Cold

So I call TimeWarner to complain about the crappy Scientific Atlanta Explorer 8300HDC box. I had decided not to use the HDMI cable this time around, because last time it gave us all sorts of trouble with the 8300HD. I am sick of these boxes and really would like to use my own equipment. I would rather have MythTV then these crap boxes, however I would have to pay for that, right now TWC is giving me the box for free for a year, so what the heck, I will let them replace the darn box and hopefully might get one that works a little better.

8300HDC
Needs 2 reboots per day
Flashes some message on many channels that the box isn't authorized, reboot Will sometimes clear this message
Very slow
Sometimes it doesn't display a channel or a recording at all
3x is the fastest speed that it will forward :(, however it doesn't have the very Annoying delay that 8300HD had when pressing forward repeatedly. I suspect this was by design, not to skip commercials.


8300HD
This box was no great thing either. However it was more usable then 8300HDC. It did have faster forwarding, somewhat more stable, but still lots of reboots. Seems like MythTV would be a great thing for CISCO's SciAtlanta. The software they currently have stucks. The box might be compatible, maybe it is time to hack it and put MythTV on it. Drivers could be a problem. Anyhow time to Google. Seems like CableCard is PCMCIA, that is great, so maybe I can take this thing out of the box and put it in a computer.

So reading the FCC warning on the cable box gave me a great idea. I could put an antennae on the RF out and do a wireless connection to a TV on channel 3. The message expressly prohibits doing this, but if it hadn't been on there, it would never have dawned on me. I can't imagne that it would bug the neighbors if ch3 was used for this, 2 and 4 have signal, but 3 is empty here :)

Today I decided to boot into Ubuntu 7.10, Gutsy Gibon and so far I love it. Last week my XP wouldn't let me login. I have reinstalled and got to say happy with the results so far.

My YouTube ad generated a call, so I decided to try one for Charles. Feel free to call me if you are interested in hiring either of us, dispite what you may think, the pennies of ad revenue on this page, don't pay for hardly anything, maybe laundry, if I don't mind doing it monthly. Now how to reach me? If I publish a PSTN number here I am afriad I would get all kinds of SPAM calls. So to make price 0 and let you call me if you like, lets try this: find a number at sipbroker.com under PSTN that works for you. Then dial the code for FreeWorldDialup and my number is 630551. You can also reach me in the UK under: 08449334887, however be advised I am in California, therefore PST, is my timezone, UTC/GMT -8 hours. So far Ubuntu has worked with all the websites I go to, the camera, I may be staying in it. In the past I always needed Windows to use some program, but I got to say that Linux is getting easier, Ubuntu is great.

Google Maps is awsome, I decided to review a local tire shop as they were very nice to my wife when she was had a flat. I got to say that these Web2.0 apps are working for me. Everything is very slow, and sometimes FireFox will blow up, especially in Windows, but hey what can you do?