his oil buddies.

Tuesday, June 17, 2008

DTV what a scam

Leading up to the big hype about the new Digital Television next year where all these frequencies are suppose to be freed up it's not true, they use the same space and band width as analog TV right now. Depending on when you time of day you setup the tuner depends on how many channels you'll get. Do it at night and you most likely will get more channels which won't work during the day.

You need a large antenna array to get the channels you see now. They need to be pointed at the transmitting antennas.

What gets me is that both analog and digital do the same thing and analog seems to travel farther. It's nice that digital comes in clear and sharp if you can get the channel. Why they don't keep both. This has to be a republican controlled FCC maneuver just like making already large corporations even bigger disregarding what the people of this country has to say about consolidation.

It's the dumbing down of America so people can only get limited amounts of news. If you don't hear about it then you can't be outraged at what the republican government is doing. It's too bad that the K street project has fallen apart and the people involved have gone to jail well some of them have.

McCain wants drilling off California coast.

McCain wants drilling off shore of the California coast. Maybe that would be exceptable if they start storing nuclear waste in Arizona. That would be an exceptable trade off. If he wants to do drilling off California he has to give a little too.

What about drilling in Chaney's back yard? They are pushing drilling in BLM lands and National Forests of Wyoming without paying any royalties to the state of country. A free ride to the oil companies. Seems like if they are taking our reserves of oil from our country they need to pay for it but it's oil men in office. I'm sure they are getting kickbacks.

Yesterday I heard about the loophole that Enron made to change the way the market pays for oil where the market can change the price of oil rather then the market causing the market change. Closing that loophope would take about one month to bring oil back in line with what was going on for the past 70 years of trading.

I still want to see Ken Lays body in the coffin. I still think facing jail time his death was faked since Bush is his buddy.

You can't put 10 gallons in a 5 gallon bucket

People are wondering why there is flooding along the rivers in central United States. With development over the years and building closer and closer to the rivers. Placing bridges over rivers in narrow areas of the rivers blocking the rivers flow in high water years. It's just common scenes you can't put 10 gallons of water in a 5 gallon bucket. Placing levees to hold the water back where the river would have expanded during the high flood years causing the rivers to flow up rather then out in the flood planes. If you go along the rivers you'll see the river high mark areas but for some reason people keep saying, "it won't happen here" when it does flood. People just don't get it that if you build on a flood plane you're going to get wet.

Watching the pictures of the water on the news you can see the bridges near over topping. If you look at that banks of the river there's a long slope except where the bridges are which are build right up to the shore lines of the river, restricting the water flow.

Instead of building the bridge at the high water line they build it at the low water line and figure that the water can flow under the bridge. Mainly it's cost that they do this, cheaping out projects to save money, again saying, "It won't happen here." Well it happened here and is going to continue to happen here as long as you try to fight mother nature and global warming.

My best analogy which I used in several other papers I wrote is, "It's like building a house on train tracks, eventually a train is going to come along."