You don't get to make up facts and say that masks didn't prevent Covid transmission. They did. You don't get to lie and say the 2020 election was stolen. It wasn't. The closer we get to Trump being convicted, the more we recognize that he's a failed candidate who has manipulated the uneducated into thinking he's anything more than a snake oil salesman.
Poor strategy
Republicans know they can't win back the presidency with Trump as the nominee, but instead of nominating a solid candidate like Haley or Scott, they'll let Trump get slaughtered facing an incompetent, old man with a 33% approval rating (Biden). Republicans are our own worst enemy.
Replies (14)
Re: Poor strategy
Ok, ok, ok - going way off-tangent with the high-jacking, but have been patiently waiting for a specific news blip somewheres here to post input on the Spectrum - Disney challenges, which I had assumed affected this area with the blacking-out of Disney stuff on the Spectrum cableTV area, and the implied larger implications on the payTV markets going forward, with two large providers willing to take each other down in the spirit of cutting one's nose off to spite their face ... but so far, nothing live, local, nor otherwise.
Hmmm, general observations seems to be a failure of 'you get what you pay for', and a twist for the end-users on having here a resulting failure to communicate.
Gonna sound like a broken record with the following, which in itself timestamps me. :-)
Still suggesting antenna TV as an option for this situation, as well as previous recent newsblips where it had been reported that many streaming services were increasing their fees and also where DISH dropped carrying Fox23 and WDKA49 back in Nov2022.
According to this site's estimate's - https://rabbitears.info/searchmap.php - a good indoor antenna in Cape should pick up channels 8, 9, 12, and 23 for a total of 18 main- and sub-channels.
Gets a bit iffy whether indoor antenna reception would also pick up channels 6, 10 (channel 3 local repeater channel), 27, and 49 for an additional 19 main- and sub-channels, however, an outdoor antenna should get 'em all.
Going to extremes, use of an amplifier and also benefitting from a higher than average surrounding location or putting an antenna way on up there should also receive channel 3 for an additional 5, and maybe-possibly channel 29 most of the time for an additional 4.
Of course, inserting the obligatory 'results may vary' but makes for 46 total channels from 10 stations reasonably possible, which after culling through the duplicated and no-interest-here broadcasts still offers over 30 channels of different programmings.
Before one gets too excited, suggest to pull up http://www.titantv.com or http://www.ontvtonight.com/guide, punch in the ZIP code and select the 'Broadcast TV' for a schedule listing for this area of the coming week or so, to see whether the currently offered programming is of interest and subsequently worth pursuing. Selecting a given program on either site will bring up a short synopsis of the program or episode.
There are also boxes available, such as Tablo, AirTV, and HomeRunHD to name a few, which offer the ability to piggyback over one's home wireless router, such that the cable feed from the antenna needs only to go to this box, which then wirelesses the live TV signal to one or to multiple wireless-ready, or FireStick or Roku accessorized TVs within range.
Eliminates the need, hassle, and related costs to extend cable to each and every TV, plus these boxes also offer abilities similar to the old VHS or Beta VCRs, only with much-much easier-to-program as well as simultaneous multi-channel playback / record features.
These boxes seem to run from $100 to $500 depending on features, storage capacity, optional one-time subscriptions for advanced features, etc. Or, can simply string and split cable all over the house for just the live TV, whichever works best for intended usages and within budgets.
Although my need has long passed, still haven't identified anyone in the Cape area offering one-stop shopping for the purchase and complete installation of an outdoor antenna with related alignments and cable runs, nor setting up these repeater boxes for the technology-challenged users, so there's that hurdle for the non do-it-yourselfers.
No idea on current pricing, but figure a good indoor antenna would run about $50, estimate materials for an outdoor installation with code-required grounding, mast, mounts, and such would be $300-$400, and guessing a professional installation, if available, would be about equal to the cost of materials again, so $600-$800 total.
When cableTV was dropped here 45 months ago, was paying $100 per month for an expanded package bundle plus the necessary rental on two double-secret super-special Charter conversion boxes, so am already well beyond my return on investment, and after the initial transition, haven't missed pay-TV at all, although do watch some of the no-cost streaming stuff.
Simply offering up the antenna route as one alternative to save a bit of money and frustrations, though stuck with programming selections available and the upfront investment involved to achieve zero cost going forward. Savings not only with a dropping of traditional cableTV bundles, but also offering the opportunity to either drop or scale back on the paid subscription streaming services.
-- Posted by fxpwt on Sat, Sep 9, 2023, at 8:15 PM
Eh, perhaps the previous post was much a-do about nuthin', at least in this most recent case.
"Disney had pulled the stations it owned from the Charter-owned Spectrum TV system on Aug. 31, including ESPN, ABC, National Geographic and FX."
"Under the deal, the Disney+ and ESPN+ streaming services will be made available to Spectrum cable customers at no extra cost, which Disney had initially balked at."
"Charter had made noises about getting out of business of cable with ESPN entirely, and had even told its customers about other ways to access the network. "
"In essence, the deal allows both Charter and Disney to have their hands in both cable and streaming while waiting to see how those businesses shake out in the coming years."
But, wait... "Charter’s “carriage” fee to Disney — what it pays for access to their networks — is expected to increase..." Figure another instance of the infamous trickle-down economics is fixin' to happen for subscribers.
Figure one isn't truly stuck until out of ideas. For those who are running out of money before running out of month, still suggest looking hard at recurring bills for ways to save, such as implementing a no-recurring cost antenna to reduce or eliminate amounts regularly paid for subscription viewing entertainment.
-- Posted by fxpwt on Mon, Sep 11, 2023, at 6:24 PM
All of that work to watch TV, when other than the news and the weather, you would be as well or better off reading a good book.
-- Posted by Have_Wheels_Will_Travel on Tue, Sep 12, 2023, at 8:55 AM
-- Posted by Have_Wheels_Will_Travel on Tue, Sep 12, 2023, at 8:55 AM
Heheheh, yeah, looking back, a bit more effort than I would've taken on, had I known from the get-go what all could be involved. Kinda humorous here, fitting in well with past experiences, that knowing what I know now, could've gotten 90% of the results with only about 20% of the effort. D'Oh!
Turned into kinda twist on a car hobby, where instead of soupin' the motor up reaching for every possible horsepower, gots some enjoyment drawing from past now-diminishing knowledges and abilities, dinking around and trying this-n-that to reliably receive all that is reasonably possible in this area.
Realize done wore this topic smooth-out with the various postings, still baffled given all the griping and grousing heard about payTV costs and service reliabilities and programming stabilities, whether streaming or traditional cable, about the apparent lack of interest and dearth of available how-to information with this viewing alternative.
Been a long time since I read a book, good or otherwise, just no longer have the want-to to stick with it through its entirety. Movies also fall into the same category. Prefer to stick with the shorter magazine-type articles and newspaper-type columns for the readings, and the half-hour shows for the watchings.
-- Posted by fxpwt on Tue, Sep 12, 2023, at 10:07 AM
Fxpwt, didn't mean to discourage you, I am not a TV watcher. Have plenty to keep me occupied. Wife who is pretty much homebound and in need of care watches a lot of MeTV. In The Heat of the Night is playing right now. And next comes the Waltons.
I pay the price and go on.
Been to Sparta MS and if that Heat of the Night was for real.... Sparta would be a ghost town. They kill at least one a day there.
I think your dedication to a project is admirable. And I am sincere about that. I am not a dedicated reader either. Right now I have just started reading a book on Organizing Your Genealogy. A book I should have Had over 10 years ago.
Fxpwt, come to think of it, that would be a project for you. You will never get finished with it. About 8 or 10 years ago an old high school teacher I had a relationship to worked on a project involving Genealogy for a bit. He turned over about 250 rolls of 35mm film taken in the late 40's through about the mid 50's and said I am giving these to you, maybe you can do something with them, I cannot. Got 108 rolls digitized, then had to quit to be a caregiver. I will or will not finish them. If not maybe someone else will.
Someone told me a long time ago... Everyone is crazy in their own way and for the life of me I cannot remember who it was.
Keep on keeping on don't let anyone stop you from doing what you feel good about. More productive than arguing politics for danged sure.
-- Posted by Have_Wheels_Will_Travel on Tue, Sep 12, 2023, at 12:02 PM
-- Posted by Have_Wheels_Will_Travel on Tue, Sep 12, 2023, at 12:02 PM
No worries here, Wheels, all good.
Yep, agree that to each their own, this 'cut the cable' pursuit has been one of my things, to the point of maybe oversharing irrational exuberances on findings and results. :-)
Suppose the initial driver launching my quest was saving money, or probably more accurately put as screening the larger expenses across the board for the feel-good benefit that the value being received from the goods or services was in line with the assigned value of what was being spent. Came up short on cableTV, and so off we went.
/****/
Haven't dove off into family history as you have, although it intrigues me. Got all the dots connected back to the great-great-grandparents.
Folks at FindAGrave.com, especially the local admins for the various cemeteries in the area, have been helpful to document the links for future reference.
Still hanging out there for me is to document the tree with all the indirect relations - aunts, uncles, the 'once/twice/thrice-removed', etc. as well as scrounge up more personal information on all, such as occupations, educations, memberships & organizations, etc. Just needs to scrounge up another one of those 'round tuit's first. :-)
-- Posted by fxpwt on Tue, Sep 12, 2023, at 12:59 PM
Fxpwt, I have info scattered all over the place. Churches are a good place for information. Some kept records better than others. I have some from Baptists to Catholics. Lutherans and Catholics were some of the better record keepers. Problem with some, the Church burns, there went the records. And then there is the cemetaty crawling, reading tombstones. I have one from Holland with a French name. Went back to an Officer in Napoleon's army marrying a Dutch gal and having one son then getting himself killed in Spain. Missing some in between and a Great Great Grandfather who showed up in Bollinger County.
It's a lot of fun but sometimes frustrating. They changed their names sometimes as well , and without government help. I know a name, that entered SEMO as Braamhaar and left as Bramer, married a daughter of the French named Dutchman.
-- Posted by Have_Wheels_Will_Travel on Tue, Sep 12, 2023, at 1:52 PM
Ah, forgot about my other sorta technical diversion around the house, since I had to work on it this afternoon - the surveillance system.
Put one in at the other house wayback in the mid-aughts, when I was doing a lot of extended travels to faraway places like Italy, Germany, Holland, Canada, and even foreign places where they talk funny like Wisconsin and Georgia.
Mainly for peace-of-mind, being able to peek in, and reducing needs for friends and family to check on the place while gone.
Felt naked at the new place without one, so put one in here as well, again, for the peace-of-mind. Figured may not be able to catch any errant souls in the act, but at least would have a record of what went on, and when. So far, it's been mainly deer vandalizing my landscaping. :-)~
Has come in handy with the ingress of rental trash, still gots the video of the numbnut taking on the whole platoon of the police in MY yard back in June, as well as what time they threw their beer cans in my yard as well as when their dog crapped full front and center of my yard over several days.
At any rate, current system has been in place about 8 years, and two of the cameras are starting to occasionally freak out. Eh, it's about time, as that's what the salesman said these cameras typically last.
Put the system in about the time the wireless stuff was coming on, but the general advice was to stick with the wired cameras until the wireless improved on broadcast range and stuttering and pixelling.
So while changing these cameras out, lotta memories of this fat boy creeping all through the attic stringing cable came back - don't be punching a foot or other body part through the ceiling, the struggles of my head position out near the soffits where either my nose was in the dust covered insulation or the back of my head was into a roofing nail, tacking all the cables on the bottom side of the trusses so as not to damage on future trips up in the attic and also not be damaged on future roof replacements.
Amazing how the price has changed - when I put these in wayback, the individual price per camera was $200, the current replacements are physically about half the size with improved resolution as a bonus and cost $24 each.
Patting myself on the back between this and my antenna foray, where most folks would just call someone, take pride in being able to say, right, wrong, or otherwise - I did that!
-- Posted by fxpwt on Tue, Sep 12, 2023, at 6:02 PM
Fxpwt, In my years I have lived in a number of places and environments from a sleeping room to a 5 bedroom.home and a good number of tweens. Currently in a Villa situation that we purchased as a developing wreck and remodeled. This one is the first one with a full blown security system with cameras because we did a total remodel and security system with wired cameras. If we had not been doing a remodel anyway , I don't know how this young man, a cousin would have done it. The entire first floor with the exception of bathrooms is vaulted or cathedral ceilings. scissors trusses with a 30 ft span and 5 -12 pitch outside and 3 - 12 pitch inside. Very little crawl space at peak and next to nothing at outside walls plus if you crawled down there you would practically be standing on your head. Better have a rope tied on your leg so if you passed out the Fire Dept could rescue the carcass. We replaced some of the ugly hanging fixtures close to the peak with recessed fixtures and adding some without having to get in the attic. Only one trip into that attic was necessary. I have three hardwired smoke detectors with battery backups within a foot of the peak. One of them next to an area right next to an open stairwell going to a finished room at walkout basement level. Guess who won't change his own batteries since our Fire Dept offers that service to old fools. And a better than 20 foot drop is not in this height sensitive individual's playbook.
-- Posted by Have_Wheels_Will_Travel on Wed, Sep 13, 2023, at 9:01 AM
Fxpt, I found something for you. It makes all of your researching and building of your system worth while.
My security Company that monitors our building puts out monthly notes which I do not always read. But this month I did and while I won't publish who, I don't think they would care if I shared with you.
Here goes.....
The sad reality is that one of the most common ways to watch sports is also one of the worst in terms of picture quality: Cable or Satellite. If that is the only way for your to watch the game, obviously, you should still watch the game! But if you are able to livestream the game or match over the internet, you might want to check into that option go with that option for a few different reasons. The biggest one is compression. Cable and satellite operators have to cram a ton of signal down a pretty small pipe. Even if you have fiber-based cable with loads of bandwidth, cable operators are usually still sending the same bundled signal down that pipe, too. It’s highly compressed so it fits, and lower bit rate and bit depth mean less pixel information and less color information.
Also, if the game is going to be on a big network like ABC, NBC, CBS, or Fox, then you might want to try picking up one of your local broadcast stations with an antenna. The reason either one of those options will probably look better than cable or satellite comes down to a few factors. Using an antenna, as old school as it may sound, can also be a good move to get better picture quality. It’s also less compressed than cable — and it’s free!
The last sentence vindicated you. All of your work produces more than just free. It produces better!!!
Congratulations to you!!!
-- Posted by Have_Wheels_Will_Travel on Wed, Sep 13, 2023, at 1:16 PM
-- Posted by Have_Wheels_Will_Travel on Wed, Sep 13, 2023, at 9:01 AM
-- Posted by Have_Wheels_Will_Travel on Wed, Sep 13, 2023, at 1:16 PM
Heheheh, yeah, special ceilings and such woulda called for a different approach here, the traditional ranch roof with flat interior ceilings was pretty tight with the stooping and stepping and crawling.
One of my longstanding rules has been to not be THAT guy doing silly people tricks that the LEOs and responders have to come rescue - whether stuck in an attic, or making them get out in bad snowy/icy weather to help me out of the ditch.
Ya done gimme another thing to put on my list of things to tinker with - the interconnected smoke / carbon monoxide alarms. Gots the standalone battery-only units around, but striving where feasible and makes sense to get things up to current codes for peace of mind, improved safety and protections, and eventually resale appeal and value.
/*****/
Appreciate the info on the TV picture quality, validates the reading in the antenna ads, but always suspicious about claims made by the folks selling the stuff.
One example of a bogus claim is these 200-mile range antennas - ain't no physical way for that to happen except under very special and narrow circumstances, plus a little irregular atmospheric skip helps out too. :-)~
About 70 miles is reported as the best to hope for on a reliable signal, given the curvature of the earth, the typical heights and emitted power of the broadcast towers, and the electric broadcast signal naturally being pulled to ground from there.
Haven't done a side-by-side comparison on picture quality, as don't have two identical TVs and the cable was cut first as the motivation to gitter dun fast, quick, and in a hurry.
Will say the antenna viewing has been clear and clean-looking with sharp edges and details on the 40-incher, regardless of the signal strength - from KFVS booming and blasting away 8 miles north, to the PBS Paducah station barely staying above the signal drop-out level in clear weather.
-- Posted by fxpwt on Wed, Sep 13, 2023, at 3:28 PM
Fxpet, I hear you on the distance thing. Takes me back to the 50's. Not everyone had a TV yet by any means let alone two or three. But the local Social Club, supposedly adults only were permitted and we played pool as High Schoolers had a TV with an antenna pointed towards St. Louis. It wasn't like watching a snow storm, it was like watching a Blizzard. But hey, it was TV and we did not yet have one at home. Got one sometime in there and Cape got a station that started broadcasting sometime around noon. There was a hill east of us and that is where Cape was located and it was snow aplenty there also. That Test Pattern that came on well ahead of a picture wasn't all that exciting either. Just a little racier than watching the tomatoes grow and ripen.
At any rate there Fxpwt, I think you are ahead of the curve here for quality and cost. I have Three reasons to have a TV.
1. Wife's, who is mobility compromised, entertainment.
2. Weather Reports
3. News Broadcast at least once a day, maybe twice. And 2 and 3 usually come at the same time.
Now it is different at daughter's home. Son-in-law who is retired watches, Baseball, Football, Basketball, Volleyball, Soccer, Softball. Pretty much anything that ends in ball. I have ventured the opinion that he would watch a Chinese Checkers game if they televised it and he wasn't watching something ending in ball. I would almost as soon hoe cockleburrs out of corn rows as watch a televised ball game of any kind. Except I don't think they use hoes anymore, they have spray now.
-- Posted by Have_Wheels_Will_Travel on Thu, Sep 14, 2023, at 1:41 PM
-- Posted by Have_Wheels_Will_Travel on Thu, Sep 14, 2023, at 1:41 PM
Will have to say one thing about the digital conversion that went on back in the latter-aughts, there's no degraded reception as the signal strength drops off. Either it comes in clear as a bell, or there's nothing.
Well, except for that very narrow area periodically experienced only with the Paducah PBS station, which the station survey site says I shouldn't be getting over here no way, no how at all, whenever it falls between 15-17 on the signal strength meter.
Below 15, absolutely nothing, above 17, perfect. But right there in the small sweet spot whenever it's foggy or bad weather between here and there, or strong summer solar activity in the middle of the day - do get the pixelling, screen freeze, and jittery audio - or I suppose the digital equivalent of analog-era 'snow'.
For reference, or just more added useless information - KFVS (Ch12), KBSI (Ch23), even WPSD (Ch6) are all a solid and stable 50+ on this meter.
Eh, neat to boast about what-all I get, and the struggles getting there. Figure much like these 700hp+ rides 'with a HEMI', etc., where with my 'driving' habits, rarely need more than 50hp at any given time. :-)~
The comment about the son-in-law brought a chuckle. Remembering another sports nut observing there could only be one thing possibly more boring than golf on TV, and that would be golf on radio.
-- Posted by fxpwt on Thu, Sep 14, 2023, at 6:16 PM
The comment about the son-in-law brought a chuckle. Remembering another sports nut observing there could only be one thing possibly more boring than golf on TV, and that would be golf on radio.
-- Posted by fxpwt on Thu, Sep 14, 2023, at 6:16 PM
Yeah fxpwt, I forgot about the Golf, he watches that as well.
My office is about 11 X 12 with the one end open to the living room with a couch backed up to that opening to the living room. Private to a degree.as I can look over the back of the couch and see the big flat screen on the wall across the living room. I rarely look up to see what is on and can hear it perfectly well, but it mostly goes in one ear and out the other. I could pretty much care less on what is going on there. I sped a lot of time in here from email, texting and taking care of bills both personal and from my leasing operation. Then there is reading some Genealogy items of interest. Hopefully going to get back into the researching one of these days. My desk tends to look like someone emptied the trash can on it most of the times, but I do give it a bit of a cleaning from time to time. And so far as no one helps me, I -pretty much know where things are. And my two daughters have finally learned to not try to organize me any longer as it leads to unpleasantness. But bottom line, I would many times over rather work, play whatever in there than I would sit in the living room and watch TV. One of these days I am going to get organized, but when I do, it is me going to be doing it so I still stand a chance of finding what I want or need.
-- Posted by Have_Wheels_Will_Travel on Thu, Sep 14, 2023, at 7:05 PM
Menu
Made up facts
You don't get to make up facts and say that masks didn't prevent Covid transmission. They did. You don't get to lie and say the 2020 election was stolen. It wasn't. The closer we get to Trump being convicted, the more we recognize that he's a failed candidate who has manipulated the uneducated into thinking he's anything more than a snake oil salesman.
Poor strategy
Republicans know they can't win back the presidency with Trump as the nominee, but instead of nominating a solid candidate like Haley or Scott, they'll let Trump get slaughtered facing an incompetent, old man with a 33% approval rating (Biden). Republicans are our own worst enemy.
Replies (14)