stageleft

Justin introduced me to this little piece of internet radness. Basically, it’s a modern take of making a mixed tape. Whether for a girl or for your buddies, you can do it all here. It’s totally free and streams the music via flash without any quality loss (from what I can tell). Anyways, here’s my muxtape containing some tasty jams I’ve been grooving too. Enjoy.

psychotron.muxtape.com 

WARNING: Total nerdy post ahead based on my limited knowledge of a complex issue

For you San Diego Time Warner Cable (TWC) customers, you may have recently noticed the new program guide on your cable boxes/DVRs. Dubbed Navigator, it is basically Time Warner’s in-house cable box software, which allows them to replace existing licensed software from either Scientific Atlantic (SARA) or Aptiv Digital (Passport). More importantly, it signifies TWC’s move to their switched digital video (SDV) platform.

SDV basically reclaims massive amounts of cable bandwidth by only sending out requested channels. Traditionally, all channels are transmitted over cable lines, regardless of what channel you watch or subscribe to. So, even though you are watching 1 channel, the cable company is still broadcasting numerous unwatched channels, wasting precious bandwidth. This distribution method is the primary technical reason why Time Warner Cable’s HD offerings have been limited and their HD signal quality suspect. The lack of available bandwidth restricts TWC from adding new HD channels. Ever notice your picture turning into a giant mosaic of little blocks momentarily, especially in fast moving scenes? Known as macroblocking, this is a result of cable companies compressing bandwidth-hungry HD streams over their already saturated cable network. With SDV, Time Warner can reclaim large amounts of bandwidth by not broadcasting unwatched channels, thus allowing them to add more HD content and increase bandwidth for existing HD content. Navigator is the software piece that makes this happen.

The largest and most damaging drawback/side effect from the move to SDV is the effect on people who do not use Time Warner supplied hardware. People using CableCARDs in their TVs and 3rd party devices such as a Tivo S3 and TivoHD are SOL for the channels that are distributed using SDV. The hardware, namely CableCARD, and obviously the software will not support SDV. From what I understand, only digital tier channels are slated to be distributed over SDV, namely existing/new HD and seldom watched digital channels. When those channels switch over to SDV distribution, affected customers will not be able to receive those channels, in addition to already not having access to services such as Video-On-Demand (VOD) and Pay-Per-View (PPV). Digital broadcast channels such as CBS, NBC, ABC, and Fox should be unaffected since those channels are required by the FCC to be universally available. Plans to release a special SDV dongle to allow the necessary 2-way communication back to the distribution hub is in the works for Tivo owners and is planned to be released in the 2nd half of this year.

The root of the complicated problem is a mix of issues. Some of these include:

• Cable companies’ move to SDV in order to free up existing bandwidth without having to invest hundreds of millions of dollars in upgrading existing and adding new distribution infrastructure
• Poor, slow adoption and implementation of CableCARDs by cable companies and CableLabs
• Idiotic bickering and bureaucracy between CableLabs, cable companies, and the FCC in developing and enforcing open and standard protocols for 2-way cable communication and distribution

So far, Navigator has been pretty good. It is a tad bit slower than the previous running software (Passport) on my SA8300HD. The biggest improvement is that the sidebars on SD content is now black, instead of grey. I can also see how much remaining space is left on the hard drive for my recordings. Once the SDV transition is complete, we’ll see if TWC starts to rapidly add the dozens of HD channels already available to satellite customers.

The issue of net neutrality has occasionally popped in and out of my radar. However, lately I’ve taken a deeper interest in the issue and what’s at stake is serious and rather disturbing. Basically, the issue of net neutrality concerns whether the big telecoms (AT&T, Comcast, Verizon, Time Warner) can control the content of the internet. This could mean…

• discrimination against rival content
• suppression of content
• tiered levels of bandwidth and content at different price points for the consumer
• prioritized bandwidth for content providers who can afford it

The telecom giants feel they have a right to control content because they provide the medium on which it is distributed. Net neutrality is the idea of keeping the internet in its current state, a medium free of control.

Recently, Harvard held a public FCC hearing on net neutrality. Comcast had narcoleptic employees squat in the seats to prevent legitimate people wanting to voice their opinion on the issue from participating in the forum. Another dastardly tactic from a corrupt, profit hungry company that is more concerned in appeasing the shareholder than the customer.

With the failure of net neutrality, the telecom industry is poised to reap huge profits by effectively creating a bidding war on content, then charging the consumer different prices for various content. Net neutrality strives to preserve content equality across the internet.

An electricity company does not dictate what appliances you can use. They don’t grant certain appliances electricity over other appliances just because a manufacturer has paid a premium to do so. Furthermore, they don’t demand more money from you for supplying electricity to a TV just because they know you use it often and they can earn more profits.

You pay a price for the internet, therefore you should be able to view and publish whatever content you want with the assurance that the content has not been tampered with or given less bandwidth/made less accessible because its provider or consumer couldn’t pay the telecom companies enough money.

Here are some sites that help better explain this important issue:

• Google Help Center
  
• Save The Internet

Here are some Youtube videos which do a good job presenting the issue and what’s at stake:

So I finally broke down and got a credit card. Being my first card, I have a ridiculously low credit line compared to everyone else my age. Regardless though, I wanted in on the cash back rewards. I ended up getting a Chase Freedom Visa, which gives me 3% back on my top 3 spending categories (out of an available 15 categories) and 1% back on everything else. Once I hit $200 in rewards annually, I get an extra $50. With the ball-busting price of gas, various bills, and my monthly spending habits, I’m pretty close to that mark.

Now I’m sure you’ve all seen the commercials a million times (especially if you watch football) and the damn Stones song is ingrained into your subconscious, but I actually used the wireless, contactless payment option on the card known as Blink, and was totally blown away by it. I bought some floss at CVS last night. After the employee rang up the item, I just held my card up to the usual touchscreen swiper for about a second, then I was done. The employee and I were both equally shocked. She at first had no idea how I paid for my floss, then told me that she had never seen anyone use it or even knew what it was for. I have to admit, aside from the annoying tv spots, it is a rad piece of technology and makes buying shit really easy and convenient. Also, judging by the employee’s reaction, Hanie believes it can also serve as an ice breaker/chick magnet.

Love Chinese food? Hate cooking? Then have I got the thing for you! A company in China has developed a cooking robot that prepares Sichuan, Shandong, and Canton cuisines. Four years and nearly a quarter of a million dollars spent towards R&D, this bot offers thousands of recipes at your disposal. This sweet baby is slated to go on sale in 2007. Although geared for restaurants as a way to standardize fast food, I’m sure a variant will be made available to the public. So now only one question remains: who’s hungry?