Suit of Armor

It’s a suit of armor… uhmm, yeah. Nuff’ said.

However, Energynet will suffer from the same faults of a crowded 2.4 Ghz band that includes routers, wireless phone handsets, and microwave ovens.

This is definitely true for microwave ovens. The wireless is completely unusable while the microwave is running. Recently, the room where all of the computer equipment is, was re-arranged with two major changes related to the networking setup. The first being the removal of two big CRT monitors from the room and the second is that the EnergyNet box is now plugged into an uninterruptible power supply. I noticed over the next several days that Internet speeds were dramatically better. Before the re-organization data transfers averaged ~400 kilobits/second. Which is far less than the advertised 3 megabits. After seeing the difference in speed after making these changes I got curious and plugged the Energynet box directly into the wall like it was before. Internet speeds worsened at the same time.

Based on this anecdotal evidence, I would recommend using a battery backup to power the EnergyNet router. The UPS serves to isolate connected devices from fluctuations in mains power. At least in this instance it does an excellent job.

HES EnergyNet Bridge

I would be interested to know whether other customers have experienced the same symptoms. Overall, I like the service from EnergyNet but other people considering buying it should realize the equipment is very sensitive to interference. Another thing about my setup is that I use a wireless router of my own to re-transmit the signal to my laptop. So if there is any interference in the air I get it both coming and going.

Here’s to the future success of the new Peddler’s Mall.

I said yesterday I would build a snowman if I had enough material to work with but what fell turned out to be dry powder not very suitable for packing together. Interesting note that there was more snow on my car than on the ground. The hood actually had 7 1/2 inches.

* SNOW ACCUMULATIONS OF 4 TO 7 INCHES ARE EXPECTED ALONG AND SOUTH
  OF A LINE FROM MARBLE HILL MISSOURI TO CALHOUN KENTUCKY. CLOSER
  TO THE ARKANSAS AND TENNESSEE STATE LINES BORDERING KENTUCKY AND
  MISSOURI...AMOUNTS MAY APPROACH 8 TO 10 INCHES...WITH LOCALLY
  HIGHER AMOUNTS POSSIBLE. SOME SLEET MAY MIX IN WITH THE SNOW AT
  THE BEGINNING OF THE EVENT...BUT PREDOMINANTLY SNOW IS EXPECTED.

With that kind of forecast I expect to be building a very fat snowman tomorrow. In my lifetime Hopkinsville has never had 10 inches of snowfall at one time. It’ll suck though if after all the hype and scaremongering we only get a measly inch or less.

KEMP AND REGAN SIGNED THE AGREEMENT FOLLOWING THE SPECIAL MEETING WITH ATTORNEY DOUG WILLEN PREPARED TO FILE DISMISSAL PAPERS IN FEDERAL COURT TODAY (TUESDAY).  MEANWHILE, NEWWAVE PRESIDENT AND CEO, JIM GLEASON TOLD THE NEWS EDGE HE HAS NOT HAD A CHANCE TO THOROUGHLY INSPECT THE AGREEMENT, BUT HE IS STILL CONFUSED AS TO WHY AT&T REFUSES TO MAKE THE SAME COMMITMENT TO HOPKINSVILLE THAT NEWWAVE MADE. HE ADDED THAT THE COMPANY WILL BE TALKING WITH LEGAL COUNCIL TODAY (TUESDAY) TO DISCUSS ITS PENDING LAWSUIT.

The next day Mr. Gleason was still steamed enough to say that AT&T got a “sweet heart deal”.

On a different segment of The Scene, Mary Pat Regan says the roll out for U-verse will be complete sometime during the summer.

AT&T U-Verse Presentation

AT&T U-Verse Q&A Discussion

In my opinion, the lawsuits flying between the city/New Wave and AT&T are retrograde in their reasoning. The city seems to be more concerned in protecting New Wave’s interests than the interests of the citizens. Using any decent Internet connection it’s already possible to watch full-length cable network content. The plan that AT&T laid out is not very much different than what other companies have already introduced. The Roku Set top box is meant to deliver video from a variety of Internet sources. Both of these examples are completely unregulated. Would the city council have me believe that watching TV on Syfy.com is now illegal because they haven’t bought a franchise? AT&T should be allowed to offer it’s new video service because technology is advancing to quickly make the dispute irrelevant.

The First Accumulation

Many southern transplants that come to live in Kentucky will call anything that falls from the sky “Snow” but I think this is really a dilution of what Snow with a capital ‘S’ really means. For frozen precipitation to be properly called Snow it must completely cover the surface on which it falls. Preferably this precipitation must be at least an inch deep of powder. Anything less is really demeaning.

The photo taken today to the right is the result of flurries that fell over night. As you can see the roof tops are only partially covered and there was only enough precipitation to fill-in the cracks in the parking lot.

Archos 5

I said last week I would be posting an mp3 of that week’s sermon if I could get my Archos 5 device working correctly. The result surpassed my best expectations of what I thought the FM radio accessory was capable of. The microphone is so good that it was able to pick up Pastor Latham’s preaching even though he walked several feet away from the pulpit. The only fault in the recording was when the pastor stood directly behind the pulpit with the mic turned up too hot. In parts, at the beginning and the end there is a lot of distortion.