Sander Wolf

I know that pictures don’t really steal your soul. I know that once I’ve posted stuff to the internet whether on Facebook, Linkedin, MySpace, this website, or any others that it’s pretty much out there for the world to see with no expectation of privacy. However, that doesn’t mean that you can take images and other information I’ve posted and repurpose them. This has just happened with a new site called spock.com. Do a search for me there and you see my smiling face. It’s an image they’ve downloaded from (probably) MySpace and stuck on their servers. Now it shows up in response to a search for my name. There’s also some other information there that isn’t accurate. Apparently, their algorithm has semi-conflated me with someone from the Netherlands. Now, I’m well aware that there are other people with my name (and that’s a whole other story), but piecing my info and their’s together seems particularly, well, rude. If you’re going to steal my image at least attribute it correctly.

I sent them a “take-down notice” via their feedback page. They replied that, “My guess is that your search result came from publicly available information from your various social networking sites.” Well, duh. But just because it’s publicly available doesn’t mean it can be used where I haven’t given permission. And I haven’t.

I started losing satellite channels a couple weeks ago. The Dish 622 upstairs seemed to be ok, but my older receivers stopped being able to get Bravo and some other stations. I scheduled a Dish tech to come out and fix it (after signing up for their maintenance plan), but I had done a couple of system resets and switch tests so by the time the guy came out everything was working again. He told me to cancel the service call and I did.

About a month later it got worse. I am now missing at least a dozen or so channels. I called Dish on Saturday. It took 15 minutes to reach a tech, but once I did they ran me through pressing menu - 6 - 1 - 3, waiting for the status to be 100% complete, then pressing Details. It showed this:

LNB Drift Detected…
110 (e -7.01) 119 (e -6.57) 129 (e -11.73)

The tech said that means that the 129 LNB is bad. They said that anything over 8 is cause for replacement. None of the techs had ever had me run that test before and it did seem like all the bad channels were on the 129, so I’m convinced that I need a new 129 LNB. The tech said that they could have someone out on Thursday between 12 and 5 to do the replacement. That wouldn’t be a huge problem except that I’ll probably be in the office on Thursday. I asked if anyone could come out sooner to replace the LNB. They said that they couldn’t schedule anyone, but they would be happy to give me a list of local retailers that I could call. The idea being that one of them might be able to come out sooner. Dish said that either way it would be covered under my maintenance plan.

I got these numbers from the Dish tech:

972-422-5900 Camera & Video Clinic — busy signal

972-267-3474 Satellite Guys — left a message, still haven’t heard back

This company answered my call:

888-368-4334 US Satellite Wholesale

I spoke with Lorraine who sounded very nice. She said that they had openings for tomorrow. I could pick 8-noon or noon-5. I said 8-noon sounded good. She said, ok, but we can’t place the service call, Dish has to do it. I should call up Dish and tell them to place the call under tech #8704 — otherwise I’ll have to pay for it.

So I call up Dish again and wait 15 minutes for a tech. They tell me that the retailer needs to create the service ticket, not Dish. I call Lorraine back. She says that’s not true and double checks with her supervisor and with Dish while I wait. She stands firm that it’s Dish’s responsibility. I call Dish back up and wait another 15 minutes. They tell me that they really, really, truly can’t initiate that ticket and the retailer should call in the ticket on Dish’s retail services number.

I talk to Lorraine again and tell her that. She says she’ll check and call me back. She calls me back 5 minutes later and lets me know that someone will be by tomorrow between 8 and noon.

—–

Next Day

—–

I get woken up at 6:45 am by the field tech from US Satellite Wholesale. He’s calling because he wants me to tell him why he needs to come out. I tell him 6:45 am on a Sunday is kinda early for me. He’s not really concerned about that and wants to know what parts to bring. I tell him to bring a couple of LNBs.

At about 8:30 am the field tech knocks on my door. I open it up and he immediately says he can’t work on my dish because it’s on the wrong side of the house and not grounded. He says he can’t “resume responsibility” for that. That surprises me because I thought that he was sent by Dish and would have authority to deal with anything that would come up. He says that the company who initially installed my dish should come out and fix it instead. My initial install happened about 7 years ago and I have no idea who did it and if they’re even still in business. I call Dish up while he’s in the house to try to get this sorted out. The Dish tech basically tells the guy to leave my house (I was about to kick him out anyway just because of his rude and aggressive attitude — while I’m on with Dish he radios in to his company to explain to them how I’m forcing him to stay at my house even though he can’t do anything for me). I ask to be transferred to someone else. While I’m on hold the field tech leaves. I tell him he’s unprofessional. He tells me that that’s my opinion. I tell him that it certainly is and gosh, isn’t it my opinion that matters in this instance?

Eventually, I get a Dish rep. who tries to help. From him I get that the field tech should have fixed whatever problems came up. He schedules an appointment for a Dish-badged tech to come out on Saturday. I ask to speak to a supervisor to try to sort out which techs can do what and why there’s a difference. He puts me on hold for about 5 minutes. When he comes back he says he’s talked to the supervisor and they’ve gone ahead and given me a 2 week credit and refunded my trip charge for the field tech. The supervisor is too busy to actually talk to me.

To be continued… Meanwhile, can someone tell me how Top Chef is coming along?

I’m on hold with Apple technical support and the hold music is Peter Gabriel’s “Don’t Give Up.” Peter Gabriel and Kate Bush are telling me, “Don’t give up/You have friends.”

Brillant.

So I’m in the market for two or three electronic things now:

* a multi-function printer to replace my current printer and scanner
* a flat screen TV (40-42″ LCD) to replace a 37″ tube in the bedroom

You’d think that with CompUSA (my one-time employer) and Tweeter closing most of their stores in my area that I’d be able to get a great deal. But, at best, I found only overpriced stuff offered at a non-internet beating 10% off. In fact, the only thing at Tweeter that looked interesting was their comfy chairs. But, despite the “NOTHING HELD BACK” sign on the front door the chairs were not for sale. Plus, we were told, the employees already have “dibs” on them.

I’ll put forth the argument that with eBay, Craig’s List, Froogle, and the like that there really aren’t any great deals anymore. It’s easy to find the going rate for an item and just as easy to sell it for that rate. Why give me a $200 discount on a $1200 TV when the store can stick it on eBay, ship it back to their online warehouse, or sell in bulk to a reseller who will fence it online?

So I continue to scour dealmac.com for TVs and printers, but $10 says I’ll just buy everything from Costco.

Millions Complain About New Holiday HDTV Sets

Like I’ve been saying, this stuff isn’t easy to buy, install, nor use. I’d like to see more articles like these and less that assume it’s a piece of cake to get HDTV and 5.1 sound in place.

Aloha –

Our trip is over but we have the pictures and doctors’ bills to remember it by. Take a look at the pictures:
Maui

Mahalo,

– Sander

ssssshhhehhhhhshhhhmmmm
it’s always there now
pehwssssssshhhh
even when I turn up the volume to mask it
fwoooooshhhssssss
static, noise, distortion?, hiss
hussssssssssssss
but where’s it coming from? How can I get static when going from a lossless file in iTunes to the Airport Express then via an optical cable to the amp?
eeeeeeesssssssssssseeeeeeessssssssssssssssss
It’s driving me crazy.

I think it started because of another mystery barely solved: The Case of the Non-Working UHF remote. I’ll save that story for another day. It involves packing tape.

How did I fix a big part of it?

I moved the amp a smidge to the right. Why would that matter?

Still waiting for Dish’s software update so that I can get my HDMI input working again. In the meantime, the component is working pretty good and it does make the switching easier on the amplifier. Now I only need one remote to go from Dish to DVD. (That’s because when I bought the amplifier I didn’t feel like paying an extra $400 to get the Denon that had HDMI switching.) So now the Dish and the Playstation (which doubles as my DVD player) all route through the Denon. Used to be that the Dish ran straight into the LCD’s HDMI input. I still say the HDMI’s cleaner, but I’d bet I couldn’t tell if the two weren’t side-by-side. Maybe I’ll spend that saved $400 on a new center speaker…

The Dish is cool in that it can decode over the air HDTV signals and integrate the stations into the normal schedules, etc. It’s just like they’re regular satellite channels, although they show up as a different color in the guide. When I record something I generally like to record off of the local signal. I figure it’s free, it’s probably less compressed, and it’s a couple seconds earlier (since it doesn’t have to go up and down hundreds of miles before it gets to me). That last part is a little silly, I admit, but it just seems more pure to go with the over the air signal. The problem is that my reception isn’t always so great. I have an old-school seven or so foot antenna wedged into the attic, but still (according to the Dish receiver) my signal strength only rates about a 66 out of 100 for most over the air channels. Anything below 60 or so won’t even tune in via the Dish (there’s an error message instead).

So when a station’s reception isn’t great it’ll show up in the picture. I’ll see lots of lazy pixels or smeared images. Sometimes it’s no big deal, but sometimes it makes the show unwatchable. It’s unpredictable. I’d just record the locals via the Dish’s retransmission because it’s cleaner, but I’m not sure how to set that up (the automatic recording seems to prefer the over the air signal) and it just feels — wrong. Luckily, a second-hand Radio-Shack signal amplifier inserted before the antenna splits off into each room of the house solved the problem. A low-tech solution to a high-tech problem.

Like a moth, I’m drawn to these: Smith & Wesson Galaxy 3 Flashlight Combo

It’s a set of three flashlights. Each uses two sets of LEDs (one white and the other either blue, green, or red). I have no use whatsoever for them that my Maglight (slogan: It’s never dark in America. France is however a different story apparently.) can’t handle. Still, if you’re a member of Costco and have $54 laying around unused, I’ll happily provide my address.

Part of the trouble with any new technology is that the “early adopters” often run into a ton of problems with it on its way to maturity. A lot of times I’m one of them. I got an AOL account when you could still get one that resembled your name (but now can’t get it to work on Mac OS X). I’ve beta tested all sorts of unusual software (and caused customer down-time when it broke). I had an iPod before most of my friends (and thanks to AppleCare am now on my third unit). But I didn’t realize when I first started setting up my home theater how bleeding edge it really was. TV just doesn’t seem like something new and different. I mean, I’ve been watching it since I was a baby. But when you run into problems like the one I’m in the middle of now, you begin to realize how flimsily strung together this implementation of the semi-new technology is.

I turned on my Dish/TV/Amplifier a couple nights ago and instead of seeing high definition brilliance I saw a blue screen. I still heard everything in glorious 5.1, but no picture. Hmmm. Must be a bad HDMI cable. No, maybe the TV’s gone bad, it was kinda cheap for 1080p wasn’t it? How ’bout the Dish 622? Crap.

Normally, you’d try to troubleshoot. Use a spare HDMI cable. Can’t. The thing was too expensive to buy two of them. Plug another device with an HDMI output into the TV. Don’t own one. The composite video out from the Dish worked ok (but was obviously less pretty) so I just used that for the night. I called Dish the next day to see what they had to suggest. I spoke to a tech who said, oh yeah, that’s a known issue. The HDMI just goes out after a while. We’ll download a fix to your box in September or October. His supervisor said the same thing. They credited a week’s worth of service to my bill, but wouldn’t send me a new receiver. I’m not happy about that. On their suggestion I hooked the component out from the Dish 622 into my receiver which then goes into the TV. So now I still technically get HD, but it’s not quite as nice. Well, honestly, it’s not that much of a difference. It is noticeable though.

Apparently HDMI and HDTV still has bugs, and I (like a whole lot of other people) just got nicked by the bleeding edge of technology again.